Humiliating defeats, public recriminations and a match-fixing scandal have plunged German soccer into crisis less than three months before the World Cup. Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting a meeting of football bosses to clear the air as the nation wonders whether it will ever regain its prowess on the pitch.
There used to be a time when you could rely on German football. When the sober strip of white shirt and black shorts discreetly emblazoned with the national eagle represented a brand of determination, danger and infuriating luck that struck fear into the hearts of even the most skilled opponents.
For four decades until the mid-1990s, in the matches that really counted, anyone facing German sides knew they were in for a gargantuan struggle that often culminated in penalty shootouts where ice-cold Teutonic resolve usually delivered the coup de grace.
Whenever they conceded a goal, they seemed predestined to equalise. Their style was never inventive or dazzling like that of Brazilian sides through the ages or the French team of the 1980s. They would simply work hard, never lose their nerve, and never give up. Soccer stars like Fritz Walter, Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were the only acceptable heroes in a country where patriotism was tainted by the crimes of the Nazis.
For decades, soccer success, alongside economic achievement, was the only legitimate outlet for national pride and the players seemed driven by that responsibility. The whole nation drew confidence from their achievements, and became accustomed to them.
As former England striker Gary Lineker once said: "Football is a simple game where 22 players play against each other and in the end Germany wins."
However, with less than three months to go before Germany hosts the World Cup, that definition no longer applies. In fact, German soccer has been in steady decline ever since the team won the 1996 European Championship. It was little more than luck that got them to the World Cup final in 2002. The team hasn't beaten any of the world's top soccer teams since its 1-0 victory over England in October 2000.
A number of explanations have been given: successive teams had grown too complacent, children weren't being coached enough, and the German Football Association (DFB) was excessively bureaucratic and conservative, to name but three.
A fourth is lack of money. Critics say that Germany's professional soccer league, the Bundesliga, isn't generating enough revenues from TV broadcasting rights and therefore can't attract the world's most talented foreign players to raise the general standard of domestic soccer.
Outclassed by Italy in a humiliating 4-1 defeat on March 1, Germany is limping towards the tournament under a cloud of recrimination and self-doubt. To make matters worse, the public television station ARD television reported on Wednesday that an unnamed national team player may be involved in match-fixing schemes that have dogged the image of German football for over a year.
For Germany, the significance of the World Cup goes well beyond sporting pride and the slight boost to economic growth expected from increased tourism and consumer spending. The tournament offers the country a chance to shake off the collective depression that has befallen it after years of mass unemployment and declining prosperity.
"A victory would offer us the opportunity to show the world who we are. We have the possibility to redefine Germany: to create a brand," said team coach Jürgen Klinsmann in a magazine interview last year.
The "Soccer Summit"
Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be an avid soccer player like her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, who never missed a photo opportunity to kick a football. But she knows what's at stake. She has invited Klinsmann and the country's top soccer officials including World Cup organizing committee chief Beckenbauer ("The Emperor") for talks and dinner at her chancellery on Wednesday night.
Even though the meeting was been scheduled a while ago, the media are describing it as a "soccer summit" aimed at clearing the air as the final countdown begins.
Whether the dinner will yield any more than handshakes and smiles for the cameras is doubtful, though. Klinsmann, under fire in the media and from the DFB for living in California and not spending enough time in Germany, has been weakened by his lack of lasting success since he was appointed in summer 2004 after the team's ignominious exit from the European Championship in Portugal.
His reforming ways have alienated the ageing godfathers of soccer at the DFB. He has rebuilt the team from scratch, bringing in young players and hiring an American fitness instructor who has raised eyebrows with novel training techniques such as making players run while harnessed to rubber chords. He has also tried to ease the control the DFB exerts on the national team.
The media have drawn parallels between Merkel and Klinsmann -- two reformers battling decades-old structures in a bid to revive their country. If Klinsmann fails to create a top class team and regain the world's respect, maybe Merkel is destined to fail as well?
Commentators are attaching huge psychological importance to next Wednesday's match against the United States, hardly a soccer giant. A defeat would only deepen Germany's gloom and leave the nation praying for a miracle.
By David Crossland in Berlin |