Last weekend Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga title. That in itself wasn’t particularly surprising: the newly crowned Deutscher Meisters have claimed the so-called salad dish trophy 22 times, pushing their collection of national championships to a dominating 23.  What truly made this feat an exception was the manner in which Bayern achieved it.  Whether it be the record time in which they managed the accomplishment, the current undefeated away run they’ve amassed over the duration of the season, or the total points tally, which they’re on course to surely steal from Dortmund, set only one year ago, Bayern Munich has amassed a set of records that prove that the club looks stronger now than it has been in quite some time.  This was all too apparent in Wednesday night’s pedestrian dismantling of the runaway leader in Serie A, Juventus, as Bayern continued its march toward a treble of trophies, amid the lack of any serious contenders at home or in Europe.  Yet aside from the euphoria of reaching their third Champions League semifinal in four years, there was a subplot that had ran alongside the tie with Juventus: we had seen Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and this host of Italian players before, and they had intimidated and defeated Bastian Schweinsteiger and Co. not so long ago. But that was last summer, when Schweinsteiger bore the logo of Die Nationalelf, in a different strip, with an old skin, under the leadership of a different coach, Joachim Löw.  Back then, Pirlo broke through the German midfield time and time again in a Euro 2012 semifinal. Where the looming, anxious sense of a curse or a hex surrounded and ultimately undid Germany’s hopes while Löw tinkered with personnel and tactics, Bayern simply approached the game the way it would any opponent and played out its game plan perfectly.  Pirlo – the heartbeat of Italy and Juventus – is the perfect example of how Jupp Heynckes and Löw approached the Italian sides. Where Löw started Mario Gomez, a penalty box striker, alongside the two wide midfielders Lucas Podolski and Mesut Özil, Heynckes deployed Mario Mandzukic at the front of his attack to chase down Pirlo, a deep-lying playmaker, while letting Arjen Robben, Thomas Müller and Franck Ribéry cut inside to close down the space in front of him.  Two sides in equal strength, with the same backbone of German players, who dealt with the same problem with two different solutions. The result was success for one coach and further disappointment for the other.  Of course, Löw’s mismanagement of Germany isn’t simply defined by Bayern’s achievements, but by Borussia Dortmund’s, too. The manner in which Dortmund overcame Malaga in the dying seconds of Tuesday’s thrilling quarterfinal was not only an emphatic act of sporting achievement, but the depiction of a steel resolve to succeed no matter the circumstances, one that has eluded Germany over the past decade.  Where Löw’s Germany faltered at the hands of Spain in Euro 2008 and the World Cup in 2010, Jürgen Klopp’s young Dortmund side has surpassed expectation in overcoming Spanish opposition in Real Madrid and Malaga, the former peppered with Spanish internationals.  In Mario Götze, Marco Reus and Ilkay Gundogan, Löw has three young players who have been bred for a different purpose than the needs of the usual national side. A side as daring as they are skilful. At a club that simply won’t take defeat as an answer.  Similarly, Löw’s Germany lags behind Dortmund and Bayern when it comes to team and individual performances. Since the start of Euro 2012 and the current cycle of World Cup qualification games, Die Mannschaft have scored on average 2.14 goals per game. This falls below the averages of Dortmund and Bayern over the past two seasons (2.35 and 2.51 goals per game, respectively), despite games against the likes of the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan.  Even key players for Löw’s team have struggled to reach the same heights of club football under his tenure. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany’s vice captain, is close to double figures in goalscoring for Bayern this season, yet he hasn’t scored a goal for Löw since late 2011. Müller failed to score a single goal at Euro 2012 – and has only scored two since for his country – but has 29 in for Bayern over the past two seasons.  If Dortmund or Bayern is destined to win the Champions League this season, perhaps even competing against one another in the final, strong questions must be asked of Löw, who can’t seem to find success with a national side whose parts, individually, are dominating the sport.  Goal totals and win ratios are one thing, but the real stat that drives modern players is silverware, and how much of it they can fit in their trophy cabinets before it’s time to hang up their boots.  Since Löw took over the Germany job in July 2006, Dortmund and Bayern Munich have won a combined total of 11 trophies, and they are in a good position to add to that in London in May. It won’t be too long before this German team, a locker room full of top-class, international stars, begins looking for a coach to win some international trophies to go alongside their domestic collection.  Follow Stefan Bienkowski on Twitter.
The success of Germany&#8217;s top players and clubs in the Champions League may soon highlight the lack of it for Germany&#8217;s national team coach, Joachim L&#246;w.