World Cup
Unorthodox Bookends Leading the Germans
World Cup 2014: Germany Needs Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer to Play Well
RIO
DE JANEIRO — It has been a hot and cold World Cup for Germany: from its
bold statement match in steamy Salvador against Portugal to its botched
lines and opportunities in the chill and drizzle of Porto Alegre
against Algeria.
Despite
fluctuating form and Manager Joachim Löw’s concern about seven players
with mild flu symptoms, the Germans are, as usual, in contention with
the World Cup reaching its business end.
The next obstacle amid national angst: Friday’s quarterfinal against resurgent France.
Germany
is hard to read and difficult to categorize, and its protean nature is
particularly evident at the front of the attack and the back of the
defense. Thomas
Müller, again its leading scorer, is an unconventional, unusually
versatile forward. Manuel Neuer is an unconventional, unusually
versatile goalkeeper.
The
two players cover enormous ground inside and outside the penalty areas.
Even on a rough night in the Round of 16 victory over Algeria, their
confidence and resourcefulness under pressure were pivotal.
World Cup 2014: Germany Defeats France, 1-0
Mats Hummels scored early in the first half for the only
goal of the match, sending Germany to its fourth consecutive World Cup
semifinals appearance.
Müller
kept missing shots or connections, even stumbling on a free kick —
either a big gaffe or an ineffective ruse — late in the second half. But
he never stopped hustling and eventually picked the lock, sliding a
pass through traffic to André Schürrle in the opening minutes of extra
time that Schürrle spun into gold with a back-heel flick.
By
then Neuer, roaming free and taking big risks, had already snuffed
several promising Algerian attacks far from the usual zones where
goalkeepers operate.
“He is certainly the most complete keeper in the world,” Hugo Lloris, his French counterpart, said on Thursday.
Müller
and Neuer at their best will most likely be needed if Germany is to end
what is now a serious drought, with no World Cup title since 1990 and
no major trophy since the European Championship in 1996.
Müller
and Neuer are not short on trophies. As two of the many national team
members who play their club soccer for Bayern Munich, they won the
German Cup, the Bundesliga and, above all, the Champions League in 2013.
At
age 24, Müller is no longer the Wunderkind who, in barely a year, went
from playing in Germany’s third division to becoming the leading scorer
of the 2010 World Cup.
Louis
van Gaal, the former Bayern coach and a fine talent spotter who is
managing the Netherlands, was the man who gave Müller his big break at
the club after Jurgen Klinsmann had tested him briefly without recalling
him during his days running Bayern.
Müller,
raised in Bavaria and married at 20, is happy to have recently signed a
contract extension with Bayern through 2019. He was an attacking
midfielder in 2010, usually operating on the right and sniffing out
opportunity after opportunity. He scored five goals and has four more in
Brazil. In light of his age and craftsmanship, it is no stretch to
imagine him finishing his career with more goals than any man in World
Cup history. With nine for now, he is still well behind his German
teammate Miroslav Klose and Ronaldo, who are tied at the top with 15.
“Müller’s
a player who’s honest and genuine and keeps getting in there and keeps
arriving on the scene,” said Chris Waddle, the former English star
working here as a BBC analyst. “He gets his chances because of his
honesty and endeavor. If you make 20 runs, you might get one chance, and
he’ll make every one of those 20 runs.”
He
is being used as a striker this time, but he is no pure No. 9. He has
played all over the attacking map during his club and national team
career and is doing more of the same in Brazil, sometimes retreating
deep into the midfield to try to create a new threat. And it is hardly
all about his own goal count.
“He
is a very generous player who makes a lot of defensive efforts,” said
Didier Deschamps, France’s manager. “He’s an engine for their team.”
With
his long stride and endurance, he likes his open space, and one of his
gifts is finding it at just the right time. He might not be a playmaker
like his teammate Mesut Ozil, but he undeniably has vision.
“He’s
the only player in the world who manages to see, at the same time, the
space around him, the ball, his teammates and his opponents,” van Gaal
once said of Müller.
And
Müller’s view of himself? “I know I don’t have the most elegant style;
I’m not a magician,” he told the magazine France Football last month.
“But I’m unpredictable, and I know what needs to be done: Go where it
hurts, never give up, and play with lots of spontaneity.”
Lots
of cool precision as well. Consider his goal against the United States,
beautifully struck off a rebound past the diving Tim Howard, a
goalkeeper who has since proven to an even larger audience just how hard
he is to beat.
Howard
is an aggressive, acrobatic keeper. But he is old-school compared with
Neuer, whose play far off his line here has been the ultimate expression
of the 21st-century goalkeeper’s expanded role in the flow of play.
Best of the World Cup
The best soccer players in the world converged in Brazil
for the 2014 World Cup. In these interactive graphics, videos,
slideshows, and articles, The Times covered the action on the field and
far from it. Dig in, but be sure to save time for Spot the Ball.
The
catalyst was a rule change in 1992 that prohibited goalkeepers from
handling the ball when a teammate intentionally kicked it to them.
Intended to open up the game, that new rule gradually put more emphasis
on foot skills for goalkeepers and ultimately helped produce a man like
Neuer, who has been called a sweeper-keeper.
Already
inclined to venture outside traditional boundaries for Bayern, he took
his style to new extremes against Algeria, when he touched the ball 19
times outside the penalty area, and not only with his foot. In the
second half, with the Algerian striker Islam Slimani bearing down on a
long, high-bouncing through ball, Neuer sprinted outside the area and
snuffed the danger with a leaping header. On other occasions, he played
with the ball at his feet, visibly enjoying the joust at one stage in
the first half as he fooled an Algerian forward and only then delivered
the pass upfield.
“Manuel
has the same technical skills as the others; he could play in
midfield,” Löw said Thursday. “He has a good sense of orientation and a
good sense of distances, and that’s what makes him so valuable. And
that’s why he is welcome to take this risk.”
Others
in Germany get more nervous, including Franz Beckenbauer, a former
German star and manager who played plenty of sweeper but not as a
goalkeeper. “Yes,
Manuel Neuer saved us in some situations, as an outfield player would
do, but he threw caution to the wind,” Beckenbauer said at a news
conference this week. Beckenbauer added, “I would prefer that he remains in goal against France.”
That
might be wise, particularly when it is difficult to imagine Löw asking
his defenders to play quite as high a line against France as they did
against Algeria. That should leave less open space that Neuer will feel
obligated to patrol.
France’s
Lloris is also an aggressive keeper with a lesser case of Wanderlust,
so there should be plenty of new-age goaltending on display.
Plenty of new age Müller, too. Germany, in this time of trouble, is counting on it.
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