Going Deutsch: Cheeky Sayings

Julian Nagelsmann looked like he suited the surroundings he found himself in on Saturday night. Rentschler Field, the college stadium that is home of the UConn Huskies most weeks hosted the German national team and their fashionable new head coach they faced off against the USA. Nagelsmann always stood out on the sidelines at Leipzig and Bayern due to his fashion sense, having ditched the tracksuit he wore at Hoffenheim, and managing Die Nationalmannschaft wasn’t going to change that. Germany were also fielding a new look in this game as Nagelsmann looked to challenge some notions about how this side have to play. Included in that was the decision to start both Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, in a pre-game press conference he said, “I read a few months ago that the two of them can’t play together, but I think it’s a very good idea. Both have the extreme talent to get the ball into the half spaces. Getting the chain, dribbling towards the goal at speed and using other players.” Lone behold, both would start as the new head coach looked to play a fast and high-pressing style of football.

Germany did indeed get off to a fast start in the game but struggled to take any of their chances, and when the rare opportunity for their hosts came, they would take it, opening the scoring in the 27^th minute after a great curling effort from former Dortmund player Christian Pulisic. After that though, Germany were the better side, they equalised in the 39^th minute through Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gündogan and went into the half time break knowing they had every chance to build on that lead. They would with two goals in the space of three second half minutes, Niclas Füllkrug got another goal for the national team after being played through by Robin Gosens before he set up Jamal Musiala.

Technically this constitutes an upset, Germany entered the game ranked 15^th in the world compared to the US at 11^th, but more important than the result or the opponent was how Germany played and this was a markedly different performance from the team than we saw under Hansi Flick, where performances were lethargic and error prone. The press was able to force the US into mistakes and the attack seemed clinical enough to pounce on them. Perhaps most important was what Nagelsmann said after game, “we came back very well after the deficit. That wasn’t so easy after the last few months and the deficit.” It would have been very easy for Germany to put their heads down, but the atmosphere has been notably more positive since Nagelsmann’s appointment and that showed in how the side bounced back. There are still problems for the new boss to address, the defence are still very shaky, Jonathan Tah is being forced to play out of position since there is no one better and whilst Robin Gosens had a good game going forward, he was not as strong defensively. There is no quick fix to that but a lot has been fixed after one game of the Nagelsmann experience.

Before moving on, I also want to note that Nagelsmann is getting on well with new assistant Sandro Wagner, noting that “he is sensationally good, incredibly hard-working, structured” before mentioning that he also likes the former Unterhaching manager’s “cheeky sayings.” Unfortunately he did not provide a list of these, which is a real shame.

3. Liga
My listed game of the weekend on last week’s Going Deutsch podcast was the top of the table clash between 2^nd placed Ulm and 1^st placed Dynamo Dresden and it most certainly did not disappoint. Dynamo increased their lead at the top of the table thanks to a 3-2 win where defender

Claudio Kammerknecht would score his first two goals of the season. It’s at times like this where Ulm might have been wishing that captain and centre-back Johannes Reichert was able to play, but he was suspended and instead spent the game leading the chants from the stands, which has to be the most German lower-league thing that I saw this week. The game was scrappy at points, but Dresden were the better side and deservedly remain top of the league.

Moving up into second is a Jahn Regensburg side who have won four on the bounce, their 2-1 win against Lübeck was most certainly eventful as the game would finish 10 v 10, Louis Breunig getting sent off for Regensburg for two yellows, whilst Leon Sommer would be shown a straight red for a last man challenge. Two and three points behind UIm in the third and final promotion spot are Erzgebirge Aue and Viktoria Köln respectively as they drew 2-2 against each other, Tim Danhof’s curling finish for Aue being the pick of the goals.

There was also no joy for the rest of the chasing pack as no other side in the top nine won: Preußen Münster drew 1-1 with 1860 Munich, Dortmund II lost 2-1 to Essen, whilst Unterhaching and Sandhausen played out a 0-0 draw as both sides continue to slide down the table. At the wrong end of the table, the only side in the relegation places who played was Lübeck, they lost as already mentioned whilst Arminia Bielefeld won 3-1 to escape the relegation places and go three points clear, overtaking the side they beat, Waldhof Mannheim in the process. It didn’t look good for the twice relegated side when Kelvin Arase got a funky deflection as the visitors took the lead in the 20^th minute, but Nassim Boujellab would make up for a bad miss in the first half to equalise in the 51^st minute before Louis Oppie scored a second six minutes later with an amazing first time hit of a bouncing ball. The game was finished off in the 76^th minute through Manuel Wintzheimer. The mood at the half time break was unsurprisingly negative, but Bielefeld show the sort of fighting spirit that they need to show more often if they want to arrest their slump. One win doesn’t mean much in the table, but it might mean a lot in terms of mentality (granted, this is at least the third time I have said this with regards to DSC).