World Cup 2014: Germany highlight the madness of St George as they continue to prosper while England stagnate
From Malmo to Belo Horizonte, the success of Germany has been a work in progress for the last five years, ever since the 4-0 win over England's Under-21s in 2009
Founding fathers: Germany's Under-21 team before they beat England in 2009. Six of this side engineered Germany's 7-1 thrashing of Brazil on Tuesday night
Belo Horizonte – twinned with Malmo. Six of the German starring, starting XI against Brazil in that staggering World Cup semi-final also engaged in an equally ruthless destruction of England in the 2009 European Under-21 final in Sweden, events reflecting contrasting approaches and fortunes in youth development.
While the English have until recently been too slow and too dysfunctional to find sustained progression in talent identification and promotion, the Germans have raced ahead. Manuel Neuer, Benedikt Höwedes, Jérôme Boateng, Mats Hummels, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil all began in Malmo, ending the evening by donning T-shirts emblazoned with “EURO HEROES 2009’’. Even their wardrobe was well-prepared.
Preparation is key. There are no instant panaceas that produce results as seismic as in Malmo or Belo Horizonte. Germany juniors’ 4-0 win over England was five years in the making; their seniors’ 7-1 destruction of Brazil was a decade in the planning.
When Germany failed to qualify for the knockout stages of Euro 2004, intelligent, patriotic individuals looked to rescue die Mannschaft.
Stepping in as Rudi Völler’s successor as national coach on July 24, 2004, Jürgen Klinsmann began the evolution, starting the journey that wound via Malmo to Belo Horizonte. Encouraged by Klinsmann, wise men at the Deutscher Fussball-Bund worked with the Bundesliga clubs to foster native talent, not duelling with the paymasters as the FA does vainfully with the all-powerful Premier League. The “50 + 1” percentage rule keeps clubs in German hands, celebrating the home-grown.
The Premier League attempts to nurture more English talent, and invests heavily in the new elite-focused EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) programme, but the percentage of foreigners grows by the season and the league enjoys its global marketability as the league of nations.
Klinsmann, his assistant Joachim Löw, team manager Oliver Bierhoff, sporting director Matthias Sammer (from 2006-12) and all at the DF-B embarked on what Sammer termed “the long road towards success”. They immediately began educating 20,000 school teachers to coach pupils. They backed schemes for the three to six age group to be more “physically active”. They founded hundred of training centres for the 11-17 age group. They established elite football schools from 2006. They upgraded academies from 2007. They poured fortunes into coaching. They built for success.
Klinsmann worked with club coaches to establish what style of football the national team should play, eventually reaching the conclusion of a fast, technical game, the type that so damaged Stuart Pearce’s Under-21s in Malmo, England’s seniors in Bloemfontein in 2010 and ripped Brazil to shreds in Belo Horizonte.
Malmo was a sign of significant progress. “The youth academies have been developing well in the last five or six years,’’ observed Per Mertesacker in Belo Horizonte. “It started off in 2009 when we won the Under-21 tournament and beat England 4-0. That was a real turning point and six players from that team are doing well here.’’
Players were also encouraged to hone their talent overseas, further maturing them as responsibility-takers. The DF-B was busy, scouring the immigrant communities, including the offspring of Turkish gastarbeiter such as Özil and Khedira. Against Spain in their opening game in 2009, only Neuer and Höwedes of Horst Hrubesch’s starting XI had two German parents.
Where did they consider home? “The intention is that the DF-B will be their home,’’ reflected Bierhoff at the time. Bierhoff is a hugely influential figure, a board member of the DF-B, a powerful voice with a strong, winning playing background. The FA has nobody similar on its board. Along with others, Bierhoff helped keep the new wave accelerating to Malmo, to Bloemfontein, to Belo Horizonte and soon rolling across the Copacabana towards Maracana on Sunday.
Continuity rules: continuity of commitment to youth, continuity of an attacking philosophy and continuity of personnel, creating a pathway as seen with the boys of Malmo coming of age in Belo Horizonte. There has been continuity of leaderships, with Löw stepping up to follow Klinsmann.
People call what the Germans are doing joined-up thinking, linking the assorted parts of the game for a common purpose, the betterment of the national team. It is really just grown-up thinking, the type too often too absent in the club-versus-country realm of the Premier League.
The remarkable element to Germany is that they have undergone this transformation while still progressing in tournaments, a tribute to their strong mindset. Now, they are enjoying a perfect blend of innate fortitude enhanced by additional technical guile and by the deepening of the talent pool.
“We have two excellent players for every position,’’ said Mertesacker. Some emerged in Malmo, prompting Hrubesch to declare: “This win shows that the great cooperation between the German FA, the clubs and the Bundesliga is being repaid right now with the tremendous young players we have.’’
