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Monday, September 07, 2020
Needed by David
The national team cannot win in the Nations League. Otherwise, only football gnomes like San Marino or Malta can do that. Worse still: fire and life are lacking in the team. Löw has to prove this year that his agitation can be successful in MS 2021.
If even İlkay Gündoğan is angry, then he has to be serious. The always polite, eloquent and sensible midfield strategist came to the microphones after the 1-1 draw against Switzerland in the Nations League and ranted: “Still, it’s very annoying, it piss me off a bit,” he said on 29. One year Manchester City on ZDF: “It’s totally up to us. I’m a little pissed off too.”
Gündoğan himself had shot the DFB-Elf to a 1-0 lead. But then national coach Joachim Löw’s selection failed, as in the first group stage game against Spain (1: 1) on Thursday, to keep the score or even extend it in their favor and score another goal. “The problem was that we lost the second goal, which is sometimes exceeded. We have to work on that,” acknowledged Löw. Gündoğan had to plug a lot of holes in central midfield, but when substitute Julian Brandt drew attention with some bad passes, the city pro was left powerless. One of these playback errors indirectly led to the Swiss EQ.
“If you have the ball in front of you, then you have to claim it,” Gündoğan hit the table again. As it is, “you swim the last ten or 20 minutes and you’re still lucky to come out here with a point.” Clear words, but in fact the DFB team looked exhausted and lifeless at this stage of the game. Only Switzerland played poisonous and precise forward. In the end, Gündoğan’s team had goalkeeper Bernd Leno to thank, who saved with a brilliant act against Granit Xhaka that in the end there was still a draw and no losses on paper.
Where is life on the team?
The situation, as not only demonstrated by Gündoğan’s full blow, is at least highly challenging. In nine months the DFB-Elf wants to win the European championship. That is the stated goal, but there is still a lot to do before then. Switzerland has a good team, but not the caliber of the teams you want to fight for the title with at Euro 2021. France, England or the Netherlands would probably have punished the sloppy behavior of Löw’s team more consistently.
Of course, the stars of Bayern were not there on this day of the League of Nations. “Some players will come back in October and then we will win our first matches,” Loew tried to explain about the draw after the game against Switzerland. But such replay errors (Brandt against Switzerland, Julian Draxler and Emre Can against Spain) or carelessness at the end (especially Draxler against Switzerland, but all the offensive forces left the best opportunities in both games) cannot be remedied by the players of the Bayern alone. Two years after the World Cup disaster in Russia, the national coach has yet to prove that he can successfully manage the rejuvenation and realignment of his team.
With the selection of Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels and Jérôme Boateng, the winning gene and fire on the field have also been lost to some extent. Inadequate communication, compared to other ghost games, on the lawn was at times alarmingly quiet, shows that the team lacks clear leaders. Toni Kroos is not strong enough for that, maybe Gündoğan is now moving into the gap after his verbal attack. Löw also acknowledged communication deficits, but hopes that when Bayern players return “to the field, there will also be something different in terms of communication.” He also addressed the issue within the team: “When they train with each other, that gives them energy, that gives life to the team, that helps. Some are a bit cautious. We have to improve there too.
As bad as San Marion or Malta
Life in the team, the DFB team is still missing a bit. Taking responsibility, being loud, training other players in the game – Joshua Kimmich could possibly fill these roles when he returns. But miracles should not be expected directly, the challenge until EM 2021 grows with the waning months until the opening game. After all, there are still enough chances to make amends this year. A tumultuous autumn awaits you in which the national team will have to prove that they can do better. In October and November there are three international matches on the schedule, starting with the test against Turkey on October 7, followed by the Nations League games against Ukraine and again against Switzerland and Spain.
After the first game in Spain, Löw said: “The victories are not the most important thing now.” But he can’t wait much longer before victory has to start again. His team has yet to win a match in the Nations League. Six games, four draws and two losses are recorded. This means that the DFB-Elf is in ranks with teams that they normally don’t want to be mentioned with at the same time. After six (or more) rounds of the Nations League, only soccer midgets San Marino, Malta, Latvia, Andorra and Lithuania, as well as Ireland, are waiting for the first three. Of course, Löw’s team in France, Holland or Spain had much tougher opponents, but only by increasing the Nations League did they return to the first division after relegation.
