Team Preview: Germany eying its fourth World Cup title

Germany

Best Ever Performance: Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)

LIKELY GERMANY XI FOR 2014 WORLD CUP

Team Manager: Joachim Loew

Captain: Philipp Lahm

Germany won every game in their qualifying group except playing thrilling 4-4 draw against Sweden at their home turf i.e Berlin.

Manager Loew is now approaching his tenth year in charge of Die Mannschaft. Despite having overseen the recent revival in German football, there are silent rumors rising that imply it is about time Loew won something with this stunning generation of footballers.

The squad is extremely jam-packed with a class. Loew can choose from mixture of thorough-bread, skilled winners and some of the world’s top young talents. The result is a team that has developed a formidable status and a fair label as one of the strongest contenders to win a fourth World Cup.

Loew has formed a team that has a touch of everything. Their first XI is tough to select, but that’s because of the bench strength this German side have in pretty much every position on the pitch. From strikers to defenders, they are so well covered. 

In the image of the Bundesliga’s two outstanding teams – Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich – Germany press the ball remarkably well and play a highly innovative,exciting and aggressive style of football. When done well, it is great to watch and extremely difficult for opposition to throttle, as we all observe in the Champions League last season.

Any weak point ? Sami Khedira is normally Bastian Schweinsteiger’s main buddy in the middle of the ground, but he has to miss the most of this season due to injury. But Toni Kroos, Lars Bender or Sven Bender are more than competent  replacements if the Real Madrid man is not up to speed.

Yes, the Germans are looking exceptionally strong. With this level quality within their ranks, anything less than title has to be seen as disappointment this summer.

Key Man – Thomas Muller

This German  can play anywhere across the frontline and has an outstanding ability of scoring massively important goals at crucial times.

He was included as a late starter in the last Word Cup which was held in South Africa, replacing the injured skipper Michael Ballack. And boy did he make an impact. Having netted in the first group game, Muller scored two goals against England in the pre quarter final and bagged the opener against Argentina in the quarterfinal. The Bayern man missed out on the semifinal after suspension, but he scored yet again in the third place playoff against Uruguay.

Muller won the Golden Boot and the best young player award in the FIFA World Cup 2010. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength for both club and country.

He plays from the right-hand-side for the German side, but still offers a main goal danger. His capability of linking up with the midfield and the front man is tremendous, but what sets him different from others is his preventive instincts and clever action. In amongst all of Germany’s frail manipulators of the ball, his distinctive, straight playing approach is a vital aggressive alternate.