Here are four observations from Germany’s 5-0 win over Hungary:
Comparing Germany’s wins over Hungary demonstrates progress made
Less than three months separate Germany’s win over Hungary today from Germany’s win over Hungary during the 2024 EUROs. Though the German national team only played three games in total in between these games and had limited time for training sessions, comparing Germany’s win over Hungary in the EUROs to today’s match still demonstrates the progress made under Julian Nagelsmann. In the EUROs, Hungary managed to unsettle Germany’s defense on several occasions and the attack struggled to really create much. Germany’s first goal owed a lot to İlkay Gündoğan and Jamal Musiala’s individual quality. The second goal, however, was a rare moment in which clear attacking patterns were used to tear apart Hungary’s defense.
Those attacking patterns showed up a lot more during today’s Nations League win, however. The way the fluid attack consistently created space with enterprising runs and intelligent movement flummoxed the Hungary defense time and again, as the Germans could have scored 10 goals today. Meanwhile, Hungary struggled to create the kind of sustained attacking pressure they were able to do in phases during the EUROs at all in this Nations League game. It’s almost as if the coach has had more time and opportunity to implement his vision. Speaking of which…
Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany vision is coming together well
Considering how much of a (relative) success Germany’s EURO 2024 campaign ended up being, it is easy to forget that Nagelsmann has yet to celebrate one year in charge of the national team. In that time, he chopped and changed a lot, trying a lot to sort out the bad situation he had walked into and only settling on a consistent lineup just before the 2024 European Championship started. Factoring in all of this, it was not much of a surprise to see Germany looking like an unfinished product during the tournament, despite the phenomenal opening win. Because they were an unfinished product.
But today, Germany looked like a much more finished product. The nature of the attack and defense was discussed above but the team finally looked more like a Nagelsmann team, with the back three in possession and slow, patient build up play leading to quick, vertical passes in the final third staples of the 37-year-old manager’s best teams. Though he will never say this, perhaps some of this can be attributed to the retirement of Ilkay Gündogan, who performed well during the EUROs but seemed like an awkward fit. The front four of Kia Havertz, Niclas Füllkrug, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz looked like the forward line Nagelsmann always wanted to implement but could not due to Gündogan. And while we are on the topic of Musiala and Wirtz…
Musiala and Wirtz CAN work well together
Ever since the two demonstrated their skill and class as teenagers in 2020, people having been tipping Musiala and Wirtz to become the lynchpins of Germany. But there was always the question of how to deploy them. Aren’t they both attacking midfielders who both play best in the middle? How can you fit the two into one lineup, still utilize them at their best and maintain the proper width a forward line needs to thrive? Nagelsmann set off to answer that question and make them key parts of the 2024 EUROs, but eventually Wirtz found his way back on the bench for Leroy Sané, who Nagelsmann admitted was included for greater width. The experiment of Wirtz and Musiala in the 2024 EUROs was hardly a failure, but it was also not the success many Germany fans dreamed of.
One convincing win alone will not be enough to completely reverse this narrative, but still, today’s win over Hungary was everything Germany fans had dreamed of seeing from the duo since 2020. Germany’s golden boys were heavily involved in everything good Germany did today, with their stardust all over each of the first three goals Germany scored, with many more brilliant combinations earning praise from the crowd.
During a breakaway in the build up to a gilt edged first half chance for Füllkrug, Musiala had strayed offside and Wirtz was shorn of any other options as Hungary defenders closed in around him. But Wirtz did brilliantly to protect the ball andkeep the passing angle to Musiala open, while Musiala immediately understood the Bayer Leverkusen player’s intentions and getting himself back onside and into a good position immediately. Wirtz then laid a perfect pass off to the Bayern Munich player, and another combination later saw Musiala lay the ball off for Füllkrug, who could unfortunately not complete the brilliant move with the appropriate finish. Regardless of the miss, it is safe to say that today’s performance confirms that Musiala and Wirtz can be utterly brilliant together. Now it is up to them and Nagelsmann to make sure that they can do this consistently.
UEFA’s Nations League and FIFA’s Club World Cup will butt heads and footballers will lose
Though Germany’s win over Hungary in the Nations League was positive for the nation, spare a thought for the future. UEFA’s Nations League has a league phase, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, a game for 3rd place and a final for the qualified teams. What is important to this discussion is that the semifinals take place in an as of yet undetermined location on June 4th or 5th, the 3rd placed game on June 7th and the final on June 8th. Then FIFA’s updated Club World Cup begins on June 15th. It is an absolute catastrophic schedule.
To put into a Bayern Munich perspective, if the Bavarians qualify for the Finale Dahoam in the Champions League on May 31st and any of their players’s international sides qualify for the Nations League semifinals, the players will have to play the final in Munich at the end of a grueling club season, then fly to the tournament and maybe take part in a training session or two with the national team in 4 or 5 days, play two matches in the span of a few days and then fly to America (did I mention the FIFA Club World Cup takes place in America?) to play the Club World Cup within another week.
Oh, and the next season starts again a month after the Club World Cup ends. FIFA and UEFA’s competition to make the most money and create more tournaments is making schedules that are long past ludicrous and are now extremely dangerous to the players. At this point, there is no summer break at the highest level of football. It just never ends.
