Gut fifteen meters in the Laugardalsvöllur stadium between the coaching bench and the sideline. On Wednesday evening, there was a lot of mileage for Hansi Flick. The new national coach kept oscillating between closeness and distance, and he did not seem consistently satisfied. But the direction, that could be said after the 90 minutes, was correct.
In the end, the German national soccer team in Reykjavik had a powerful and pleasurable 4-0 win against Iceland, in which, compared to the 6-0 win against Armenia, they sometimes went to work in routine rather than party mode. But firstly, something like reliable routine has not been taken for granted in the recent past, and secondly, after weaker phases, she was willing to follow again those of purposefulness and playfulness – which Flick was again very pleased with.
More goals could have been scored than those from Serge Gnabry (4th minute) and Antonio Rüdiger (24th), who set the course early, as well as Leroy Sané (56th) and Timo Werner (89th). With the third win in Flick’s third game, the national team is clearly on course for the World Cup in Qatar, especially since Armenia did not get more than 1-1 against Liechtenstein.
The team and their new trainer reached the first intermediate stage as a matter of course and with an aura of hunger and freshness that makes you want more. In October it continues, on the 8th against Romania in Hamburg, three days later in Skopje against North Macedonia – there is something to make up for there from a German point of view, the 1: 2 at the end of March was one of the crashes that were last on the program under Joachim Löw .
Confident against a crisis in Iceland
Flick began working on self-image a long time ago. “It is crucial that we know what quality we have, so it is not important to me who is across the street,” Flick had said with a touch of Bavarian mia-san-mia before the flight to Iceland. Icelandic football lost its horror a while ago, at least in terms of sport. With four points from five games, coach Arnar Vidarsson’s team went into the game – penultimate before Liechtenstein. Most recently, the headlines revolved around moral decline, allegations of sexual abuse are in the room, a few years ago, because it was only followed up slowly, the entire top of the association resigned.
In front of the stadium there was a demonstration of appropriate awareness under the sign of the pink elephant, inside the spectators withheld the first “huh” until the twelfth minute. At this point the German team was already leading 1-0, it was the perfect flow that followed Süle’s Chipball, the ball came to Sané via Kimmich, who placed it in the direction of the long post, knowing that the fourth Munich player in the league, Gnabry, counted on it – that’s called blind understanding, and it went so smoothly that the video assistant first had to switch on in order to recognize the precision work as conforming to the standards.
The German team had traveled to Iceland without Marco Reus and Ridle Baku, with Reus knee problems had prevented an encore to his strong performance against Armenia, Baku was the one man too many in the squad. In the starting XI, Flick saw no further reason to change after the spectacle for Stuttgart, Ilkay Gündogan played for Reus. It was not a playful, light-footed game like against Armenia, more patience was required here, but with the lead in the back it was not difficult for the Germans to muster it. Neuer had to stretch when Johannesson shot, but otherwise Flick’s team exercised cool control.
Standards emanate danger
The 2-0 win showed once again that coordination processes are taking effect. With a free kick from Kimmich, Rüdiger stole away from behind the Icelandic defense – exactly where Kimmich’s GPS steered the ball, header, goal. It was a small rarity not only because it was only the second international goal for Rüdiger, but because standard situations under Löw were more of a spoilsport in the end. When Sané started a difficult attempt from 18 meters after 36 minutes, three steps back, one to the side, one inevitably thought of the new standard coach, Mads Buttgereit, but with Sané the spin wasn’t right, the ball dropped too late.
Three chances, two goals, that was efficient, but you could also see that the Germans let it slide a little, their attacks played them sloppily and the Icelanders they occasionally gave large spaces to counter, Johann Gudmundsson would have that short actually have to use it before the break. Then Flick brought Kai Havertz and Lukas Klostermann for Gnabry and Jonas Hofmann, and at the same time things were much more offensive again. You could no longer call it efficient, how Werner and Havertz dealt with their possibilities, and in between Johann Gudmundsson hit the German post. But Sané deserved an extra praise, and Werner had saved a final point.
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