Four draws from the last four games are dispelling the spirit of optimism under national coach Hansi Flick. Although he remains undefeated, a few months before the World Cup in Qatar he faces numerous puzzles. The 1-1 draw in Hungary is sobering.
Two draws in Italy and against England, before that one against the Netherlands. Can the national soccer team suddenly not win anymore? Against Hungary, the DFB-Elf finally wanted to reward themselves again and bring in the first three in the still controversial Nations League. An opponent at eye level, as could be heard from those around the national team in advance. A statement that can hardly be substantiated when looking at the world rankings.
Here the DFB team in twelfth place and there the Hungarians in 40th place. The Eastern Europeans are big fans of the Nations League and have actually been promoted twice in two seasons. You can do that there. Then it's no longer against Lithuania in League C, but Germany in League A.
National coach Hansi Flick had complained about the June schedule in the run-up to the game. Four games following the already long season and the prospect of a hectic first half of the season with the subsequent Winter Desert World Cup in Qatar spoiled his mood a little. The former Bayern coach used the game in Hungary "against this backdrop" in Budapest to "give young players the chance to develop further."
That's why Flick does without Thomas Müller and Antonio Rüdiger, and Lukas Klostermann and İlkay Gündoğan, who was outstanding against England, also moved to the bench. Serge Gnabry, who was not in the starting XI against England, was absent with calf problems. Leon Goreztka, Thilo Kehrer, Niklas Süle and Timo Werner joined the team. The control center in midfield once again belonged entirely to the Bayern block around Goretzka, Joshua Kimmich and Jamala Musiala.
The Munich prodigy Musiala came to his 14th international match at the age of 19 years and 105 days. No player under 20 has ever played more international matches for the DFB. He still shares the record with Mario Götze, but game 15 will definitely come.
The game against Hungary was also a meeting with the past. Both teams met last year at the European Championships in the preliminary round in Munich. It was about the colors of the rainbow and the failures of the Hungarian fans, which Leon Goretzka answered late with a heart. Much to the displeasure of the Hungarians, who held back in the home stadium. Unlike England in the previous week, however, the Germans did not get on their knees and robbed the supporters of their hatred. Exactly the hate that spilled over the English players. From children who were allowed to attend the game declared by UEFA to be a ghost game.
Fortunately none of that happened this time and so a sporting competition between two teams on the verge of exhaustion developed on the pitch. This not only enabled two early goals by Zsolt Nagy and Jonas Hofmann, but also a very tired, unimaginative game by the Germans. In the end, there was no victory again. Is this a crisis or does it not matter? One thing is certain: four draws in a row ensure that nothing is left of the spirit of optimism under Hansi Flick.
Hungary: Gulacsi / RB Leipzig (32 Jahre / 49 Länderspiele) - Lang / Omonia Nicosia (29/50), Orban / RB Leipzig (29/32), Attila Szalai / Fenerbahce (24/26) - Fiola / Fehervar (32 / 47), Adam Nagy / AC Pisa (26/62), Styles / FC Barnsley (22/5) ab 87. Vecsei / Ferencvaros Budapest (28/10), Zsolt Nagy / Puskas Akademia (29/10) ab 69. Nego / Fehervar FC (31/23) - Sallai / SC Freiburg (25/35), Szoboszlai / RB Leipzig (21/23) - Adam Szalai / FC Basel (34/83) ab 69. Adam / FC Paks (27/5 ) Trainer: Rossi
Germany: Neuer (36 years/112 internationals) - Kehrer/Paris Saint-Germain (25/20), Süle/Bayern Munich (26/39), Schlotterbeck/SC Freiburg (22/4), Raum/TSG Hoffenheim (24/ 8) - Kimmich/Bayern Munich (27/67), Goretzka/Bayern Munich (27/44) from 69. Gündoğan/Manchester City (31/59) - Hofmann/Borussia Mönchengladbach (29/13) from 85. Nmecha /VfL Wolfsburg (23/5), Havertz/FC Chelsea (23/28) from 85 Adeyemi/RB Salzburg (20/4), Musiala/Bayern Munich (19/14) from 78 Brandt/Borussia Dortmund (26/38) - Werner/FC Chelsea (26/52) from 78. Müller/Bayern Munich (32/115) Trainer: Flick
Referee: Jose Maria Sanchez (Spain)
Tore: 1: 0 Zsolt Nagy (6th), 1: 1 Hofmann (9th)
Spectators: 67,000 (in Budapest)
Yellow card: Gulacsi, Adam, Sallai - Schlotterbeck
Very, very little. The way the Flick team immediately equalized after the early 0:1 was convincing. "Getting the ball behind the chain was one of the few options we had in this game," said Flick. Otherwise, little is left after the weakest performance so far under the new national coach. "We're in a state of development. Today you could see that we're not quite there yet. We have to learn from it," said keeper Manuel Neuer after the game and promised at least improvement. "We want to ignite a rocket against Italy," promised the captain.
