Endless terror: The German footballers around Leon Goretzka (l.) and Serge Gnabry had no chance in Vienna.
Photo: imago/Mis
What does Rudi Völler think of German footballers? “The quality is not as great as it was a few years ago.” The sports director of the German Football Association (DFB) said that in June. His opinion may not have changed, at least not for the better. There is no new team, just more defeats. Three days after the 2:3 against Turkey, the DFB team lost 0:2 against Austria in Vienna on Tuesday evening.
What’s amazing is what happened between those two games. “I can only underline the topic of world class.” These words come from Bernd Neuendorf. The DFB President didn’t talk about Argentina, France or Spain, but about the German national team: “This squad is first-class, and we don’t have to hide at all internationally.” And where he was already full of so much self-confidence, there was Neuendorf equalizes the goal for the European Championships next summer: “The final must be the goal.”
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The verbal discrepancy between the two senior DFB employees is reminiscent of the game “Good cop, bad cop”. This psychological tactic will not bring success like in police circles on the football field. Rather, the association is revealing its powerlessness and has been helplessly accompanying the sporting decline for years. And he is also at a loss: With the change of coach in September from Hansi Flick to Julian Nagelsmann, the last option before the European Championships has already been taken.
After the last two defeats, the national team is no further ahead than it was in the summer of 2018. The historic preliminary round exit at the World Cup in Russia was followed three years later by the rejection in the round of 16 at the European Championships: national coach Joachim Löw left, Flick took over. A year ago, the German footballers failed again in the group phase of the World Cup: Flick was allowed to work a little more, then Julian Nagelsmann came along. The list of disappointments is long, the last entry for now is the 0-2 loss at the Ernst Happel Stadium. DFB President Neuendorf’s advice is “not to badmouth everything,” because “that wasn’t it.”
He still has to prove whether Nagelsmann is better than a world champion coach and a coach who won the Champions League with FC Bayern. All three have at least an unhealthy lack of insight in common. The crisis began with Löw, who was resistant to advice, Flick downplayed the dilemma as a “results crisis” and promised with full conviction that success would still come. Nagelsmann did not analyze the 2:3 against Turkey as a defeat. And on Tuesday evening he complained in all seriousness about the inhibiting “victim role” of his players, which the “critical media landscape” was pushing them into.
“Robert Andrich played great,” praised Nagelsmann. The strong midfielder was allowed to play against Austria for half an hour. Like Andrich, Grischa Prömel is also a fighter and worker, “that’s the only reason he became a professional.” Pascal Groß is even a prime example of this. “I’ve rarely seen a professional who doesn’t take himself so seriously,” he said – but usually only lets Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka play in the important central positions. The national coach then justifies the fact that one or the other is lined up next to Ilkay Gündogan with variability. He wanted to test “different couples”.
Both at FC Bayern and in the national team, neither Kimmich nor Goretzka can do justice to the demanding task of ensuring defensive stability between defense and attack. Either Nagelsmann doesn’t have a plan B or simply doesn’t want to change anything. He also has this in common with his predecessors: Kimmich, Goretzka, Antonio Rüdiger, Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller, Julian Brandt, to name just a few, are all faces of the crisis in German football – they were already there at the 2018 World Cup. Since then, the DFB team has been criticized for not appearing as a team; the connection is obvious.
Given all of this, it seems very sensible to defend yourself against the presumptuous claims of the DFB and its president. Not out of fear of failure, but out of reason and because of the lessons of the past: Because that’s real ballast for the team and coach. However, you shouldn’t do it like Nagelsmann. When asked about the defensive problems that had been going on for years after the 2-0 loss in Vienna, he replied: “We are not and will not be defensive monsters.” Why? Because none of his players come from clubs that play very defensively. A frightening explanation! Teams win championships and titles because they are the strongest not only offensively but also defensively. An example: At their best, the outstanding FC Barcelona with Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi conceded just 21 goals in 38 league games.
The DFB team will continue in four months. As he said goodbye, Nagelsmann at least offered some hope. “Am I going to throw everything away in March?” he asked and replied: “I have to think about that.”
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