After the 3-1 victory over the USA, Germany managed a draw against Mexico in the second friendly under national coach Julian Nagelsmann. Niclas Füllkrug was once again reliable, the Joker scored on Wednesday night (October 18th, 2023) shortly after coming on as a substitute, making the final score a well-deserved 2:2 (1:2).
The game started a quarter of an hour late because many fans were stuck in Philadelphia’s traffic chaos – parallel to the soccer event, an ice hockey and a baseball game were also being played in the city.
When the ball finally rolled, things immediately got down to business: First, a sloppy pass from goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen gave the Mexicans their first opportunity, which ter Stegen then defused against Edson Álvarez himself (3rd minute). . Two minutes later, Florian Wirtz missed the lead for the DFB team when he was denied by Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa from close range after preparatory work by Leroy Sané and Jamal Musiala.
Lead after corner kick variant
As a result, Julian Nagelsmann’s team gained an advantage and quickly combined through the midfield, but mistakes kept creeping up in the build-up. In the 10th minute, Santiago Giménez narrowly missed the German goal, and Ter Stegen also had another uncertainty shortly afterwards, which Mexico was again unable to take advantage of.
Germany then took the lead via a standard situation: Robin Gosens headed a sharp corner from Sané onto the second post, where Antonio Rüdiger headed it in from close range (25′).
Giménez misses a great opportunity
Surprisingly, security and control did not return to the German game. Giménez should have equalized from eight meters in the 33rd minute, but shot over the goal while standing alone and without an opponent – the referee team overlooked the offside position of the center forward; there was no video evidence in this test match.
In the 37th minute, events came to a head: First Thomas Müller celebrated after he had used a Wirtz pass to make it 2-0, but this time the linesman’s flag rightly went up. In the immediate counterattack, Rüdiger made a double mistake with a failed attempt to clear the ball and Niklas Süle made a double mistake with a much too half-hearted intervention in his right-back position, which caused the score to be 1-1 – Uriel Antuna gave Ter Stegen no chance from six meters.
Header goal with a height of 1.67 meters
For the second half, Nagelsmann wanted to strengthen the offensive with Niklas Füllkrug and Leon Goretzka, but the weak point remained the defense: Gosens allowed Antuna’s cross in the 47th minute, and the 1.95 meter tall Süle was left in the center by the 1.67 meter little Erick Sánchez in the header duel – ter Stegen was beaten again (47th).
But the German reaction was strong. Gosens and Goretzka narrowly missed the equalizer with their heads (49′), another two minutes later Ochoa parried a header from Wirtz just in front of the line. Füllkrug then used the follow-up shot with his ninth goal in his eleventh international appearance – an outstanding rate for the New Dortmund player, who was supposed to fly home with his Dortmund colleagues in a private jet immediately after the final whistle because on Friday evening (October 20th, 2023, 8:30 p.m. / live ticker at sportschau.de) there is another Bundesliga appearance against Werder Bremen.
Musiala speeds up the game
In any case, Füllkrug’s substitution provided a boost against the Mexicans, and the German game was also helped by the substitution of Jonas Hofmann, who almost capitalized on a lightning counterattack over the fast Musiala in the 72nd minute. Goretzka immediately tried to implement the vertical play to the top that Nagelsmann demanded after winning the ball, but his pass to Sané, who had taken off, was too imprecise.
In the final quarter of an hour, both teams avoided the final risk; the German defense was much more stable after replacing Süle with Malick Thiaw. Three minutes before the end, Nagelsmann helped Kevin Behrens make his international debut, but the Union Berlin striker was unable to get into a final position.
“We can definitely improve”
After the final whistle, captain Ilkay Gündogan summed up on the Sportschau microphone: “Julian Nagelsmann just told us that he believes in this team, which of course makes us very happy. The performance could be improved, we know that. But if we meet our targets, we can certainly improve in the next few months.”
Jamal Musiala had a similar view: “We’ll take a good feeling home with us, but we know we can still improve.” The Munich native answered this question as to whether a midfield lineup with Musiala and Florian Wirtz could be the concept for next year’s European Championships: “That’s up to the coach to decide, but I’m definitely having a lot of fun with Flo on the pitch.”
Nagelsmann takes a lot of positive things with him
The national coach himself said in the first: “It was a very aggressive opponent, the result was okay in the end. We weren’t quite as stable when we had the ball, it was quite hectic, the balls were often gone too quickly. But I have a good feeling from this week and I firmly believe that we will get even better. Defensively there are still a lot of adjustments to be made, offensively things are already working very well. I definitely take with me the fact that I have never coached a team that implements things so quickly, that you give her.”
Now against Turkey and Austria
The next two international matches will follow in four weeks: the DFB team will play against Turkey on November 18th, with the next test in Austria following three days later.