Germany looked at the FIFA Confederations Cup as a test for the future German National Team players as well as current bench players who could be impactful next year at the World Cup. It was a tournament for German manager Jogi Low to learn more about his team and what he has in front of him for the 2018 World Cup and World Cup’s in the future.
He probably learned a thing or two about his team but even if he didn’t, he at least learned that his team of backups are very good, outlasting seven other teams to win the Confederations Cup. They culminated their tournament with a 1-0 victory over Copa America and Copa America Centenario champs Chile in the Final.
Chile really dominated throughout the entire game but they just couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net. They had seven shots on target, 13 shots total and some of their misses were simply spellbinding how they weren’t even able to put the ball on frame. Some shots looked like it was easier to actually put the ball on frame instead of it flying out.
The lone goal was scored very much against the run of play. A giveaway led to a two man Germany breakaway and ended up with Lars Stindl tapping in the go-ahead, and winning goal in the 20th minute.
HUGE mistake at the back from Chile!
Werner steals it, Stindl taps it in to make it 1-0 Germany. @Powerade #CHIGER https://t.co/yaCyre55IQ
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2017
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Confederations Cup without VAR rearing its ugly head one more time. Gonzalo Jara elbowed Timo Werner in the head with about 25 minutes left. Germany, knowing once they throw in the ball, the play cannot be reviewed, wasted time to buy VAR officials a few more seconds to see the elbow. Serbian referee Milorad Mazic motioned for review and even went over to view the replay himself. Out of all that, as well as everyone else believing it to be a red card, Mazic showed Jara a yellow and kept it 11v11.
Naturally, this caused many to express disappointment and disgust at VAR. In all actuality, blame the referee for not only not giving a red card after seeing the play live, but after viewing the play on replay, only giving yellow. VAR can only do so much and if a referee decides that is worth a yellow, after clearly seeing the play, unless you replace humans with robots, no technology is ever going to change bad calls like that. So blame the people using the system and not solely the system itself. VAR needs changes, it needs tweaks and it cannot keep going under this current system. But that doesn’t mean it should be completely abolished either.
So after all this, where does this leave Germany for the upcoming year? Well, if their backups and future prospects can play this well, they have to be a formidable foe once their normal starters join in for the World Cup. I’m not saying to give Germany the trophy now, we’re more than 11 months away from starting the tournament and anything can happen. But it’s undeniable that after winning this and the 2017 Euro U-21 tournament a couple days ago, Germany should be the clear favorite to win back-to-back World Cup’s and to break the curse of winning the Confederations Cup and World Cup in consecutive years.
