Wednesday June 30th 2021
“Don’t want to admit it”
Mats Hummels, (not) a heroic story
By Till Erdenberger
Mats Hummels is returning to the national team just before the European Football Championship, with great ambitions and a big backpack full of hopes. The result of the mission is disappointment. Is it also the end for Hummels as a national player?
It could have been the beginning of a very, very big story: Mats Hummels, who was pardoned by Joachim Löw for a final joint mission of the former German soccer heroes, drove that in the 45th minute of Löw’s 198th and last game as national coach Leg out for a long time – and cleared in dire straits, right in front of one’s own goal. It was again one of those specimens of the dying genus “Heldengrätsche” that nobody cares for as beautifully as Mats Hummels. It prevented the safe leadership of England, it would have been the beginning of the end of the national coach.
What a beautiful, what a powerful move. When the European Championship round of 16 of the German team at Wembley ended, it was of course useless. Because Thomas Müller, the other old hero, did not contribute to the beautiful story, but instead sealed Löw’s fate with a bitter miss.
Müller should give the not always targeted, ultimately too inconsistent German attack game new efficiency, that was the assignment to the Munich spatial interpreter. It is almost tragic that this same Müller, who by no means disappointed and provided this never stable team with important impulses, ultimately became the poster boy of the German failure. Hummels, on the other hand, gave a good picture, the one with the tackle when everything was still good. He should take care of these pictures, that was the idea. The rock in the surging attack vortex that was approaching the German rear team. Part of the truth: Hummels did not get into the decisive duels on either of the English goals, although the mistakes had already happened on the outside lane.
“Tick off the tournament as a disappointment”
Hummels had been brought back to the team by Löw after around two and a half years from exile, no longer. He should help to give the national coach, who himself has no future at the DFB, a good, ideally successful, farewell. There are no plans beyond this European championship, which ended very early. One thing is clear: at 32 years of age and with unmistakable speed deficits, the veteran is not the man of the future, not the symbol of the upheaval that will accompany the beginning of the Hansi Flick era.
But it is also clear: Mats Hummels is a defender of unique stature, has played an impressive Bundesliga season and you see it very pragmatically: This Mats Hummels, who was sacrificed after the World Cup disaster in 2018, is actually indispensable in German central defense. Strong in building up the game, present, leading figure. It will be difficult to find a better one than the Dortmund one, at least with this cut. If Flick cashes in, and it is urgently to be assumed, Löw’s idea of the triple chain, that is even more true. Matthias Ginter is a bank, but the Gladbach player has difficulties building up the game. Antonio Rüdiger is a strong two-fighter, but sometimes helpless when moving forward. Robin Koch did not play a minute at the European Championships, the former Freiburg native lacks experience on the international stage.
Hansi Flick has not yet commented publicly on his personnel considerations. Whether he would be able to build on Hummels, the hero striker, has not yet been decided: “I’ll do that sometime in a few weeks,” said Hummels shortly after the game. He wants to put his thoughts in order first after he has not dealt with the topic during the European Championship. Nothing is out of the question, he had assured before the final group game against Hungary, including a continuation of the DFB career: “But a lot has to fit: my performance, my fitness, the plans of the new national coach Hansi Flick. What I can say: I am incredibly proud to play for Germany. ” And yes, “we had a great spirit and a great team feeling. It was a lot better than it has been written for days and weeks,” said the Dortmund native. But for sure: “All in all, I have to tick off the tournament as a disappointment.”
Schweinsteiger believes in the end
So is Mats Hummels a man for Qatar 2022 after all? Bastian Schweinsteiger, world champion colleague and long-time companion, does not expect it. No, said Schweinsteiger, he rather thinks that with the Löw era, the short DFB comeback of Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels will be history again. “If they had been successful, it would have been tied to both of them,” said the 36-year-old. Since the end of the last sixteen, Schweinsteiger is expecting the end of the national team careers of both players. The disaster that ended the 2018 World Cup has not been repaired. At that time, Hummels flushed it out of the DFB team, and only returned in May, a few weeks before the European Championship.
This time, Hummels is not a loser within this ultimately failed mission of 26 football professionals and their coach, for whom the national coach is now over. The Dortmund player presented himself at least solidly in a structurally often overburdened chain of three, this always unloved system of mutual dependencies, with which the team was always alienated. Hummels radiated calm, he achieved his own goals – “getting himself in the best possible shape” as well as “being athletic and as a guy” and “taking over the command” – he achieved. The whole thing happened silently. As he announced, not the whole hierarchy in the team was turned upside down. “Hierarchies”, Hummels judged, were “more of an outside issue” anyway. Despite the shock of the game-winning own goal against France, also unimpressed by the sore knees that the Portugal spectacle brought with it, Hummels stabilized, although of course unable to pacify the fights of the German back team with himself.
“The EM is over for us”
In the end, the defensive shakiness that was never abandoned, which ultimately led to seven goals conceded in four games, was also due to the fact that the EM defense could only play together twice before the EM. “Löw took away his players the chance to become a team and grow together,” said the former national player Dietmar Hamann and emphasized: “Everyone knew for a long time that Müller and Hummels would return to the European Championship Had brought back last fall, then he would at least have given the team the opportunity to get to know each other in at least five or six games and over several months. ” It turned out differently and now it’s over. At least for Löw. How things will go on for Hummels has not yet been clarified.
First there is disappointment: “The EM is over for us and I’m sitting here on the bus and don’t want to admit it. I don’t really get my thoughts, but I feel the need to write what is going on in me,” wrote Hummels Instagram. “The disappointment is huge, with all of us.” But the world championship in Qatar in 2022 and the home European championship in 2024 would “definitely” appeal to him, the defender had told “Sport Bild” before the Hungary game.
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