PRECISION ENGINEERED GERMAN FOOTBALL FINALLY DISPATCHES WOEFUL BRAZIL!

Story by Patrick Kamanga

PRECISION ENGINEERED GERMAN FOOTBALL FINALLY DISPATCHES WOEFUL BRAZIL!

No where to hide

Records are set to be broken and history can always be re-written!

What the whole world witnessed at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte Brazil can’t be simply described as “earth shaking” but more correctly as a “mass soccer continental plate tectonic shift” that saw the realignment of “the football constellations!”

The last time Brazil suffered such a huge defeat was a 5-0 loss to Uruguay in 1920 while the last home lose was a 3-1 defeat to Peru, coincidentally at Belo Horizente in 1975.

Well Germany had other ideas. 
Both records were under review and the Nationalmannschaft went about ruthlessly ending and shredding Brazil’s 68 game unbeaten run on home soil.

The world cringed in disbelief as the much taunted German machine finally came out firing on all cylinders, producing a breathtaking show on cold calculated passing, precise execution and ruthless finishing. 

A nation in mourning, the ghosts of 1950 evoked and their skeletons exhumed

The once mighty Brazilian Selecao which mesmerized and dazzled the world with beautiful football a generation ago, now an ebbing memory, capitulated and got vanquished in a merciless fashion.

Brazil losing the game was not surprising, keen observers had sensed it coming but it’s the manner and ease with which the German Juggernaut went about executing its show of carnage.

This eon ending show was symbolic similar, to Spain’s crash landing fiasco earlier in the tournament.

In hind sight, even if talismanic Neymar and the resolute Thiago Silva had been in the field it would have mattered little nor made much difference; the result would have still been the same, albeit with a much decent score line of 3 or 4 goals.

Brazil survived Croatia by the referee’s graces, rode their luck against Chile via a penalty shootout, and against Colombia won by sheer attrition and distraction but they had nowhere to hide against Germany.

Their every flaw or weakness was exposed then exploited mercilessly and with industrial precision.

The German “Empire” has finally been established. This is the beginning of a long dynasty that is not shy at “laying down the law” or reading “the riot act” to those who dare raise a finger of objection.

On a more serious note, what the world witnessed however was the culmination of 12 years worth of hard work and effort by the Germans.

After what they described as their weakest and most shambolic show by any German team ever at the 2002 World cup in Korea/ Japan where they lost a one sided show to Brazil, with the goalkeeping heroics of Oliver Kahn preventing total annihilation and kept the score line decent, Germany’s soccer fathers had seen enough. The German football authorities and stakeholders went back to the drawing board determined to make deep rooted changes.

They completely reorganized every facet of their game, re-writing and harmonizing the national youth system’s syllabus and streamlining how their club sides across the board managed their finances.

Talk about re-building from the ground up.

The Sami Khedira, Mesut Orzil, Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng etc generation were the prototypes and hence first from the production line in this new initiative at South Africa 2010.

In the words of the German Football Federation, the D.F.B’s Chief adviser and former national team Captain of 2 World cup campaigns, Paul Breitner, Germany had to re-evaluate and reconsider their old Sweeper System.

The Sweeper system also known as the Libero system, had been a 1960’s Italian invention that the Germans took to heart in the early 1970’s which served them well and was the system that saw them sweep all opposition as World cup hosts in 1974 and Bayern Munich’s European Club Champions (predecessor to modern day U.E.F.A Champions League) treble winning feat between 1974-76.

This system also saw Germany make it all the way to 3 consecutive World cup finals appearances in 1982 and 1986 culminating in their triumph in Italia 1990.

They struggled through the 90’s decade exiting at the quarter finals stage in 1994 and ’98, finally making it back to the World cup final in 2002 against Brazil.

That loss to Brazil was a “watershed” moment in German football history, which not only signaled the end of an era but an opportunity at re-invention and rejuvenation.

From adversity came re-birth.

With Bayern Munich as the live laboratory where new ideas are tried, tested and perfected before large scale adaptations are made, the next stage of Germany's metamorphosis was when Dutchman Louis Van Gaal was hired as coach in 2009.

Van Gaal’s choice for appointment was not a coincidence but a deliberate and calculated move having served as coach on two separate stints at F.C Barcelona.

The Spaniards had twice humiliated the Germans; first when Spain outplayed Germany in the one sided affair at the finals of the Euro 2008, closely followed by Barcelona’s crushing defeat inflicted upon German Champions Bayern Munich at the quarter finals of the U.E.F.A Champions League in 2008-09 season.

Van Gaal had therefore been hired to stop this pattern and change this trend while addressing Spain’s dominance over Germany. This experiment failed due to Van Gaal’s indomitable personality and insistence on doing things his way culminating in his firing after only one season.

Normal service was resumed when the two sides met yet again at the semi finals of the World cup in South Africa, with Spain exhibiting a show on spot the ball and catch me if you can!

German football redemption finally started taking shape when the nation’s two leading clubs Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund completely pulverized to smithereens both Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid at the semi finals of the Champions league in May 2013.

Bayern Munich subsequently won the continental diadem under Jupp Heinckes but upped the ante by hiring Barcelona’s iconic coach and faithful son of Catalunya, Josep “Pep” Guardiola at the advent of the 2013-14 season.

Germany’s football fathers' vision of merging the natural abilities of their footballers and the sublime technical abilities of the Spaniards, finally saw their dream realized as their baby, the German machine finally took its rightful position by booking the nation’s 8^th World cup final appearance with a resounding 7-1 win over the hosts that can only be described as a massive continental shift of geological proportions at Brazil 2014!

Coach Phil Scolari earnestly begged his nation for forgiveness

There's an adage that says "the night is darkest just before day break"

The question is with their nation in mourning like it did in 1950, will Brazilian football languish in defeat or will it seize this opportunity and deem it as chance at making radical surgery and much needed changes to it's ailing game now on its death bed?