Vibe Check: What are Germany’s World Cup hopes after March friendlies?
· Yahoo Sports
Julian Nagelsmann has been criticized more than ever in the past months and there was immense pressure to succeed with the national team over the last week. Now that the dust has settled on the March international break, let’s dive into the positives and the negatives of the two matches.
The Good
Germany have now won 7 games in a row. The last time this happened was an 8 game win streak under Hansi Flick from September 2021 to March 2022 under Hansi Flick. Not only did Germany win both games in the March friendlies, they absolutely dominated both ties. Germany had an xG advantage of 2.80-0.68 and 3.02-0.86 against Ghana. Simply dominant.
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While the finishing wasn’t perfect, the key indicator of success is whether this team can close out games. Seven straight wins doesn’t just happen with pure luck and it is refreshing to see Germany go on a run of form, despite playing against some weaker sides.
On top of dominating both friendlies, they also did so with many key players missing such as Jamal Musiala, Jonas Urbig, Jamie Leweling, Felix Nmecha, and Aleksander Pavlović. With a bolstered midfield, Germany could be a force to be reckoned with.
With a midfield of Pavlović and Stach, who knows just how much more dominant this team might have been. It is exciting to dream about how this team might play come June.
The Bad
After a really solid run of defensive performances in the World Cup qualifiers, the floodgates seemingly opened conceding 4 goals in just 2 games in March. While the formation and structure seem to be working well, there are some individual errors still plaguing this team. Which leads to the next point.
Nagelsmann is no doubt an excellent tactician, but some personnel decision still baffle fans. While it is commonplace to play particular players in front of a home crowd, it was taken too far this time around. Chris Führich and Josha Vagnoman’s inclusion in the match against Ghana in Stuttgart were total momentum killers and they were clearly out of place with the other talent in this squad.
At the end of the day, it was just a friendly and at least the Stuttgart crowd got to see their players. However, Nagelsmann can’t afford to do something like this in a competitive match.
Lastly, there is still a lack of finishing and while Denis Undav played well, there is still some ambiguity around who should be starting come June.
The Verdict
After both these games, should fans feel any better about the team heading into the tournament? After cooling down for a day after the most recent result, there is reason to be optimistic. Many individual errors came from players that would not otherwise play in the squad and Germany was missing several key players.
While Nagelsmann still seems to lean on Goretzka and Sané more than most would like, he has shown willingness to change things up. If Nagelsmann can swallow his pride and field the right XI, there is no doubt he can give Germans something to be excited about. That remains a large if, but after so much negativity surrounding the national team for the last decade, it feels good to be optimistic again.
While some fans might only look at the problems with this squad, individual mistakes can be looked at as outliers and with the level of attack at the moment, the goals will come. Was this March international break a resounding success? Not quite. Can Germany pull of a deep run with some adjustments? Why not.