Average Germany defeats average Turkey: Does international football have much to offer?

After watching the semi-final match between Turkey and Germany, it can be said that if Turkey were to have a near fully fit team (and minus the suspensions), as the Germans did, they could have possibly defeated Germany. Volcan, had he not been suspended, would not have conceded at least one of the three in their semi-final match up with Germany. While Turkey dominated much of the game, it never seemed that they could win, their defence and goal keeper were unbelievably poor and the Germans seemed far more menacing in their attack and set pieces. Every time an attack broke for the Germany, you would think it would eventually lead to a goal. Germany are a good team, if nothing special. At times they are average and slow. With the exception of one match (against Portugal) they were entirely predictable. As expected their main threat was aerial, as was shown against Portugal and Turkey, which makes them difficult to defend against (without a steady goal keeper). Then there is the attacking threat of both Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger, who have a very good understanding on the left, further coupled with Philip Lahm as an excellent attacking left back, providing for Germany’s main threat against both Portugal and Turkey.

I have recently been contemplating the words of Wenger, that international football is really not up to standard (club football is far superior, but certainly not fairer). Let me quote the man:

I’m not a big fan of international football because they destroyed it. Take Russia: once it was one country and now it’s 21. Yugoslavia was one and now is six. As a result the level has dropped. Then you add countries like Andorra, Faroe Islands and San Marino and suddenly three games out of four are of no interest. When you think of international football you think that it’s a level up but 99 percent of the time it’s a level down. That’s why I prefer club football

Watching the defensive displays in the tournament he does have a point. Then there is the tournament draw, where eventual champions could be crowned for playing, at most, a third of the teams in the tournament. For example, had this German team been drawn in Holland’s group, they would have not made it past the group stages. Also consider that teams are measured based upon a handful of matches, if luck (as is the case with Germany and Turkey) should conspire in your favour, you may well find your way through to the later stages. Imagine if a team like Manchester City were crowed champions of England after their good start last season. With the diluting of standards in international football and the absence of a league system to measure teams over a longer period, then we have to question if international football is indeed about standards or simply a mass frenzy for corporations and marketing.

The worse case scenario is that UEFA are contemplating tinkering with this European championships format, further expanding it to 24 teams. As with the world cup, this not only dilutes standards, but questions the whole purpose of tournaments as a suitable means for crowning the best teams. With more teams, a lucky draw could mean the eventual winners may only play a top ranked team till the final (as was the case with Germany in the 2002 world cup).

This leads to a final point, couldn’t the long and gruelling qualification campaigns, followed by a month long tournament, be replaced with a league system of international teams. Such a system would be vastly fairer in identifying the stronger teams and the eventual winners would at least have played a wider pool of stronger teams. Prior to 1980 only four teams competed the championships, after a play-off qualification. A similar system could be put in place, with the top four teams in a league system later qualifying to play each other for the trophy. Better still, the team that amasses the most points should deserve to be crowned outright (it also ensures the absence of penalties). Maybe this may not have the excitement of tournament football but it is a vastly more fairer system, where teams like Germany and Turkey would probably fall short over a longer string of matches. But as long as international football remains as it is, then in terms of football, in its purest form, international football does not have that much to offer.