Kuranyi controversy

Never say never - that looks to be the upshot of all the bleating in the spat between Loew and Kuranyi. After declaring that the striker had run out of chances to be in the German national team, the coach now seems to be on the verge of giving him one more.

Over the weekend, Germany commercial manager Oliver Bierhoff, a Loew intimate, gave the clearest indication yet that a recall was in the offing.

"We're thankful for every player who is in top form," Bierhoff told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper. "I think we don't risk losing credibility or face if we reconsider things - in this case Kuranyi's earlier mistake."

Loew, on the contrary, is playing his cards close to the chest.

"We'll see - maybe," was all Loew would say to reporters on Monday, April 19, when asked if he planned to speak directly with Kuranyi.

In October 2008, angered at being left out of the squad for Germany's match against Russia, Kuranyi left the stadium in Düsseldorf at half-time and headed home. An enraged Loew immediately declared that the striker would never play for him again.

But it's hard to imagine Bierhoff speaking so frankly, if Loew intends to stick by his earlier words. Public pressure, it would seem for the moment, has trumped personal antipathy.

Self-proclaimed team player, nice guy

Germany's two established center forwards Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez have been, respectively, dismal and mediocre this season, while Kuranyi has been at or near the top of the list of the Bundesliga's leading goal scorers for most of 2009-10.

That has led many of Germany's footballing VIPs - everyone from Bayern legend Franz Beckenbauer to coaches Felix Magath and Ottmar Hitzfeld - to call for a rethink on the Kuranyi ban.

Moreover, the striker himself has been delivering arguments - and not just in the form of goals - for a recall.

In an interview with the weekly Germany news magazine Der Spiegel, Kuranyi said he regretted his behavior back in 2008.

"I made a mistake then but I have learned from it," Kuranyi told the magazine. "Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a team player. And everyone who knows me as a person knows I'm a nice guy."

The German press is widely interpreting the interview as the statement of regret needed from the player for Loew to swallow his pride and give Kuranyi another chance.

Loew only has until May 6 to make up his mind. At that point, he has to announce his preliminary squad for South Africa to football's governing body, FIFA.

Capped, then benched?

But even if Loew does recall Kuranyi, it may be just a tactical maneuver vis-a-vis the press and not a sign of genuine reconciliation.

Loew has repeatedly indicated he will stick by two mainstays of his former Germany squads, Klose and Lukas Podolski, no matter how dreadful their league performances have been.

Writing in Der Spiegel, sports journalist Peter Ahrens argued that a Kuranyi nomination would be Loew's way of pretending to yield to public opinion while continuing to do things his way.

"The decision would be Loew's only way of silencing the disruptive salvos from the outside," Ahrens wrote. "In South Africa, Loew would once again be the master of the situation. He could play Kuranyi, but he wouldn't have to."

In other words, Loew may decide the safest place for him to have Kuranyi is at the far end of the reserves' bench.

Ahrens isn't the only one in Germany who thinks that Loew is prone to playing favorites.

Torsten Frings, the Bremen defensive midfielder who was for many years a Germany regular, used a post-match interview this weekend to attack his former national coach.

"Everyone knows by now that performance doesn't count in the national team," Frings told reporters after scoring two goals in Bremen's win over Hoffenheim.

Frings doesn't have the sort of lobby to seriously trouble Loew. Kuranyi does, and that makes him arguably the biggest threat to Loew's long-term job security.

If Germany do well in South Africa, no one will remember the accusations that Loew put personalities before performance in Kuranyi's case. But if Germany go out early, there would be more weight behind arguments that Loew's stubbornness is detrimental to the team.

The black sheep could then be the one that bleats last and best.

Author: Jefferson Chase

Editor: Susan Houlton