Comment on the national team: Joachim Löw has to let the joy go, or he will go under

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Joachim Löw: Muddling through?

Is that really the legacy that the national coach wants to leave behind?

Photo:

Marc Schueler / imago images / students

Kai Havertz said a very harmless sentence these days.

In the opening defeat against France, the team “also lacked a bit of courage”.

It could be dismissed as a typical football substitute, but Havertz is deliberately or unintentionally getting to the heart of the problem.

The reason why there is so little public optimism in the national team at this EM.

The German team appeared discouraged against France, and the coach exemplifies this discouragement.

It is the last big tournament for Joachim Löw, it has been written so often in the past few weeks that he no longer has to be careful, he could risk a lot, everything.

On the other hand, Löw just doesn't want to resign as the one who fails early at the next tournament after the 2018 World Cup.

That in turn would speak for caution.

The national coach has two options.

The first game showed which variant he chose.

Löw plays it safe.

He brings back the old warriors Mats Hummels and Thomas Müller, he builds up a defense bar against the French from three central defenders, before that two sixes, who are also responsible for the protection.

He placed his central figure, Joshua Kimmich, in the far right.

Because he has no one better there.

The Bayern professional is actually someone who pulls the chains, who can determine the emotionality of a team.

On the right, however, he nicely plows up and down the sidelines, he loses his Kimmich grip.

Anything better than muddling through

Löw sent a team to the field against France that had one goal above all: to get out of the affair to some extent against the world champions. Just don't experience a debacle, maybe take away a 1: 1 in the end. Hence the strange satisfaction in the team after the game despite the defeat. The worst has been avoided. The team had almost no scoring chance in 90 minutes, but not that tragic. Loew said that "basically nothing has happened yet."

Yes, something has happened, and a lot more can happen against Portugal, the European champions, on Saturday (6 p.m. / ARD, live ticker SPIEGEL). It will be the game that paves the entire way in the tournament. It's a huge opportunity to play your way into the EM with courage and esprit. And at the same time it may be the last opportunity to give this tournament a completely new direction. But for that, Löw has to allow the joy.

Sure, you can muddle through, a tremendous win against Cristiano Ronaldo and Co., or a draw, possibly even if you lose third in the group, slip into the second round, if you then beat Hungary in the last group game.

But muddle through?

Is that really the legacy Joachim Löw, who has revolutionized football for the national team since he took office in 2006, wants to leave behind?

Italians as role models

The national coach has so far got off well with his new pragmatism in public: Finally he is becoming sensible, finally he is letting go of his stubbornness, the return of Mats Hummel and Müller was taken as an example that he can jump over his shadow.

But wouldn't it have been a lot cooler if he didn't give a damn about this pragmatism and pulled out his line?

With all the risk, with kettledrums and trumpets.

A touch of the 2010 World Cup in 2021.

The French can do that, storm brilliantly and at the same time defend with focus at the back, which makes them the first title contender.

Löw, on the other hand, has to take one side: his team can only ever do one of the two: either defend well or attack well.

That's why it's not a top team.

But it is also so clear in which part of the German team there is more quality: the offensive. To dwarf them in order to instead rely on defensive stability is perhaps humanly understandable if, like Löw, you risk your entire reputation. But it throws away so much potential. And it wastes the chance to win back people for this team who turned away from them at some point after the disaster in 2018.

It is precisely the Italians, the grandmasters of pragmatism, who have been playing at this European Championship the way you would like the German team to be.

Full of lust and enthusiasm.

And without any doubt that they want to win the game they go into.

And that with a squad that is qualitatively much worse than the French, actually even worse than the German.

Still, many now consider them a tournament favorite.

The EM is still at the beginning for the DFB-Elf, if you think optimistically.

There is still time to open the windows.

Even if that were a departure from the previous plan.

That Havertz, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané are really let off the leash once again, that they can play out their pace, their creativity, their wealth of ideas, that would be a nice idea for Saturday.

Löw only has these few days left, three weeks at the most. Perhaps he will still discover old Joachim Löw in himself somewhere. It is not the time for the faint-hearted.