World Cup Betting: German young guns will be a force in South Africa

World Cup Betting / Ben Lyttleton / 09 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Can Mesut Özil rediscover his form in time for South Africa?

Controversy and derision surrounds the German team at present but, with their tournament pedigree in tact, Ben Lyttleton knows better than to write off Jogi Loew's men.

"Germany team are in transition, but if Loews can get the best out of the new generation, then they could have another good run in South Africa."

It's incredible what effect one public fall-out can have on the momentum of a team. Germany were superb in World Cup qualifying, reached the final of Euro 2008 (and the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup) and have a wealth of young talented players coming through - but at the moment, the media is only focusing on the negatives surrounding the team.

This culminated in last week's 1-0 defeat to Argentina, a result that was greeted in Munich with jeers. Damage had been done weeks before, with the revelations that coach Jogi Loew had wanted a €3m signing-on fee to extend his contract by two years after the tournament. His team manager Oliver Bierhoff bore the brunt of the criticism, after he apparently demanded veto power in future nominations for the position of national coach - a move designed to prevent his sworn enemy, FA sporting director Matthias Sammer, from taking over.

The row has yet to be resolved - as it stands, Loew's contract is up on June 30, just after the Round of 16 matches - but last week Loew could at least focus on the pitch, where he tried out a new 4-2-3-1 formation and learnt some interesting lessons. First of all, goalkeeper Rene Adler had a poor game and was at fault for the only goal, rushing out of his area but missing the ball which Gonzalo Higuain stroked home. Goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke had said, "the shirt is now his to lose" and Adler may well have done that.

In defence, while Per Mertesacker looked slow, Serdar Tasci was accomplished alongside him, which is just as well considering Christoph Metzelder is out of favour at Real Madrid and Arne Friedrich's form has deserted him.

Full-backs Philipp Lahm and Jerome Boateng, brother of Kevin-Prince, were solid enough. The defensive midfield pairing of Michael Ballack and Bastian Schweinsteiger did not work at all, and though Loew had encouraged the international retirement of Torsten Frings, in a bid to reduce Ballack's power-base in the squad, he must be regretting the injury to Leverkusen captain Simon Rolfes and the dip in form of new Lazio signing Thomas Hitzlsperger.

He is not the only one suffering at this stage of the season: a few months ago, Mesut Özil was the saviour of German football, the star performer in the Bundesliga and, as Bild am Sonntag put it, "the playmaker Germany has been waiting so long for". But against Argentina, Özil was ineffective and there are fears that he will be burnt out before kick off in South Africa. There are other young talents who have impressed, and Bayern's Thomas Müller and Leverkusen's Toni Kroos should both certainly be in the squad.

Who to start with in attack is also proving tricky: against Argentina, it was Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, neither of whom have been playing well for their clubs. Mario Gomez still looks uncomfortable on the international stage while Stefan Kiessling has only scored once since November. Stuttgart's recently-naturalised forward Cacau is another option, and he was at least lively when he came on for Özil against Argentina: but will Loew's fall-out with Kevin Kurnayi, who walked out of the stadium during half-time of the qualifer against Russia and has been persona non grata ever since, come back to haunt him?

It would seem unlikely: this Germany team are in transition, but if Loews can get the best out of the new generation, then they could have another good run in South Africa. They are [1.95] to top Group D which contains Ghana, Serbia and Australia and [15.0] to lift the trophy. Germany's proven tournament mentality is not a myth and even the young guns have experience of success at last summer's Under-21 European Championships.

Loew's big dilemma is to get his key players in their best positions: Schweinsteiger in holding midfield, for example, is not a long-term solution. But the coach can draw one consolation from last week's match: at least the team's on-pitch concerns have drawn attention away from his contract situation.

Tags: Argentina, France, Germany, Jorgi Loew, Michael Ballack, South Africa 2010 betting, World Cup betting