Et is sometimes irritating how fundamentally such a single game can turn the atmosphere in a football team and its environment into the opposite. In the course of the previous series of four 1-1 draws, more and more gloomy thoughts about the national team’s renewal project had recently come to the fore, it had been criticized and quite fundamentally doubted.
After the 5: 2 (2: 0) against Italy, captain Manuel Neuer spoke confidently of a “milestone” with “meaningfulness”. A La Ola circled through the stadium and the audience sang: “Oh, how beautiful that is.” In terms of atmosphere, this evening formed a stark contrast to the embarrassed, self-doubting mood that had arisen in the course of the Nations League tournament so far.
This benefit for well-being, which everyone involved can now enjoy during their summer holidays, is probably even more important than the five goals and three points. “We didn’t do everything perfectly, but we don’t want to talk about that today,” said Flick, who didn’t want to spoil the good mood with any critical thoughts. “It was a real stress test for all of us. Victories are good for self-confidence and for self-image.” But the national coach will certainly not be fooled by this success against the weak and unimaginative Italians.
The first tournament victory against Italy
It almost seemed as if there was a touch of self-mockery in his words when he pointed out the historical dimension of this five-to-two: “It was the first win in a tournament against Italy,” he said. Germany has suffered multiple unforgotten defeats in World Cup semi-finals and in a final against Italy in 1982 over the past decades, and the success in the penalty shoot-out of the 2016 European Championship quarter-finals is recorded as a draw in the statistics. Flick had to smile a little at the thought that such a Nations League evening should have ended this gigantic series.
But this bon mot for statisticians was just one detail in the colorful overall picture of the joy that the team offered at the end of the first year after the era with Joachim Löw: the stadium in Mönchengladbach was sold out, for the first time in this decade Germany has another great football nation defeated and the national coach Flick has not lost a single game. The most important thing is that the team played football well and had a clear lead early on after goals from Joshua Kimmich (10′), Ilkay Gündogan (45′) and Thomas Müller (51′). Germany played “a bit more risky” again, said Müller, who was part of a well-harmonized midfield with Gündogan and Kimmich.
A key factor was the “courage to accept the risk of losing the ball”, explained Müller, this basic element of flick football had been lost a little before. Gündogan found “the room layout really good” and praised the “ball relay” with “few contacts”, “everyone wanted the ball,” he said. When Flick was asked at the end of the evening for a more fundamental interim balance, he became cautious: “I don’t know if I’m ready to analyze the year.”
It’s gratifying “that we’re still undefeated”, he said, “I wasn’t so happy about the four draws”. The realization that apart from Manuel Neuer and maybe Kimmich and Antonio Rüdiger there is no German world-class player is perhaps a little sobering for a coach who would like to become world champion. And what this summer evening leaves behind for the problem players Timo Werner and Leroy Sané remains unclear for the time being.
Flick has recently repeatedly emphasized that at the moment he evaluates his players less on the basis of current performance than on the basis of potential that may already have been visible and that should blossom at the World Cup in autumn. Therefore, the problem players were again in the starting XI. It was good that both were quite present and kept coming back to action in the dangerous areas in front of the Italian goal. But there they played too many bad passes and fabricated shots that showed their complete insecurity. At least Werner managed to score two more goals to make it 4-0 and 5-0 (68th, 69th). “Goals are always good for a striker. In my case, double and triple when you’re counted and criticized after every game,” said the striker.
And yet a good dose of caution is required with the impressions of this evening. The Italians are in a state of upheaval, there are hardly any internationally experienced and well-known players left and so Müller finally urged caution when dealing with this victory: “We still have all sorts of deficits to speak of a perfect team here, which nobody can hit,” he said.
