Why Germany deserve to become 2014 World Cup Champions

THE 20TH EDITION of the FIFA World Cup will be concluded this Sunday at Maracana Stadium in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Germany play Argentina this Sunday in their 7th final appearance and Die mannschaft is expected to shine. Germany is stronger than Argentina in many aspects despite of Lionel Messi presence. Germany midfielders have in the past showed great potential to stop Messi as seen in 2012-2013 champions’ league games between Barcelona and Bayern Munich as well as 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. One secret weapon with the Germans is their innovative tactics in big competitions like the World Cup. Joachim Low has coached Die Mannschaft since Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision not to renew his contract after their semifinal loss to Italy in the 2006 World Cup. Low has been a great coach; he has brought in new tactics and introduced new styles aimed at overall improvement of the team performance. Low’s tactics were first noticed when they destroyed teams like Argentina, England during 2010 World Cup in South Africa as well as recent rampage over Brazil. Germany has adopted a special tiki-taka style with passing accuracy, skill and pace that other teams cannot handle. Germany attacking style has improved drastically as opponents cannot easily predict the direction or origin of their attack play. This makes Germany players harder to stop, where as the defence has improved as well. In addition to a solid defence especially during the 2014 World Cup, Germany poses with the best goalkeeper in the world. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has been outstanding in this world cup. Germany has already scored 15 goals in this tournament and only conceded 4 goals. They have scored more goals than any other team in 2014 World Cup and conceded fewer goals. In-form Thomas Muller also provides spark in Germany attack as a gifted, natural goal scorer. He is currently second top goal scorer but goals or a goal in the final game will enable him win the Golden boot. Muller opened the scoring during his team semi-final clash against Brazil. The 2014 World Cup has been full of controversies but with magnificent expectations especially from the most improved football nations like Germany, Holland among a few others. There were tournament surprise teams like Mexico, Costa Rica who reached the last 16-knock out phase and quarter-finals respectively but were all eliminated by the mighty Dutch team. Here comes the Die mannschaft team that has been consistent in previous three editions of the world cup. After the semi-final triumph over Brazil, the whole world has now shifted focus on Germany as the favourite team to win the 2014 World Cup. Germany walloped Brazil by 7-1 goals to set high score record in the history of the World Cup at the semi-final stage, and above all against a team of Brazil caliber. In my previous sports columns I highlighted that Germans represent a few teams on the globe with immense anger and hunger to win this competition. Not only the World Cup but Germany has become a huge threat when it comes to any title they pursue. The Germany national team has been crowned European Champions three times. They have won three World Cup titles and have reached the final game of the World Cup six times. There is no team that has come so close in previous World Cup editions like the Germans. In previous three editions, they have been in the final once during 2002 World Cup final where they lost to Brazil by 2-0 goals. They also twice lost at the semi-final stage in the hands of Italy 2006 and Spain 2010. All this pain has been positively transformed into what we have seen in this tournament. Usually every defeat or failure in life is a lesson in one way or the other. Germany’s rise to the top of world football has not come by surprise. There are many reasons to re-affirm this. One of the reasons is that they have developed one of the most organised and competitive soccer leagues in the world. The improved quality of Bundesliga is one of the fundamental factors behind the beautiful football game we have watched from the Die mannschaft. Most of the Germany national team stars ply professional football domestically. Recent successes of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the lucrative UEFA champions’ league reflect the quality of Bundesliga teams. Majority of Germany national team players are selected from these two successful clubs.