What a collective debacle: Spain shows the DFB with all brutality

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

With a good match and a group victory in the Nations League, Joachim Löw wants to put an end to this strange international year of matches. But what then the coach of the German soccer team in Seville lives against Spain is the greatest humiliation of his long term.

A historic disgrace like the end of a year of lost international matches: the desperately overwhelmed national team has experienced the worst debacle in 89 years and has lost the maturity of EM. In the “final” for the group win in Spain’s Nations League, national coach Joachim Löw’s astonishing selection had no chance from the start and left after a memorable 6-0 (3-0) beating. . The biggest defeat since 1931 (0: 6 against Austria) followed a shocked and petrified Löw on the sidelines.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer lived an afternoon to forget in his record match (96th international match), when Álvaro Morata (17th), Ferran Torres (33rd, 55th, 72nd), Rodrigo (38th) and Mikel Oyarzabal scored. (89.) The Bayern goalkeeper was powerless. Neuer’s forwards almost only ran behind the happy Spaniards and revealed terrible defensive gaps and serious coordination problems. The disaster gives Löw and his team many duties for the upcoming European Championship year.

“That was very disappointing for all of us, not just the defensive players,” Neuer said. “The body language was disappointing for everyone. We should have talked more, especially after conceding our first goal. That was very little in terms of leadership and communication. There is no right time for a match like this.” Serge Gnabry added a little less disappointed: “We had no chance. Spain deserved to win at the top. We did it wrong, there are no excuses. Now you know where you stand.”

Germany was miles away from their first competitive victory against La Roja in 32 years at the La Cartuja Olympic Stadium. The recently unconvincing Spaniards qualified for the Final Four in October 2021. There, world champion France is already determined as a rival. With the kick-off, Neuer became the only record holder in DFB history. With his 96th international game, the captain surpassed Sepp Maier (95), who is himself a “goalkeeper legend”. However, Neuer is still miles from the international record Sergio Ramos, who played for Spain for the 178th time against Germany.

Spain attacked early and hard

Ramos put Neuer to the test in the 7th minute with a free kick, which the Bayern goalkeeper dodged. The DFB team were lucky that referee Andreas Ekberg (Sweden) had misplaced Ilkay Gündogan’s minor foul on Leipzig pro Dani Olmo outside the penalty area. Unlike the first leg (1: 1), when Löw had experimented with risky man-to-man tactics, the German team began to wait.

In return, the Spaniards attacked early and fast, as their weak point they had obviously chosen the left defense with the inexperienced Philipp Max and Robin Koch. After the consequent 0: 1, Löw’s team advanced a little further, which, however, gave space to the Spanish buttresses. The failure of Ferran Torres (18th), the offside of Morata (23rd) and a world-class parade of Neuer against Torres (30th) initially prevented a 0-2. But that was only postponed. The rebound after a crossbar by Olmo was taken advantage of by Torres, who was criminally abandoned by Max, for the second shot, and three minutes later Rodrigo headed in.

The Spanish, with Ramos and Sergio Canales injured in the first half, dominated the game almost at will. But they received almost no resistance. “That was nothing,” said ARD expert Bastian Schweinsteiger at halftime. After changing sides, despite a system change, nothing changed. In Toni Kroos, who was also disappointed, and who missed a yellow card against Ukraine (3-1), the teammates were unable to stand up. Offensive, the turbo trio Timo Werner, Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry remained in the air. Just a shot off the crossbar from Gnabry secured a strong moment for the DFB team. The only.