What next for Germany in Russia

by Power Sportz The Voice of Sport - India's First Sport News & Jo

The 2014 World Cup Champions Germany had a shocking World Cup opener against Mexico.

Joachim Löw found his side 1-0 behind, at the losing end, after PSV Eindhoven star Hirving Lozano, 22, scored-s the winning goal.

First time after 1980, the Mannschaft faced a defeat in their FIFA World Cup opener, indicating a lack of motivation in the squad. Not just Germany, Spain also had witnessed similar sort of a situation in 2014 where players were lacking confidence and motivation.

Losing the very first encounter means the defending champions have to win their coming group clashes against South Korea and Sweden without having any stipulations.

Sweden, who had beaten Italy at the time of World Cup qualification, are looking very sharp at the moment. Players like Granquist and Forsberg will not let Germany win the race quite easily.

Nauer and company should also need to learn from the ventures of previous defending champions Spain and Italy as they failed to qualify in the first round during their defending campaigns.

Against Mexico on Sunday, Germany were allowing the North American side to come and cut the ball from the middle in more than ample occasions. It also became the principal reason for their downfall.

Lazano and Chicharito were mostly cutting the German defense from the center. However, the case was completely opposite in 2014 where they looked rock solid in defense.

Other than these critical issues, Joachim Löw needs to implement a particular tempo of play. Having a decent game plan can help them accentuate the roles of each and every player on the pitch rather than be confused for the entire 90 minutes or so.

Real Madrid midfielder Toni seemed to be the only German player knowing his task. On the other side of the fence, the whole squad was waiting to see their teammates taking the initiative.

Thomas Müller, who seemed to be like a will-O-the-Wisp in the previous two editions with 10 goals, hasn't shown his aura fantastically well against Rafael Márquez's army.

In their initial match, the defending champions have taken 21 shots to score the goal. However, failed to grasp it. Some might say that Germany were looking to have their say but Guillermo Ochoa, the Mexican goalkeeper, got a different level of stimulation.

Standard Liège star was the main player for Mexico at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where football pundits had predicted him moving to some of the prominent European Clubs.

It also looks like that Germany are missing their retired leader Philipp Lahm, who was widely regarded as one of the best right-back and captain of all time.

Germany try to fill the spaces with Nauer, but it's not seemingly as good as Lahm.

Roadmap for Germany in upcoming group matches

Rather than learning from the past experiences of Spain and Italy, Germany have to make their team fully aggressive— from top to bottom. Especially from the middle, where they were losing the ball and keeping the channels wide-open against Mexico.

Not just negatives, there are some positives as well. Germany are the only team to finish at the top four; 13 times, top three; 12 times and top two; eight times. These anecdotes clearly indicate that as far as going and fighting at the knockout levels are concerned, no team is better than Germany.

Reminiscing these past glories can somewhat play a role in devising Germany's new playing system quite well.

Lastly,, Sweden and South Korea are very good teams, still, Germany should remember that they are the born champions in football, rather than going back to home right after the very first round.

Visit Power Sportz and watch the latest FIFA World Cup news and Game Highlights.