To get this over with right at the beginning and quickly: Yes, there had been a deep gray cloud over Leipzig all day long and then throughout the evening. Sometimes it let off a bit of ugly drizzle, but there was no crack to be found in it through which sunlight could penetrate the earth, no lightening, no shimmer.
The dark cloud over the national team, which DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff had conjured up on Monday, it was actually there in the November reality of 2020, and a lackluster 1-0 success over the Czech Republic with a team that you will never see again will see each other play together is very likely not ready to make this cloud disappear so soon. Although it was the first clean sheet game of the year and although the team of national coach Joachim Löw did not lose in the sixth international game of the year.
The players on the pitch, who are mostly inexperienced in DFB appearances, are not to blame for this. Löw and Bierhoff recently complained several times that the public was treating the young players unfairly and unfairly (most of whom are no longer that young). In truth, there was hardly any criticism, rather it was sparked by the work of Bierhoff and Löw. But even on Wednesday, criticism of the actions of the players on the pitch would not have helped.
An international match that had to be played
The team had had only one sensible training session before the game. There were two debutants in the starting line-up: Philipp Max and Ridle Baku, and Jonas Hofmann and Florian Neuhaus from Gladbach, two professionals who made their second international match. Expecting coordinated routes and blind pass combinations from them would have been idle. “In this constellation” they will probably no longer perform together, even Löw emphasized after the game. A once-and-never-again game that will be quickly forgotten. It was such an international match that just has to be played. Just as the scorpion can’t help but sting.
On the arduous search for knowledge of this game you end up sometime in the summer of next year, in which, according to the Uefa planning, a European football championship is still planned. And you end up with the question: Who of those who won 1-0 against the Czech Republic on this cold Leipzig evening in the deserted stadium has a chance of experiencing this EM as a participant and member of the squad?
Löw’s personnel selection before tournaments has been one constant over the years: surprises are rare, most players are already set a year in advance. It is no different this time either. From the team that competed in Leipzig, Ilkay Gündogan and Antonio Rüdiger have their places safe, both could have objected to playing if all other established players were spared.
But Löw also needed a few leaders for this team. And so Gündogan had the honor of being the captain for the first time. Rüdiger’s neighbor Robin Koch from central defense received public praise from Löw this week. You can now imagine him as a back-up in the defense center.
Max and Baku left impressions
Behind the two it will be tight for the other Leipzig players. Max and Baku left a few good impressions, the defensive outside positions are almost traditionally not the strength of this team. At least your outlook has not deteriorated. Both are also regular players in their clubs, which they have ahead of their defensive colleagues Jonathan Tah and Nico Schulz.
Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp will have a hard time getting the third goalkeeper place, which should be reserved for Bernd Leno. Jonas Hofmann injured himself early and was unable to distinguish himself. Neuhaus succeeded in doing this with another courageous appearance. Both Borussia only have the problem that there are actually enough options on the offensive. More experienced, more sedate players. Löw player.
That is also the problem of Julian Brandt, who is actually in the favor of the national coach. But Brandt also missed a chance in Leipzig – and maybe that was the most emphatic insight of that evening. The Dortmund is extremely talented on the ball, but again and again he makes stick mistakes, runs stuck, confuses zeal with over-zeal. The national coach gave him numerous opportunities to show himself and to score against the offensive competition. Brandt now has 34 international matches, which is not a small number. But he could not convince on Wednesday either. Once he had a huge chance in the first half and shot the ball instead of into the goal, well, exactly, into the clouds.
A good 20 years ago, after the unsuccessful European Championship tournament in 2000 and the home World Cup, the DFB came up with the idea of bringing young players together in their own team. This is how the “Team 2006” came about, it should be the talent pool of the future. Ten players were granted to this so-called perspective team at the time before the project was crushed again. Most of those deployed at the time have long been forgotten, from Martin Meichelbeck to Bernd Korzynietz and Benjamin Lense to Frank Fahrenhorst. A few like Arne Friedrich and Mario Gomez later actually made the leap to the top, but this eleven from Leipzig was very reminiscent of the attempts made by the perspective team at that time.
After the final whistle on Wednesday, the stadium control heard something suddenly and very loud Handel’s “Hallelujah”. It wasn’t quite clear who this was for. The narrow victory. Or the fact that the game was over.
