The DFB team qualified for the World Cup in their last qualifying game. It’s all ok? No, more of a start in the right direction.
It’s absurd. Germany is shaking its way to a narrow 2-0 away win in Luxembourg, number 97 in the world rankings. Three days later there was a respectable 6-0 win against Slovakia in front of their home crowd in Leipzig. Two months ago, the DFB team lost 2-0 after a catastrophic performance. What millions of German football fans may have asked themselves on Monday evening: Why not like that? Nobody understands the inconsistent behavior of the team, the constant back and forth. This has to end now.
Germany booked the World Cup ticket. The biggest task for national coach Julian Nagelsmann is to use the time until next summer’s tournament to finally establish consistency in the DFB team’s performances. No more Larifari, no more two faces. Nagelsmann himself announced his goal of “becoming world champion” after the European Championships last year. Now he has to subordinate everything to this goal.
With the next international matches in March, the national coach has to form a starting eleven: no more surprises, no more trying things out. He has to remind the team of their strengths and make it clear to his players: the only way to achieve the greatest possible success is to do what they did against Slovakia. Of course the team is also challenged. It was clearly noticeable that Joshua Kimmich and Nico Schlotterbeck were missing against Luxembourg. Two leaders the team needs. But personnel failures can no longer be an excuse for everyone else to then deliver a pomaded performance like against Luxembourg. Something like that will definitely be punished at the World Cup.
The win against Slovakia has calmed the tense situation again. But nothing more. From March, when the next test matches before the World Cup take place, more than 80 million Germans will pay even closer attention to the performances of the DFB team. Julian Nagelsmann and his players must then succeed in creating World Cup euphoria with convincing performances.
The World Cup title is and remains the national coach’s declared goal. For millions of fans he is still a dream. Germany must try to keep this dream of a fifth World Cup title alive for as long as possible. The foundation for this has been laid.