National team: Nagelsmann drowns out all doubts: “We can achieve great things”

With his brilliant first goal in the national jersey, Pascal Groß saved the mood of the German European Championship players on the family weekend, which Julian Nagelsmann sent them off to with a late happy ending directly after the tournament dress rehearsal. The national coach also used the goal in the penultimate minute to make it 2-1 (0-1) against Greece to his advantage, to drown out all doubts about goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who had become a risk, and the long, tension-free performance seven days before the opening match in Munich against Scotland in the still completely relaxed victory celebrations of the fans in Borussia Park.

“I have a lot of faith in the team,” declared the 36-year-old, and verbally floated away into tournament spheres that sounded rather utopian after the final 90 minutes of testing. “We can achieve great things. We will do everything humanly possible to win the title.” Was it only human that seven days before the tournament no regular player wanted to get injured? And that was also why the European Championship tension was completely lacking in a first half that leader Toni Kroos called “simply too error-prone” and “uneven”? “Job done,” said Nagelsmann with an exclusive look at the result: “I thought the reaction in the second half was good.”

“Late goals are good for the psyche”

After the final whistle, the shuttle service was already waiting at the stadium to quickly take Kroos to the airport for the weekend trip to his wife and children in Madrid. Nagelsmann is not expecting his European Championship players to return until Monday morning – without goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, who has been dropped from the squad – for the European Championship countdown in Herzogenaurach.

“In the end, the victory was good for the overall mood,” said Nagelsmann. “And late goals are really good for a team’s psyche,” he said, referring to champions and cup winners Bayer Leverkusen, who with this mental strength seem to have won close games “15 plus x times”. “If we were to play 2-1 three times in the preliminary round, then I would happily sign that,” said the national coach, looking ahead to the group matches against Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland. All’s well that ends well?

Neuer’s transformation into a risk factor

“We knew that we weren’t as good as we were made out to be in March,” said Kroos about the drop in performance compared to the admired victories against France (2-0) and Holland (2-1). Nagelsmann, however, sees his team as “more solid” after three wins and a 0-0 draw against Ukraine than last November after the defeats against Turkey and Austria, which had prompted him to radically change his strategy and restructure the squad. He is now consistently implementing his role play, which he defined afterwards, with Kroos as a key figure.

The prime example is Neuer. The Bayern goalkeeper, who used to guarantee victories and the 2014 World Cup title, is suddenly a goalkeeper who can lose games at the age of 38. He continues to impress with world-class saves, but suddenly his blatant mistakes have fueled a goalkeeping discussion that Nagelsmann resolutely tried to stifle on Friday evening. Even after Neuer gave away a goal to Giorgos Masouras, he will not “tinker around with the goalkeeping question”. Neuer will be in goal at the European Championships. End of announcement.

Momentum from the bench with Sané, Groß and Co.

Staying on course is the plan for the last days of training before the European Championships. Nagelsmann will hardly change the starting eleven. “It will look more or less the same as today,” he announced vaguely. The national coach spoke of 13 potential players for the ten outfield positions.

Nagelsmann also counts Leroy Sané in this group, who made a name for himself in his 45-minute comeback after a three-match suspension and his tricky pubic bone problem. There was some invigorating momentum from the bench. Sané set up Kai Havertz to make it 1:1. Benjamin Henrichs shot against the crossbar. Nico Schlotterbeck made a save in defense. And Groß scored the winning goal. “I was incredibly happy,” he said.

“Major Tom” and the longing of the fans

The goal anthem “Major Tom” then resounded through the stadium – and the spectators went home happy. “We need the support of the fans, that will give us a boost,” said captain Ilkay Gündogan. In the sold-out Borussia Park, it was once again clear how much they want to support and celebrate their team, how much they long for success and a collective party atmosphere after three botched tournaments.

Groß’s goal initially prevented a serious dampener in the mood. But the power of decisive tournament goals is well known. In 2006, Oliver Neuville’s goal in injury time to make it 1-0 in the second World Cup group match against Poland in the Dortmund stadium seemed like a big bang. It was the initial spark for the legendary football summer fairytale.