DThe German football year 2021 unfortunately consists of two halves. But unlike in a football game, it was decided in the first half, under Joachim Löw as national coach at the European championship, which was messed up in the summer. The second half, which began with the substitution of Hansi Flick, now brought seven wins in seven games within three months – but above all a new spirit and a new game system. And with it again players who reach their performance limits again in the national team.
The future – it seems in November 2021, exactly one year before the World Cup in Qatar – after years of decline, no longer belongs to the other football nations alone. With the new national coach, at least a little confidence has returned. “In September a new era began with the change of coach,” said Thomas Müller after the 4: 1 at the end of the year in Armenia. “That’s something drastic.” Or, as Hansi Flick put it on Sunday evening with a view to the specific changes on the pitch: “The games have shown that we are back – also with the way we play football. “
Like no other, Leroy Sané stands for the first successful steps in the comeback of the national team, which should bring German football forward again at the World Cup against first-class opponents. And with Kai Havertz, who as a striker in the foremost position in Armenia showed his class not only with a nice opening goal, there is the hope that Flick will also be one of the greatest talents in German football in recent decades by the 2022 World Cup has found the appropriate role.
In Armenia, the gifted person with a great feeling for football also showed in various pressing moments with his clever approach what one can learn in the Flick and Tuchel school. Havertz is something like the potential that is still hidden in the German squad even after the first upswing and should be raised by the World Cup. Also with a view to the 22-year-old midfielder from Chelsea, who scored the winning goal in the Champions League final in the summer, Flick said: “When you see the finals of the last two Champions League years, then there are a lot of German players stood in the square. In some positions we even have top players. “
Sané has shown this extra class, paired with an irrepressible joy of playing, which was completely buried in the first half of 2021 in the national team, for weeks and months now. The lightning-fast, technically strong and tricky attacker was already involved in 23 goals in 24 competitive games for the DFB selection and FC Bayern in this half-series. “Leroy plays with ease, that’s impressive,” enthused Flick after the last home game of the year on Thursday in Wolfsburg, the 9-0 win against Liechtenstein.
Under Löw, Sané had only managed one goal in the nine games in the first half of the year, the goal for the 7-1 final against Latvia. This is also one of the many reasons why the national team only won four out of nine games in the first half of the year and threw the European Championship in the sand. This summer, Sané was, as one can say with certainty today, only a shadow of himself. The completely insecure striker only played in one game at the European Championship, in the 2-2 win against Hungary, after he had previously played in the other two He had only sat on the bench in the preliminary round matches in Munich and was substituted on for only 19 minutes in total against France and Portugal, with a 4-2 draw against Portugal three minutes before the final whistle. Sané felt like he was in the wrong movie. The national team’s system had made even the strongest weak.
The seven victories against seven dwarfs (two of which were presented twice) are of course no measure of what challenges the four-time world champion will face in a year in the emirate on the Persian Gulf. Therefore, the national team, which could only win two of the last eleven games against top teams under Löw, will face first-class opponents in the two test games in March, but the specific challenges have not yet been determined.
In June and September, the Flick team will have at least two more top games in the Nations League, either against defending champions France, European champions Italy, Spain or Belgium. Games in which Sané and Havertz also have to prove that they are making further progress on the way to the World Cup. “We don’t need to hide,” says the national coach. “I also believe that the team can improve against stronger opponents.” He has at least made a start. The year 2022 will then be all about Hansi Flick.
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