Germany should be wary of their 'chokers' tag

Germany football team

Germany’s performance at the World Cup

Germany in the past two World Cup tournament started in a phenomenal form devastating every team that came its way, but that is only till the quarter final stages and they lost comfortably in the semi-final finishing third in both the previous tournaments. They were defeated in 2010 edition in a group stage match losing to Serbia and then they bounced back with 4 goals each against England & Argentina in the round of 16 & the quarter finals respectively.

The 2014 world cup has made Germany work harder for their victories, they announced themselves in the tournament with an impressive 4-0 win over Portugal sending a message to all the teams that they are in Brazil to win but they failed to deliver on their impressive scoring form as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Ghana and a close encounter against the USA that ended in favour of the Germans. The Round of 16 match against Algeria was anybody’s game as both goalkeepers kept the score-line at 0-0 till the end of 90 minutes and the Die Mannschaft drew first blood in extra-time and managed to win, again in a not so convincing manner.

The early goal against Les Bleus gave them an advantage throughout the game as Neuer was in his prime and blocked every shot that the French came up with making a total of 8 saves. Both teams had equal possession of the ball at 50%, almost equal on fouls and remained almost equal on the scoreline but Germany got the better of Les Bleus scoring from an early Hummels header which was the difference maker between the victor and the vanquished in the match.

Germany and their semi-finals jinx at the World Cup

Germany now enter yet another semi final match in the world cup but this time just by managing to avoid losing instead of winning their games firmly, their record in past two world cup tournaments have been pretty dominating till the quarters and then bowing out in the semi finals with a poor display given the expectations that they set in the eyes of their supporters and seem to have a weak point going in the Semis, even in the Euro 2012, they had a fabulous run till the quarters and then a bowed out to a humiliating semi-final loss to Italy. One thing that has been common in both the previous world cup tournaments was that their loss came in the hands of the team that went on to lift the trophy losing to Italy in 2006 & Spain in 2010.

All the past stats indicate that the semi-finals are nothing but a sign of danger for Germany and more so as they are up against Brazil, as the home-towners overcame their South American rivals Colombia. The home heroes will have a hard time passing through the Great German Defense and specially so after Neymar was ruled out due to a fractured vertebra for the remainder of the tournament. But, the Brazil defenders have stepped up from their traditional duties of defending the net and came out scoring against Colombia which earned them the victory.

This world cup has been a bit different for the Die Mannschaft, they entered as one of the favourites and by far have managed to win marginally instead of dominating over their oppositions and that might just happen to be the secret ingredient that was missing in their past world tournaments. If the Germans make it two places better than before then not only they win their first world cup as an unified country but also become the first ever European team to lift the world cup in the South American continent and they will need to overcome the host team and the hosts enjoy a considerable advantage with history by their side having won 12 of the past 21 fixtures between the two while Germany managed only 4 wins. They have entered the danger zone and the further danger awaits them in the form of their opponents Brazil who also took the victory away from the German side in the final of the 2002 World Cup.