This won't quite be a "Rebajlo rant," but my goodness, Germany are the most disappointing team this World Cup. Whether it was complacancy or their "German" Turks in Gundogan and Ozil distracting the team, this team was a shell of it's 2014 form. They really miss the leadership of guys like Schweinsteiger, Klose, and Lahm. Germany played some great possession football, easily out-possessing all three of the teams they played during the group stage. However, the attack looked slow, lethargic, and completely bereft of ideas in the final third, resulting mostly in right-back Joshua Kimmich hurtling crosses into the box without much success.
It wasn't just the minority players who played bad. Werner did not look as good as I thought he would, although when he was moved to the wing when Gomez was subbed on, he was able to use his speed and look more dangerous in trying to create chances in the box. Reus looked like a player coming back from injury, which he was. I was glad to see him score, but he'll be the big "what could have been" for Germany, having missed out so much through injuries. I hope he's not done yet. Thomas Muller was a huge disappointment as well, not getting a sniff at goal, and generally didn't play too well, leading to him getting benched in the last game. It was very obvious Low was playing out-dated possession football, with really no plan to break down the massed defenses they faced. During the first match, with Khedira (allegedly a defensive mid) and Boateng pushed waaaaay too far up the pitch, leaving the Germans vulnerable to counters, which was their undoing. In addition, when teams loaded up the box against the German possession, Low didn't have any new ideas for the team on how to break them down.
I think Gundogan and Ozil's photo up with "their" president Erdogan both was a major distraction to the team and divided it, and showed how big of a farce "multiculturalism" is. These two guys are "supposed" to be German, yet they don't consider themselves German whatsoever, and are only playing for Germany because Turkey's team is absolute garbage.
I did like how Neuer played after missing much of his club season with injury, and I thought Kimmich, Hummels, Sule, and Rudy all played good too. In attack, Werner and Reus were probably the best of a below-average bunch. Kroos had a good 2nd half against Sweden and played good vs. Korea.
I'm not happy Germany got humiliated,but the upside is that the non white players will get the blame and Low will go,finally!
Germany's five minority players were awful this tournament, some of the worst players on an underperforming team. Even the German media and fans have begun criticizing them. Loew stubbornly clung to starting Ozil and Khedira, which helped cost them two games. Khedira looked like a corpse out on the pitch, and was completely ineffective in the match time he received, being subbed off early in both of them. He's done. Boateng wasn't bad in defense, but my goodness, why on earth was he pushing up into the attack all the time and throwing balls into the box? When you have a World Class attack as Germany was supposed to, Boateng should be the last person rambling up field. Ozil was awful in his first match, but better his third. Gundogan was invisible during his game-time. Given Ozil and Gundogan obviously don't even consider themselves German, they should not have even been selected. I'd love to think at least Ozil is done, but he probably won't be. The German media has been grilling Ozil, and a lot of ex-German national team players have been criticizing him. It's about time. They'd be better without Khedira and Ozil, so I'm glad their time with Germany may be done.
Unfortunately i think the German media will blame Low for not including the mixed Leroy Sane in the squad as one of the reasons Germany have been knocked out at the group stage...This is the the first time since the 1950's that Germany has failed to reach the knockout stage
The one downside. This has been a complaint of a lot of message board DWFs, for some reason. But Sane has looked awful every-time he's been with Germany, so surprisingly, Loew made the right call in leaving him off.
It's unfortunate as well; unless something dramatic happens, I think this will be the last World Cup Germany is a viable rooting option. I think enough of their "old guard" like Kroos, Muller, Neuer, Hummels, etc. (a lot of the young players on this squad are also white, which will help keep them a team to cheer for for a couple more years) will be around for Euro 2020 for Germany to be a team to cheer for there, but once they retire, there will be a lot of various minorities waiting to take their places.
I imagine the Euro 2020 squad will likely be similar to this team, with ~5 minorities on the squad and ~8-9 white starters. However, once the last of the 2014 team retires, the 2022 squad will be like England's in 2010 and 2014, with ~10 non-whites on the team and ~7 white starters.