Super Mario Gomez might be just the throwback Germany needs to win Euro

PARIS -- You wonder if, when Joachim Low recalled Mario Gomez to the German national side, he figured he might take him to the Euros and put him in some kind of transparent case with a sign saying BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.
We're talking the kind of emergency that occurs when you know you're going to be camped out in the opposition's final third and you need a battle-axe to break down the opposition's bus. It's what Germany experienced in each of their three group games. And it's what they may face Sunday in Lille against Slovakia.
Germany's tournament thus far has been marked by seven hard-fought points and a lot of sterile possession. With wingers who tend to come inside and fullbacks who provide little width, the goals -- or, at least, the ice-breaking goal that forces the opponent to come out of its shell -- were meant to come either through passing and movement or pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch. But the former is hard to do against massed ranks even for a team like Spain (and Germany, good as they are, are not Spain in that department). The latter made sense because a number of the front men play for teams who regularly do it at club level.
It may yet make sense if Germany advance and take on better and more offensive-minded sides, but it's about as useful as a WiFi hotspot in Middle Earth when your opponent never attempts to build play from the back.
Low tried Mario Gotze up front thinking he could find space. He couldn't. He briefly put Thomas Muller there and may yet do so again but, rightly or wrongly, he reckons the Raumdeuter is more useful elsewhere. So now he has turned to the big man.
In many ways, this ought to be a heart-warming comeback tale. Roll the clock back four years, and Gomez was Germany's starting centre-forward at Euro 2012, scoring three goals in the opening two games. Life was good. He had scored 80 goals in all competitions for Bayern Munich in the previous two campaigns, he was 26. Then it began to unravel.
Germany lost to Italy in the semifinal. He returned to a Bayern side that would go on to win the Treble, but he found he was no longer an automatic choice (though he did score twice in the German Cup final). Gomez moved to Fiorentina in the summer and endured two nightmare seasons -- partly due to injury, partly due to his own futility -- scoring a measly seven goals over two years. Fiorentina peddled him all around Europe and he ended up in Turkey, at Besiktas.
The old Gomez returned and, by New Year's Day, he had 15 goals. Even Low had to notice and the following March he called him back to the national side, three years after his last appearance. Three years during which he missed out on, among other things, Germany's World Cup win. Many turned up their noses. This was a cart-horse among thoroughbreds.
"I've never worried about not being liked by the fans or the pundits," he said Friday. "I've always believed I could come back, even though nobody else seemed to believe in me."
Certainly the company that put together the Panini sticker album did not seem to believe in the comeback. He was left out entirely.
But what matters is that he's here. And that Low knows that, amidst the thoroughbreds, sometimes you need a cart-horse to carry the heavy load. Perhaps ungracefully, perhaps ponderously, perhaps slipping along the way. But as long as he gets to his destination it won't matter.
If Gomez gets the nod against Slovakia -- as appears likely -- he could end up being the difference maker. Even if it means butting heads with Martin Skrtel and wearing him down for an hour so, that's OK. Gomez is a throwback to a different brand of German football, but sometimes it's necessary to go retro.