The omens were not good. In late May, as the Germany football team gathered at their World Cup training camp in Italy, news broke that manager Joachim Loew had been stripped of his driver’s license for six months after a series of speeding tickets.
Days earlier, Kevin Grosskreutz, a versatile defender, had been caught urinating in the lobby of a luxury hotel in Berlin.
Two other players, attending a public relations event, had been involved in a high-speed car crash that seriously hurt two pedestrians. The troubled start fuelled public panic about Loew’s coaching strategies.
The training camp, designed to get the players ready for the tropical heat of Brazil, was beset by cold temperatures and heavy rain. Then, in a friendly against Armenia before their departure for Brazil, Germany lost Marco Reus, one of the team’s best players, to an ankle injury.
With a “golden generation” of some of the best soccer players Germany has ever produced, there is little doubt the pressure on the 54-year-old Loew was building as he set off for Brazil.
Eighty one million Germans - desperate for a fourth world title after wins in 1954, 1974 and 1990 - felt it was time for the sharply dressed, mop-haired manager to deliver or quit.
The “Bundestrainer” - as Germans call the head coach - had taken his talent-laden team to the semi-finals of their last four major international tournaments, but failed to win a trophy.
That was just not good enough in a country where the World Cup has been an integral part of post-World War Two identity ever since the 1954 “Miracle of Berne”.
That improbable triumph, historians say, gave the broken, bombed-out nation such a boost it helped spark West Germany’s economic miracle.
So how did Germany overcome all their problems and go on to beat hosts Brazil in a sensational 7-1 semi-final thrashing before edging Argentina 1-0 in extra-time in the final?
The answer: attention to detail, ignoring distractions and milkshakes.
Talking to reporters after arriving at Germany’s Brazilian base in Santo Andre, an isolated town on the Atlantic shore, Loew outlined his thoughts.
“I’ve been around long enough to realise that some of these same kinds of debates repeat themselves from tournament to tournament,” he said.
“Obviously people are going to have different opinions on the lineup and on the tactics. But I’m going to try to stay away from of all that.”
More than any other squad at the World Cup, Loew and his players treated each of their six matches as warm-ups along the way to the final they always seemed confident of reaching - and winning.