Germany's woes: World class offence, but terrible defence

Germany is still trying to come to grips with what happened on Tuesday night at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium when Germany’s 4-0 lead wasn’t enough to win against Sweden, who scored an injury time equaliser in one of football’s greatest comebacks. For over a hour, Germany played the best possible football; incredible combinations and wave after wave of attack, scoring four goals against the hapless Swedes, who at that stage, must have been worried that this could become a real drubbing. But then, Ibrahimovic and Lustig scored a couple of goals in quick succession, and the weakness of the German defence was once more exposed. In a little less then half an hour, the Germans were not able to keep the 4-2 scoreline intact.

Over the last few years, Germany has become the team to watch when it comes to attacking and flair football, more then any other side on this planet. But while the Germans have changed their style of play, the old German football virtues of unbreakable defence, the never die fighting spirit and a winning mentality seems to have gotten lost somewhere. Otherwise, they surely would have won a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship in the last few years.

But why are these defensive problems there for Jogi Löw and his team?

Interestingly, Manuel Neuer is one of the best goalkeepers around, Philipp Lahm is the best right-cum-left back in world football, while centre-backs Holger Badstuber (FC Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) and Per Mertesacker (FC Arsenal) are quality defenders in their own right. But together with whoever plays on the wing, they haven’t been able to give Germany the necessary stability to win matches without conceding a goal.

What’s even more worrying is that Germany play equally great football as a team, as they play terrible football. Meaning, their overall performance seems to be somehow interlinked, then as good they played for 60 minutes, the last half hour was just as terrible.

The best thing about the match was that it was a qualifier and no real damage was done, which cannot be repaired anyways, but Germany needs to learn its lessons from this game, otherwise qualifying and then winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup would be a tough ask.