World Cup column: Uncertain Germany find a way to break World Cup stereotypes
Ill-informed stereotypes and sweeping generalisations are the lifeblood of World Cups. Brazil will always bring samba flair and live or die playing breath-taking football. The French players will either fall out and combust in the group stage or win the entire tournament, there can be no in between. And Germany will be dull and predictable yet always make it to the latter stages without any fanfare or hyperbole.
Re-acquainting with the same names and familiar faces every four years means popular ideas about players, teams and entire countries can become crystalized in time, offering cheap analysis for lazy pundits and idle pub chat to fill the silences between matches.
Germany fall victim to such unimaginative typecasting as much as any nation. The Germans are dour. The Germans are efficient. The Germans come out on top. This sentiment was most famously encapsulated by Gary Lineker’s quote: “football is a simple game: 22 men chase the ball for 90 minutes and, in the end, the Germans always win”.
Except in 2018 when they crashed and burned in the group stage. Or in 2014 when they ended an era of Spanish-inspired, possession-based dominance at international level through aggressive pressing and incisive counterattacking. Or in 2010 when a somewhat unknown and inexperienced group of players unexpectedly reached the semi-finals. Or 2006 when expectations were also surpassed in front of inspired home crowds in one of the few World Cups lacking controversy in modern times.
This current German side also defies those unsupported and often inaccurate ideas about both a team and a nation that is naturally in a state of natural flux and constantly changing. As they showed in their 2-1 defeat to Japan in their tournament opener, this version of the German national team is neither efficient nor effective, it lacks both ruthlessness and consistency. Germany 2022 are thrilling but fragile.
A lop-sided defensive line switches between a possession-controlling back three and an all-too-costly and easily panicked four. An upright and taut collection of centre-backs do not entirely convince as they boldly attempt to recreate Hansi Flick’s Champions League winning aggressively high line from his Bayern Munich days, but the composition of their defence did wonders for their attack in the first half against Japan.
With nominal left-back David Raum given freedom to roam and Serge Gnabry utilised in an almost exclusively wide-right position, Germany exploited the wide areas more effectively than any team in the tournament so far. This in turn made them exciting, it made them engaging. There is no sense that they are relying on a basic level of functionality or supreme level of organisation that will see them arrive in the semi-finals almost by surprise.
Kai Havertz is not a bloodless finisher at the apex of the frontline in the tradition of Miroslav Klose or Gerd Muller, rather he floats and glides, expertly disappearing to create space for others but still lacking the capacity to produce undeniably impactful moments to decide games for both club and country. His disallowed goal for a marginal offside that would have extended the German lead before the interval an unfortunate case in point.
No one benefits more from the holes of Havertz’ making than Jamal Musiala. The Stuttgart-born one-time AFC Wimbledon youth representative enchants with his close control and almost frightens through a combination of just how well rounded he looks now and how much time he still has to get even better. After flickering in the first half, a brilliant dribble at the start of the second deserved to be rewarded with a first ever World Cup goal in a first ever World Cup appearance, only for the shot that followed to comfortably clear the crossbar. Musiala is exceptional at just 19 years old but still imperfect.
Imperfect would be a generous description of Germany’s second half. Gnabry was given greater license to drift from the right. Musiala was inexplicably substituted with the scores level at 1-1. Japan recognised just how much space there was to exploit on either side of three increasingly cumbersome central defenders when they could get willing runners in the right areas.
This defeat coupled with their next match being against a Spain side that beat them 6-0 in their last meeting in November 2020 means obvious parallels will be drawn to the abject disappointment of four years ago. But Germany played well for long spells against Japan, they created enough chances in the first half to have enjoyed a comfortable victory, and many of Flick’s attacking instructions looked to be effective.
This Germany side are fun, undeniably flawed in moments yet showing they could still illuminate this tournament after more than six years in the dark of the international wilderness.
This tournament may well be over for Germany by Sunday should they lose to a frightening-looking Spain team. But this team will at least have dispelled the sort of commonly held, lazily formulated assumptions that colour the purity of genuinely exciting World Cup stories. And not for the first time.
