The Euro Championship is only a few months away, but with the soccer season ending and the international break a few weeks past, it might be a good time to start considering which team stands a chance to win the top trophy in the continent. In this article, we will discuss why Germany is the runaway favorite. For an opposing view on why France is really the top team, check out my brother David's post.

For over a decade, Germany worked to improve upon its 2002 World Cup finals appearance. Everyone saw that team as heavily overrated, saved mainly by its goalie's heroics and less by the overall skill level on the team.

The Germans started investing more time and effort in building up youthful players with tremendous skill, someday hoping to reap the benefits and lift a trophy.

After another two World Cup failures, one at home, and two Euro eliminations at the hands of Spain and Italy, the Mannschaft finally pulled through in Brazil in 2014. Now the team looks to win its second straight major tournament in France this summer.

They will pull it off. Here are some reasons why.

Age

Look at the group that won the trophy in Brazil. The average age was 25, a number undoubtedly skewed by Miroslav Klose's 36 years of age heading into the tournament. No one on Germany's current roster is that old and some World Cup stalwarts are gone now, including Philipp Lahm and Petr Mertesacker, both over 30.

But if the overall average of the team is 26 or 27 (the most recent group averaged 25 years as well), then most of its top players are technically in their prime while some of the younger stars, such as Julian Draxler for example, are also starting to untap their potential. Essentially, this is probably the best that this group of players is bound to play in the next few years.

Experience

Of course the experience of winning the last major trophy is a big one. The Euro is just as hard, taking the same number of wins to secure the trophy.

Few teams know the stress and physical taxation that that process takes, with the exception of Spain. And even then, most of Spain's group is far less experienced than the German group.

The German team and coach Joachim Low know how to conserve energy for the long grind ahead and will put that experience to good use moving forward.

Depth

The Germans had four top goaltenders its most recent roster. Such players as Max Kruse, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Iklay Gundogan and even Jerome Boateng were not even called up in the most previous roster. All of them are potential starters for this team, which speaks to the kind of talent Germany has. The midfield includes Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Andre Schurrle, Marcos Reus, Julian Draxler, Karim Bellarabi, Christopher Kramer and Toni Kroos. Only three or four of those players will get a shot to play in the starting lineup.

That is how good Germany is, meaning that it essentially has two A-teams at the ready. This will allow Low to give players rest in the early rounds to keep them fresh as the tournament gets deeper and deeper.

Marco Reus

Germany won the 2014 World Cup without arguably its most explosive player in Marco Reus. The 26-year-old is having a tremendous year for Borussia Dortmund, scoring 19 goals in 32 matches thus far (0.59 goals per game) his best such output to date.

He should be back in for Germany, giving the team a tremendous weapon in its arsenal, arguably its most crucial one.

Germany's Matches

The Euro Cup will take place June 10 to July 10, 2016.

Germany plays three matches in the group stage on June 12 against Ukraine and June 16 against Poland. Their final group match is on June 21 against Northern Ireland.

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