A COUPLE of years ago, before the last World Cup, a columnist not a million miles from this byline suggested that if there was one team whose chances you could safely dismiss, it was Germany. It was a rash prediction, eventually only vindicated in the final.
Looking back, it’s difficult to remember Germany playing particularly well in that tournament. They were workmanlike, but devoid of inspiration, a description that has fitted their national side ever since they suffered the ignominy of losing to Kevi
n Keegan’s clueless England in Charleroi at the last European Championship.
Four years later, they are quoted at single-figure odds for a tournament where they seem outclassed by the wealth of talent available to other nations. Perhaps because the national team is capable of dredging up a positive result from the most unpromising of situations.
Not in friendlies. The recent 5-1 hammering inflicted by non-finalists Romania would have been grievously felt had not the phrase "5-1" been eliminated from the German football vocabulary for good in the autumn of 2003. Then Lothar Matthaeus rather unpatriotically brought his Hungarians over to inflict a morale-sapping defeat in the Germans’ last warm-up.
That served as a reminder that the Germans are far from assured at the back. We are living through the mid-life crisis of Oliver Kahn. It’s difficult to recall that Kahn was voted FIFA’s player at the tournament at the 2002 World Cup, if only because the prevailing memory is of his nightmare display in the final. Since then Kahn has been haunted by the image of spilling the ball at the feet of Ronaldo, and this season he was less than impressive for Bayern Munich.
For Germany, much will depend on the keeper’s frame of mind. One of Kahn’s many enemies is his national team deputy Jens Lehmann, whose eccentricities and short- fuse temper were just about concealed by the Arsenal defence last season. Voeller doesn’t seem to trust him.
In the outfield Germany will be grateful that the sluggish sweeper Carsten Ramelow has retired, will miss the injured Sebastian Deisler, and rely inordinately on the goals and drive of Barcelona-bound Michael Ballack.
According to one informed Bayern insider, Ballack is untypical of the German footballer in that he is able to speak in whole sentences, is East German, and has miracle hair gel that lasts an entire game.
Apart from Ballack, the only substantial goal-threat will come from the nationalised Brazilian Kevin Kuranyi. The Stuttgart forward had become sufficiently Teutonic to forget where the goal was, until two goals in last week’s friendly against Switzerland came as a timely confidence boost.
Voeller, still scraping the Bundesliga barrel for the faintest promise of flair, has been bold enough to include two promising teenagers in his squad.
The 18-year-old Cologne forward Lukas Podolski stirred the German media into unwonted excitement with ten goals in 19 club appearances. He may be a valuable maverick on the German bench. More likely to figure in the team is the 19-year-old midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. A rare bright note in a dismal season for Bayern Munich, Schweinsteiger already looks an international. Unfortunately, in German terms this means he is a willing workhorse who will run and run, but rarely find an original pass.
Voeller’s immediate headache is his first opponent on Tuesday. In a competition where a positive start is crucial, the prospect of facing the Dutch will not appeal. For Dick Advocaat the converse is true. If the biggest problem for any Dutch manager is getting the players motivated and focused, a match against their most-resented foe is an asset.
The Dutch once more approach a major tournament with a surfeit of talent and a long list of questions about their temperament. A feeble display and a 1-0 defeat in a recent friendly against their Belgian neighbours followed up by a home defeat by Ireland only served to encourage the critics.
Two days after the squad gathered for their pre-tournament preparations, Clarence Seedorf dispelled the unconvincing harmony, saying he wouldn’t play anywhere except in his preferred position behind the front two, a position coach Dick Advocaat has reserved for Rafael van der Vaart. "If Advocaat decides different I will sit on the bench, it’s that simple," Seedorf sulked with traditional Dutch truculence, although injury will keep him out of the game anyway. Meanwhile, Patrick Kluivert is barely on speaking terms with any of his potential strike partners.
If discord is the loudest member of the Dutch squad, Advocaat at least has an experienced and gifted group of players at his disposal. Jaap Stam will spend his last international tournament marshalling the defence, Edgar Davids will be the key midfield presence, with Wesley Sneijder as a cavalier young apprentice, while in Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Makaay, the Dutch have forwards who terrorised English and German defences last season.
At the last European championship the Dutch were masterful and assured until the semi-final, where the pressure of the home crowd, and their first setback conspired to put them out of the tournament, albeit only because of their inability to take a penalty kick. Attitude remains their most daunting obstacle.
The Dutch and the Germans, ideologically polarised in terms of their style of football, share the distinction, if that’s the right word, of struggling against a weak Scotland team at Hampden Park. Complacency or arrogance could trip either up against the Latvians.
They will have to be more cautious against the Czechs. The Dutch already have the experience of finishing second to Karel Brückner’s side in the qualifying group. The Germans will know the key members of the Czech squad who play in the Bundesliga, including the attacking midfielder Tomas Rosicky and the lumbering forwards Jan Koller and Vratislav Lokvenc. Dietmar Hamann will be acquainted with his Liverpool team-mate Milan Baros, who should be preferred to Lokvenc.
After a disappointing season at Juventus, Pavel Nedved might be inclined to feel a little disconsolate, but the Czechs will rely on him as their orchestrator. On form Nedved is a more imaginative creative player than anything the Dutch or Germans can offer. He will be supplemented by the Monaco midfielder Jaroslav Plašil, who confirmed his presence in the squad with an impressive goal against Bulgaria in a friendly last week.
The Czechs are in the happy position of being the third party waiting for the scraps from a bitter fight. Either the Germans or the Dutch will face the recriminations after swift elimination. On football ability alone, it should be the Germans, but then I said that two years ago.
