Joachim Loew insisted Germany still had a path forward after a brutal 2018 that left the national team battered by poor results, public anger and a humiliating World Cup exit.
The coach’s upbeat tone came after Germany drew 2-2 with the Netherlands on Monday and beat Russia 3-0 on Thursday, but neither result could hide the scale of the damage done over the year. Germany won only four of 13 matches in 2018 and scored just 14 goals.
The late collapse against the Dutch captured the mood around the team. Virgil van Dijk struck the 91st-minute equaliser, and Thomas Mueller, who was making his 100th international appearance, summed up the night by saying: “It was like a bad movie.”
Loew said he still believed the squad was moving in the right direction. “I have a good feeling going into the winter break,” he said after Germany let a 2-0 lead slip in Gelsenkirchen. “We are well set up for next year with these players, that gives you a lot of courage.”
His confidence rests largely on a younger attacking group. Leroy Sane, Timo Werner and Serge Gnabry have scored four of Germany’s last five goals, and Sane in particular has emerged as a central figure after being left out of the World Cup squad.
Germany’s decline has been steep. In five months, the side dropped from first in the FIFA rankings to 14th. It was also the first time in German FA (DFB) history that the senior team exited a World Cup at the group stage, and Loew’s side also suffered a record six defeats in a calendar year.
The fallout went beyond results. Mesut Ozil’s resignation from the national team, in which he cited “racism and disrespect,” intensified the pressure on Loew, while many supporters demanded that he step down. He remains under contract until 2022.
The DFB tried to repair the relationship with fans through a public training session in Berlin and a press conference in a Leipzig school where children asked the questions before the Russia match. Even so, attendance and television numbers reflected the public mood: only 42,186 fans, about two-thirds of the stadium capacity, watched the draw, and the broadcast drew 8.5 million viewers.
Loew said he understood the frustration. “One cannot expect the fans to run to us after a year like this,” he said.
Despite the criticism, the coach has not faced a serious internal challenge. German magazine Der Spiegel captured the debate with the headline, “How Loew can you go?”, while also noting that the coach was unlikely to be significantly challenged.
Loew’s case rests on his long record of success. Between 2006 and 2017, Germany reached the semi-finals of every major tournament, and he led the country to the 2014 World Cup title. That history has bought him time as he prepares for the 2019 rebuild and the Euro 2020 qualifiers.
He has already begun reshaping the squad after a 3-0 defeat to the Dutch in Amsterdam in October pushed him to move away from several underperforming senior players. With Ozil retired, Sami Khedira and Jerome Boateng were dropped, while Mueller has been reduced to a substitute role.
Even so, Loew has not ruled out recalling members of the 2014 Brazil-winning side for the 2020 qualifying campaign. “Having only young or old players will not be successful, it's a mix that makes it,” he said.
But his decision to withdraw Sane, Werner and Gnabry for the final 30 minutes against the Netherlands backfired when Germany failed to protect the lead. After a year like 2018, Loew can afford few more errors.
