And what about Liechtenstein ?: Vaccination debate overwhelmed the DFB team

And what about Liechtenstein?
Vaccination debate overwhelmed the DFB team

By Tobias Nordmann

In Wolfsburg, the German national soccer team should be about Liechtenstein. And about Joachim Löw. The former national coach will be officially adopted by the DFB before the World Cup qualifier. But before the last home game of the year there is one thing above all: vaccination.

One can make it short: Liechtenstein comes to Wolfsburg in the World Cup qualification. There the football dwarf meets Germany. In the first leg, the team from the Principality looked pretty good against the DFB team under the new direction. She defended passionately and only lost 2-0. That was a bit of a sensation. There were certainly fears in the wider environment that Liechtenstein could be smashed by Germany in the first game after Joachim Löw. A double-digit defeat, it wasn’t ruled out.

Well, the liberation of the DFB team in the first game under Hansi Flick was not quite as powerful. The ecstatic redemption only followed in the second game. Against Armenia. In a cracking 6-0 against the leaders of the table at the time. That the people of Liechtenstein are dreaming of an even bigger sensation this Thursday? Nice but negligible. It won’t happen that way. The differences in quality are too great for that. Even without the major personnel problems that could wash the nominated Wolfsburg striker Lukas Nmecha into the starting line-up.

There should be broad agreement on the matter of quality. The vaccination debate is a long way from that. Mileage value even. The subject of “spades against Corona” torments the country. And with it the national team. Because it has at least one well-known skeptic against the vaccination in its line-up. Joshua Kimmich, the man who will carry and shape the team in the next few years (possibly as captain).

Flick wishes “that this no longer exists”

As soon as the topic subsided a little bit, the next massive wave piled up on Tuesday. National player Niklas Süle tested positive for the corona virus, the 26-year-old has been vaccinated twice and therefore has so far without symptoms. Quarantine was ordered for him. The same applies to four other players as contact persons. For Bayern professionals Kimmich, Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry as well as Karim Adeyemi from Salzburg. It is unclear whether these players are all unvaccinated. Due to the current quarantine rules, however, the probability is high that everyone has so far given up the spades. The DFB rejects all concrete statements on this topic.

In general, the DFB does not want to be particularly specific on this topic. As confidently as the team has developed in the past few months, all those involved are uncertain when it comes to dealing with the urgent future issues related to Corona. Will the vaccination status be a nomination criterion in the future? National coach Hansi Flick is postponing this question. At the moment it is only about the sporty, which is negligible. Germany is already qualified for the tournament.

Before the last home game of the year in Wolfsburg, Flick gave a brief insight into how much this thing annoys him: “I would like the players to be vaccinated, but that’s up to them. As a coach, I would like that that no longer means that you have to send five players home. ” He himself sees vaccination as the only way out of the pandemic.

The topic is annoying, the topic is stressful

It is the great crux of this fourth wave. As much as one longs for normality, as much as one has enjoyed the perceived normality of the past few months, so much one is now caught up with the violently pressing problems. Even shutdowns are being discussed again. Over 2G – vaccinated and recovered – and even over 1G – vaccinated or nothing. St. Pauli’s President Oke Göttlich threw this mind game for players, coaches and staff into the group. It would de facto be a compulsory vaccination.

Thomas Müller, who appeared for the media round before the Liechtenstein duel and was asked for his opinion, is also painfully looking for an answer that cannot be interpreted badly. Neither from the camp of the vaccinated nor from the camp of the unvaccinated. At least now it is clear that football is hardly a topic at the moment.

“Which rules are drawn up is not up to us players,” said the Bayern attacking player. That is a political decision. He doesn’t know that well, doesn’t know exactly who determines that. It is difficult and that is why the whole country is discussing. There are just different views. “We all try to deal with this situation. There are always points of contention.” But it is also like this: “Currently I can only work with what the rules give. In football, only the goalkeeper in the sixteenth is allowed to use his hand because that was just the way it was determined. I am not the one of the whole The world has to explain how it should work. ” Well, he’s right. In his answers, however, Müller seemed as if he did not think much of his colleagues’ rejection of vaccinations.

The topic is annoying, it is stressful. Because it is the topic that overlays everything, on which society works and divides. Hardly anyone is interested in the fact that Joachim Löw is officially bid farewell to the DFB before kick-off this Thursday, with a trellis and an emotional film. After all, Müller and Flick are happy to see their ex-boss again. Both know: Without Löw, their lives would have been different. They all won the world title together. That alone shapes. It sounds like a story from another time. And it was. A time without corona. A time without agonizing and overwhelming debates about a small, decisive spade.

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