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DFB team under Hansi Flick: New standard

2021-10-11T14:21:12.258Z


They did not play a decisive role under Joachim Löw, now dormant balls have become a weapon for the DFB team. A position has been created for this in the coaching team. Against Romania it was clear that it is paying off.


Enlarge image

Thomas Müller (r) on his winning goal against Romania

Photo: Matthias Koch / imago images / Matthias Koch

"Germany is making a fool of itself again", "Shameful knockout", "a slap in the face": These headlines are not old, they come from April of this year, when the German national team lost 2-1 to the football dwarf North Macedonia in Duisburg.

And yet they look like from a bygone era.

The national team was responsible for that bankruptcy, but it was Joachim Löw's national team.

In the evening, Hansi Flick's national team will face the same opponent, the second leg against North Macedonia in the World Cup qualifying group, but the omens are different.

Flick played four games and the DFB team won four times.

A victory today and participation in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar would only theoretically be wasted.

»New ways of scoring goals in set pieces«

As well as Flick's balance sheet reads, the team sometimes found it difficult.

The appearances against Iceland (4: 0) and Armenia (6: 0) went well, but against Liechtenstein (2: 0) the team looked heavy, against Romania, at 2: 1 last Friday, it looked like it would for a long time the team did not win for the first time under Flick.

Then Joshua Kimmich went out to the corner flag.

Flick has defeated a number of low opponents at Bayern, he knows how to get a team to playfully defeat five-a-side chains.

But in Munich he had time for training work, and he had a center forward in Robert Lewandowski.

The DFB team is currently lacking the offensive power of Bavaria.

A measure from August is paying off for this.

They hired Mads Buttgereit for the DFB.

From now on, the 36-year-old would take care of the issue of set-pieces: "Mads will show new ways to score goals in set-pieces," said Flick at the time.

Against Romania it was such a new path that brought the winning goal.

In the 81st minute, it is still 1: 1, Kimmich runs towards the corner, Thomas Müller is also near the corner flag.

When Kimmich gets ready to execute, Müller has still not run into the penalty area, it almost seems as if he is deliberately delaying it.

Only after about ten seconds does Müller run sideways from the wing into the penalty area;

Kimmich raises an arm, then three things happen at the same time:

  • Kimmich runs to hit the ball towards the goal.

  • Leon Goretzka sprints from the penalty spot to the short corner of the six-yard area.

  • Müller continues undeterred, away from the corner flag and towards the second post.

Kimmich hits the ball exactly where Goretzka is going, the midfielder extends the ball with his head to Müller, who can dust off completely unguarded - goal.

The Romanian defense did not seem to have had Müller, who suddenly ran into the penalty area, on the screen.

And suddenly Gnabry appears

A standard variant also seemed rehearsed beforehand.

Here too, Goretzka initially positioned himself near the penalty spot, then turned a pirouette with which he shook off his guard and ran into the area of ​​the penalty area away from the ball.

Again Goretzka's run and Kimmich's corner were coordinated, Goretzka brought the ball towards the goal, where Serge Gnabry appeared,

suddenly

appeared.

Gnabry had stood on the goal line until the corner was taken, as if he wanted to irritate keeper Florin Niță.

There was no goal, but it was one of the few clear German chances in half one.

Müller's winning goal later was the second standard goal under Flick.

Previously there was a goal from a free kick in the 4-0 win in Iceland.

In the penalty area, both Icelandic and German players lined up in anticipation of the cross, only Antonio Rüdiger stood a little lower and looked in the direction of shooter Kimmich.

Even before it touched the ball, Rüdiger sprinted towards the second post;

Teammate Thilo Kehrer tried to block the Icelandic players, and Kimmich kicked the ball exactly where Rüdiger was going.

The national team seems to be up to date.

Standard specialists are not the nerdy approach of a few teams;

more and more clubs as well as nations rely on them.

The standard Dane from Liverpool

The English national team made it to the semi-finals at the 2018 World Cup and to the final at the 2020 European Championship and set standards.

And Liverpool FC with Thomas Grønnemark in Jürgen Klopp's extended coaching team is likely to be the most popular example of the use of such specialists.

Liverpool and the Three Lions have not only professionalized the execution and defense of corners and free kicks, they have also expanded their throw-in repertoire, an area where the German team still has room for improvement.

But DFB coach Buttgereit hasn't been around for long either.

He, whose father comes from Celle and speaks fluent German, was the standard coach at FC Midtjylland, the Danish club that primarily scouts and creates game strategies on the basis of data.

Standards, so they found out from the Danes, would have to be trained and optimized much more systematically, so that many more goals could be scored than is currently the norm in football.

In this way, the club became Danish champions for the first time in 2015, and two more championship titles were added in 2018 and 2020.

Buttgereit was most recently on the Danish national team's coaching team, at the European Championships she was the only one who converted a free kick directly - while goal scorer Mikkel Damsgaard benefited from a wall variation of his teammates.

»Just a little further«

"Of course we thought about why we took him on," said Flick about his colleague after the Romania game.

“I'm delighted that such an important standard goal brought us the win.

We train that even when we have little time.

I think we're a bit further on that. "

"In standard situations, there is still room for improvement in football if you work in a structured manner and systematically involve the players," said Buttgereit himself at the beginning of his time at the DFB.

You can now see what is meant by that

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-10-11

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