Draw against Turkey: Angry Löw criticizes his team’s mentality

Status: 07:46 am | Reading time: 4 minutes

An Wednesday evening, Joachim Löw sat on the podium in the press room at the Cologne stadium. After 3: 3 (1: 0) against Turkey in Cologne, the national soccer coach took a deep breath and then said: “The result pissed us off.” I could see how dissatisfied he was with the outcome of the match. .

His players were self-critical. Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Florian Neuhaus, who scored a goal on his German debut, said: “We took the lead three times and we still haven’t won. We definitely have to work on that. “

300 spectators were admitted to the game, the few fans in the stands had brought German flags, but in the large stadium the atmosphere was more like a training session. And some professionals who rarely have a chance at their clubs played, such as Nico Schulz, Julian Brandt and Antonio Rüdiger.

Löw had made it clear before the game that he was not satisfied with the way his team plays when he has been ahead for a long time. “You can see a pattern in our company, starting in 2018. We gave up several tours and deprived ourselves of salary for our work,” said the 60-year-old. More control of the game, that was what he wanted from his team.

Against Turkey he was absent in many phases of the game. After Julian Draxler’s 1-0 (45th + 1), the German team did not defend with sufficient consistency, Ozan Tufan scored 1-1 (49th). Schulz made the bad pass before conceding a goal, and the national coach replaced him 20 minutes before the final whistle.

Halfway through the second half, after Neuhaus’s 2-1 victory (58th), Löw brought Jonas Hofmann, the second international debutant of this week, into the game. The team combined better now. Efecan Karaca’s 2: 2 fell after a Neuhaus duel, which the referee did not consider a foul to the chagrin of the Germans. In the finals, Mahmoud Dahoud also made his debut.

“Games like this are there to see which players can strengthen our starting eleven in the future,” said Löw. “You can draw attention to yourself.” Luca Waldschmidt (81st) scored the 3-2. But again, Löw’s team did not take the lead eventually: Kenan Karaman tied in injury time.

“As we did against Spain, we got the tie in the last minute. It’s not just something that affects this team, ”Löw said angrily about the Turkey team, which was missing the FC Bayern and RB Leipzig players. “We will take care of that. We need to address a few points. Our goals were played very well, we had light and shadow in the game, ”said Löw.

Why does the team repeatedly lose the victory? “You cannot accept fatigue, that is not an excuse or an explanation. That would be too easy, ”he emphasized. And he listed the weak points of the team: loss of control of the game, simple turnovers, lack of allocation in the space of sixteen meters, lack of concentration. “It is a question of mentality. We do a lot of things well, but we have to reward ourselves, ”Löw said.

“It is important to win the next games”

The national team will travel to Kiev on Friday, where it will play Ukraine in the Nations League on Saturday night. Löw will decide on Thursday which players will travel and which will remain in Germany until Tuesday’s game in Cologne against Switzerland. “We will travel to Ukraine with 20 or 21 outfield players,” Löw said.

Forward Timo Werner, who has just moved to Chelsea, has largely survived his infection and joined the team on Wednesday night.

Ukraine is classified as a corona risk zone. “We comply with the requirements and monitor them closely. The players wear masks in the hotel and we have a lot of small group meetings, ”said Löw. “We are doing our best and we want to play the game there. It’s important to make the next games win. “