The German machine

When I was a kid (West) Germany were a side that were impossible to like. A  machine of admittedly great players who nevertheless played a type of football that lacked soul and would use any means to win, and in general it always worked to their advantage. Germany always won.

Since 2006 it has been different, and crowned by their fantastic 2014 World Champions. But Germany seems to have been struggling with its footballing identity since then. Germans expect to win, and poor results are generally seen as a deep crisis. Expectations to this tournament appear to have been limited, but the team has started with two victories; firstly destroying Curacao 7-1, and now defeating Cote d'Ivoire 2-1 in a match where I found myself supporting the West Africans more and more as the match advanced.

First half the Ivorians were much better and they were leading 0-1 on a goal by the veteran Franck Kessie, who after his long career in Europe is now at Al Ahli. The match flowed well nevertheless, as Germany had a couple of goals cancelled for fouls on the determined Ivorian defenders. In the second half Germany pushed forward and were open for counterattacks where Cote d'Ivoire made some terrible misses that in the end proved fatal. 

The big change for Germany was a triple substitution by Nagelmann: Musiala, Sane and Pavlovic were substituted for Deniz Undav, Jamie Leweling and Nadiem Amiri. These three players changed the team entirely, and it was only eight minutes later that the Stuttgart striker Deniz Undav equalised on a set up by Nadiem Amiri. Pressure continued, and in the 94th minute Germany did what Germany always used to do: a ball into the area was controlled by Undav, who turned quickly and scored Germany's winner with a hard shot. 

Undav has six matches on the national team and six goals, and perhaps should be considered the starter for next matches.

Germany always wins in football, and with this goal we must start thinking of them as candidates for the title, since this is the German machine that we all know from before. It is likely that they will defeat a terribly disappointing and playing Ecuador side in the last group match.