some. Up front, Timo Werner ran offside too often again. The Chelsea striker remains a big problem child and symbolizes the big problem position, for the lack of penetrating power in the center of the storm. Hansi Flick has not yet found his German Robert Lewandowski. The Pole was one of the central figures in Bayern's attacking system. But the Pole is not German. And therefore there is still no central figure in the storm system of the Germans. Then things happen like after 72 minutes. When the otherwise good Jonas Hofmann ran alone towards the Hungarian goal and Timo Werner wanted to score. It backfired. The passport did not arrive.
You can't say it like that. Let's look at the rest of the team. Certainly due to exhaustion, the numerous ball delays in midfield were due. At least Jamal Musiala exuded something like magic from time to time, but the good actions were rare. Kai Havertz remained very pale and had the fewest ball contacts in the team after Werner. Kimmich tried to structure, but remained conservative.
The balls from midfield rarely came behind the high defense, and when it did happen then Werner was offside. Different of course with the outstanding pass from new Dortmunder Nico Schlotterbeck, who saw Jonas Hofmann in the ninth minute.
"But what I prefer is: no mistakes, no goals. I want to concentrate on defending and the strikers should score the goals," the defender told "Sport Bild" this week. But again he didn't succeed. At 0: 1 he strayed awkwardly through the penalty area as part of a long chain of errors. A short time later the preparatory work.
In any case, the flick ball of the German national team remains highly risky. Tall left-back David Raum left a lot of space behind and the Hungarians took advantage of it. Paris stand-by pro Thilo Kehrer was a weak spot on the right. But whenever the Hungarians broke through, the again outstanding keeper Manuel Neuer saved. He made the point.
Manuel Neuer: "Of course we're also disappointed because we expected more. I don't want to speak of a happy draw. The determination going forward, the ease was missing. Hungary are an unpleasant team, you can see that with ours too "We've seen competition from England and Italy. If you don't have that lightness and surprise factor, then you don't get many chances. You saw today that we're not quite there yet. We're learning from that. We've already seen good sides of ourselves against Italy and against England. We have to take that into the game against Italy. Then we want to ignite a rocket."
Hansi Flick: "I said beforehand that after England it's the toughest game you can have. Hungary were very compact. We didn't manage to play forward with conviction, we made too many mistakes. But we're in a development process. We have to make sure that we learn the lessons from this game. There's a bit of a lack of conviction. I'm not starting to create any alibis: We wanted to get three points today. Of course, everyone was very disappointed in in the dressing room. We now have two days to recover. We'll see that we field the fittest eleven against Italy."
Jonas Hofmann: "It's clear that we're not satisfied. Hungary was relatively deep. Whatever they do, they do with all consistency. I take the missed 2-1 on my own. In the end I just have to push it in for a long time. I'm already very disappointed, especially because of this one action."
