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The national team also loses the last game of the year under Julian Nagelsmann. Another low point of the past five years, says Sportschau reporter Burkhard Hupe.
It’s not even about the result. A 0-2 loss against Austria has long been within the realm of possibility. Exactly a year ago, Italy left the same stadium with the same result. So it’s about how and ultimately also about who.
For more than five years, the national team has lacked consistency and now also identity. Supposedly these players train like world champions in order to then regularly fail to prove their quality. Self-confidence and overconfidence have always been difficult to separate.
Evening in Vienna marks a new low
Surprising defeats and great disappointments were always followed by the assurance that we wanted to and could do better. But the evening in Vienna marks a new low point.
The German national soccer team’s lack of chances from the first to the last minute swept away any hope of a spirit of optimism regarding the European Championship – like the autumn wind blows away the last leaves from the apple tree.
And now the realization is coming to fruition: the past five years have been wasted and developments in international football have been missed. Back in 2014, the eventual world champion was already lacking trained full-backs, and nothing has changed since then.
Out of Young talent centers nothing has moved up so far
There were no reliable alternatives from the youth management centers pushing their way into the national team – in ten years not a single full-back of international class. Except for Joshua Kimmich, who has long since abandoned this position.
In the 90 minutes in Vienna, national coach Julian Nagelsmann clearly demonstrated that identity, unity and preparedness are more important than temporary magic football.
Little Austria is two steps ahead
Little Austria is now at least two steps ahead of the Germans. With Ralf Rangnick, a German coach whom the DFB did not want to make Jogi Löw’s successor in the summer of 2021 because the DFB’s overestimation of its own strength had long since become established.
Now Julian Nagelsmann has to make up for lost time under extreme time pressure. The last two international matches of what has once again been a completely messed up year have raised more doubts than optimism.