The footballers that Germany is proud of at the moment spent the Monday night with beer and karaoke in the industrial area of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. The hotel had been specially selected for this very purpose, revealed the national coach Stefan Kuntz, because there was no threat of disturbance out there in the lonely periphery.
Wrong karaoke in the Slovenian nowhere – that sounds of course far too dreary for the actually wonderful occasion that the German U21 national soccer team had to celebrate on Monday night. For the footballers between 18 (Florian Wirtz) and almost 23.5 (Amos Pieper) years old, it was one of the most beautiful nights of their young career, on Sunday evening they won the final of the U21 European Championship 1-0 against Portugal.
The gold medal that Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin hung around their necks will have a place of honor with everyone. The tournament’s best goalscorer, Lukas Nmecha with his four goals, didn’t immediately know where to display the trophy at home, “because I don’t have a cupboard for something like that, I haven’t won much yet” .
It was above all this exuberant feeling that pushed their voices into the higher decibel range with joy at the nightly karaoke: That they won this European Championship trophy, although the young stars of other nations (France, Spain, England) rated much higher and also had been traded much higher. “What do we care about market values,” said Ridle Baku, provocatively and ironically, “we have an incredible team spirit.” And with this they won a title that they might not even have believed themselves capable of at the beginning of the group stage at the end of March.
Lukas Nmecha scored the 1-0 against Portugal.
(Foto: Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images)
While the Portuguese had won each of their European Championship games before the final, the Germans felt like they were about to go three times: in the second group game in a 0-1 draw against the Netherlands (1-1 in the end), in the third group game in trembled 0-0 against Romania and in the quarter-finals at 1: 2 shortly before the end of regular time against Denmark (in the end victory on penalties). But these dramaturgical moments may have tipped the balance and increasingly welded the squad together.
In 2009 and 2017, German U21 teams had already won the European Championship, but only eight nations took part in the European Championship in 2009 and only twelve in 2017. Now there were 16 nations for the first time and there was a quarter-finals for the first time. A team never had to play six games to become European Under-21 champions. This German was the first to successfully do this to the end.
Successful trainer for the U21s: Stefan Kuntz.
(Photo: via www.imago-images.de/imago images/MIS)
Of course, afterwards all observers asked themselves how this coach Stefan Kuntz did it again. For the third time in a row he was in the final with a U21, and for the second time there was the title. “He does a great job of motivating the boys”, praised Nmecha, and Kuntz himself revealed how, apart from sound match plans, the team spirit of the squad had been conjured up. This time with fabulous role models from the animal world. “I told the boys that they have to play with the lionheart, that they have to stand on the pitch with eagle eyes and that they have to act like a pack of hyenas: Nobody likes hyenas, but they always get what they want in the end because they do the wildebeest attack from all sides and never let go. “
That sounded a bit bloody, but if you wanted, you could actually watch the German footballers in the six tournament games, as they never gave up.
With goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, defenders Ridle Baku, Amos Pieper and Nico Schlotterbeck, midfielders Arne Maier and Mergim Berisha and striker Lukas Nmecha, there were seven players who were in the starting line-up in each of the six games. This scaffolding gave the squad security. Dahmen, Pieper and Schlotterbeck also played every minute.
It is also noticeable that many of the players came with a motivational kick to the knockout phase of this EM, which was divided into two parts due to Corona: Baku had reached the Champions League with VfL Wolfsburg, Schlotterbeck had the new Uefa Conference League with Union Berlin, Pieper and Maier with Arminia Bielefeld managed to stay in the league, as well as Salih Özcan and Ismail Jakobs with 1. FC Köln – and David Raum and Anton Stach were promoted to the Bundesliga with Greuther Fürth. Kuntz’s motivational speeches met ears that were already wide open.
Lukas Nmecha (four goals, one assist) and Ridle Baku (two goals, three assists) were by far the best German scorers. This is followed by Florian Wirtz (two goals), Jonathan Burkardt (one goal, one assist) and David Raum (two assists).
Niklas Dorsch didn’t book an assist, but he was still one of the best German players in defensive midfield. And everyone now knows his grandmother from Burgkunstadt, who had promised him “Sauerbraten und Haxe” on Instagram before the final, in case he comes home with the trophy and they drink from it together. “My grandma used to have a brewery,” revealed Dorsch after the final, which explains why the family has a certain drinkability – but not how he wanted to smuggle the trophy to grandma. This could be the first project that the U21 European champion Niklas Dorsch fails.
.
