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Hansi Flick
Photo: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
The organizers have placed bands in the subway stations in front of the stadiums, which will play music to entertain the World Cup visitors.
At the Al-Khalifi Stadium, the band played "Time to say goodbye" in a certain anticipation before Germany's game against Japan.
It's not that far yet, but after Wednesday's 2-1 defeat, the German national team is once again threatened with an early end at a World Cup.
Like four years ago, many memories of 2018 are coming up now.
After a game that the team should never have lost.
The DFB team dominated the opposition for almost an hour, created good chances to score, had 81 percent ball possession and 14-1 shots on goal in the first half and deservedly led 1-0.
And then everything got out of control.
"We're all brutally disappointed," said a visibly dejected Hansi Flick after the game, "we were on the right track."
A path that he then left himself.
It was also the decisions of the national coach that made this actually impossible defeat possible.
Flick first replaced İlkay Gündoğan, who had been outstanding until then, and then he also replaced the young genius Jamal Musiala.
And from one minute to the next, the flow of the game, the understanding, the self-confidence was gone.
Outside intervention changed the game
It's easy to say that a coach came on as a substitute for a loss, and in this case it was.
Japan, hopelessly inferior up to that point, had also changed tactically at the break to a 3-4-3.
Suddenly the game was completely different because of these two outside interventions.
The fact that Flick had also put on Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck in the starting eleven was a violation of the performance principle postulated by Flick himself.
The current best should always play, that was and is his credo.
The young defender, who was promoted last year, has had a mixed season at BVB at best, most recently he went into the World Cup break with a horribly weak performance in Mönchengladbach.
Flick still trusted him.
So it took revenge in the 83rd minute at the latest, when Schlotterbeck's club colleague Niklas Süle resolved the offside and Schlotterbeck himself let Bochum's Asano go without much resistance.
He was so insecure afterwards that he didn't even dare to throw in a ball.
Clear criticism from Gündoğan
"We just have to defend that better," said Flick.
And Ilkay Gündoğan commented: "I don't know if an easier goal was ever scored at a World Cup." A devastating testimony for the defense colleagues.
In any case, the Manchester City captain was the one who sent the criticism to his teammates after the game.
He "had the feeling that not everyone wanted the ball," said the 32-year-old, who put Germany ahead with a penalty in the first half.
Flick has always been praised for having a clear plan, a clear game idea, with high full-backs, an aggressive but also risky game.
How risky, that had already been announced in almost all international matches this year, even in the friendly against Oman the DFB team had repeatedly run into counterattacks.
At Bayern it works better than at the DFB
Flick still insists on this game, it also looks very attractive, but it is highly dangerous if you don't have the right wingers and if you can't completely rely on the central defense.
Both are the case with the DFB-Elf.
Flick's game worked wonderfully at FC Bayern, but there he also had professionals like Alphonso Davies on the outside or David Alaba on the inside who were made for exactly this strategy.
It has not yet been proven whether David Raum or Nico Schlotterbeck are suitable for this.
This is not a revolutionary finding from Wednesday, it became apparent throughout the year: with the result that the eleven have only won three out of ten games so far.
"The Japanese were more efficient, I would have liked that from my team," says Flick.
That's true, it's actually not the first time that the team has missed the best opportunities.
It's not because of the quality of the team, you saw in the good phase how well they can combine, how intelligently they use paths.
slump after the equalizer
But again she collapsed after an equalizer, as she did against England in September.
As if she wasn't prepared for such a situation.
After going behind, the team looked completely bewildered, bewildered, as if they hadn't imagined this happening.
It used to be a strength of German teams not only to manage leads, but then to outplay the opponent.
In fact, it was the first time in ages that a DFB-Elf lost at a World Cup after a break lead.
The last time was in 1978. In Córdoba against Austria.
For days, this tournament in the DFB camp was only about non-football things, the debate about the bandage had overshadowed everything.
With the start against Japan, they finally wanted to "put the focus on football," as the team has repeatedly said.
But now the DFB also has a massive sporting problem.
Flick emphatically rejected the fact that the pad discussion had distracted or unsettled the team: "We're not looking for excuses, that would be too cheap for us." You have to find the mistakes in yourself, you have four days to do that.
The Spaniards are waiting on Sunday and the big advantage is that after their 7-0 gala against Costa Rica and Germany's performance against Japan, nobody really expects anything from the team.
"Now we have something to make up for," says Flick.
That also applies to him.
The national coach then said: "We still have two games left." After today one has to fear that he is right about that.
