By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – Mental strength has long been regarded as one of German football’s greatest qualities but Franz Beckenbauer, the country’s most revered footballing icon, believes it may have been lost.
Beckenbauer, who led Germany to World Cup glory as captain in 1974 and did the same as national team coach in 1990 before playing a key role on organising the 2006 tournament on home soil, isn’t sure the current side – for all its individual brilliance -has enough resilience to triumph in Brazil in the summer.
Although at club level Germany are enjoying arguably their most dazzling period ever, the country hasn’t won the World Cup for 24 years and in an interview with FIFA Weekly, 68-year-old Beckenbauer attempted to explain the reasons.
“It has been a mental problem; Germany haven’t had that mental edge,” he said. “Of course they wanted to be successful, but to win a major tournament, you need that absolute, unfailing will to win, and the German teams of the last ten to 15 years haven’t had that.”
Germany have reached two straight semifinals and were runners-up in 2002 but Beckenbauer suggested that wasn’t a sufficiently ambitious target and that complacency may have set in.
“Reaching a semi-final is a remarkable achievement, there’s no question of that. But it’s exactly that feeling of being satisfied with only reaching a semi-final that means a great team doesn’t become a tournament-winning team,” he said.
“There’s been a sense of contentment in German teams in recent years, and that desire
to go all the way hasn’t been there. You have to make sure that that supposed (mental) strength doesn’t allow you to fall into a negative spiral.”
Nevertheless Beckenbauer predicts Joachim Loew’s side will win Group G in Brazil and qualify for the knockout phase along with Portugal, leaving Ghana and the United States – managed by former German boss Jurgen Klinsmann – as also-rans.
And he denied suggestions Loew was the driving force behind the team when working as Klinsmann’s assistant. “No that wasn’t the case. Klinsmann was the head coach and Low did great work in the background. They were an outstanding team and a perfect fit for each other. It actually says a lot about how loyal a person Jogi Low was that he never pushed to be at the forefront of things during that time.”
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