The scenery was designed for a sporting tragedy. Germany played all in black in the pouring rain. The black of the jerseys was originally supposed to have something elegant about it. But as long as the team was behind against Hungary, this collective was like a funeral procession.
The sky was crying, and considering the amount of rain, the sky over Munich even had a nervous breakdown. For a long time Joachim Löw stood on the edge of the field like a doused poodle.
Adam Szalai, who plays for Mainz in the Bundesliga, put Hungary in the lead. Such a backlog can always happen. For the German team it was the third 0-1 deficit in the third game at this European Championship. Almost normal. The problem was that the Germans had so infinitely difficult up front.
Under normal circumstances, Löw should have been reasonably relaxed in such a game. In 196 international matches as national coach since 2006, he had already experienced everything with this team: triumphs, disappointments, boredom, drama. Again and again, however, there are also nail-biting games. Nobody expected that they would have to bite nails in a home game against Hungary, 37th in the world rankings.
Even before the European Championship, everyone knew that from the third group game onwards, each game could be the last for this national coach – the national coach who is the second longest in office after Sepp Herberger, one of four national coaches after Sepp Herberger (1954), Helmut Schön (1974) and Franz Beckenbauer (1990), who led Germany to the world title (2014). But no sadness had set in until the end. Because nobody wanted to admit that after the preliminary round at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, this could also happen at the 2021 European Championship.
When the second half kicked off at 10:05 p.m. with a 0-1 deficit, Löw still had about 50 minutes in office. Actually, you would want to enjoy your last 50 minutes as a national coach. But Löw couldn’t enjoy anything. Almost to the end, a goal was missing somewhere to postpone another game: either a goal for his own team or a goal for France in the parallel game against Portugal. It was an unworthy situation for Löw.
In Budapest the leadership changed back and forth between Portugal and France. In Munich, too, things went haywire. Sometimes Germany was inside, sometimes outside. Löw’s emotions were whirled around like a hurricane. The hurricane did not calm down until 10:43 p.m. Leon Goretzka shook the 2-2 final score. Löw gets a respite. On Tuesday at Wembley against England. Then the drama starts all over again.
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