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Four summers ago the Germans marched to glory in Brazil in a remarkable fashion, winning the group of death, demolishing Brazil 7-1 before winning over Messi's Argentina. What happened in the German camp that has to lead to a group stage exit in Russia? Many believe that it the so-called "Winner's Curse", which has haunted several teams since 1998. However, to believe that Germany lost because of a curse is ludicrous, they lost because of tactical errors and lack of hunger to win. Having followed German football from the days of Micheal Ballack and Oliver Kahn, there are some obvious reasons which can be lumped together for one of the worst performance by a German team in the history of the World Cup finals, which are as follows:
Lack of Leadership
It is said that 'When God gives, he gives abundantly', during last decade German National team was blessed with leaders like Kahn, Ballack, Lahm, and Schweinsteiger. However, this team had no leadership at all, Neuer was the captain but he wasn't in the territory where most of the action was taking place. No one was there to lead the team in a meaningful attack or organize the team when it was in bad shape or to tell off a player who was making mistakes. One of the greatest commanders of all time Alexander the Great once said: "An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep". This can be held valid for this German side, which as enormous amount of talent but no leader.
Old and anachronous tactics
Germany won the FIFA Confederations Cup with a side which had virtual no experience of any major tournament. They were able to do that because they had no passive tactics to go to, the only thing that mattered to them was to score, even the goal scored in the finals was because of an error by the Chilean defense. Going in this World Cup Joachim Löw had a solid plan, albeit he forgot one thing, his plans are old and he has been using the same tactics for over a decade. Either he made the mistake of thinking his plans and tacts are unbeatable or he took football to be a static sport. Whatever the reason may be, his tactics of passing the ball and playing from the wings failed; his plan of a high attacking game failed and his team ended at the bottom of the group.
Bungle Big Names
2010 World Cup gave a lot of big names to German Football including Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, and Sami Khedira. These are also the names of the players who have been straight out disappointment. Müller scored 10 goals in the last to World Cup, had a non-existing goal tally this summer, Özil wasn't able to show the control over the ball for which he is known and Khedira was a liability in the midfield. Among other 'big names' that failed in Russia were the centre-backs Boateng and Hummels, they are old and have no pace. Kroos and Reus were the only players who played their part but it cannot be said that they played it to perfection.
Forwards Catastrophe
Germany has been a country of legendary forwards from Gerd Müller to Miroslav Klose, however, the retirement of Miroslav Klose left a big hole in the attacking front of Die Mannschaft, it was often wondered who would take his place in the frontline. Time Werner was the answer given but the answer was not good enough. He did well in Bundesliga but he lacked urgency to score not to mention he didn't possess any aerial threat for the opposition's defense The attacker who posses the aerial threaten was Mario Gómez, let's face it he wasn't able to deliver at his peak no one expected him to deliver now. It was a surprise that he was picked instead of the Bayern man Sandro Wagner. Some might even argue that Leroy Sané would have made a difference.
Other teams just had more heart
One of the main reason for their defeat in the World Cup was the other teams' sheer will to win. Of course there isn't any instrument to measure the will of a person, however, while watching the match you could just feel it. And from what I felt Germans were 'not in it to win it'.
Shaking off this World Cup is going to tough. German Camp would need to address the problems that lead to this mayhem and solve it before this lead any further and cause major problems like the being faced in Italy and Holland.
