Harry Kane slid his knees across the lawn of Wembley Stadium, Kane of all people, what a punch line!
In England they last puzzled as to what might have gotten into Harry Kane. At Tottenham Hotspur he had scored so reliably in the Premier League that the goal nets waved across England. As soon as the man, who historians stubbornly claimed to be the most successful shooter of the 2018 World Cup, slipped into the national jersey at this European Championship, he suddenly gave up scoring goals.
Since Tuesday evening at Wembley you have suspected what was going on: Harry Kane from Walthamstow, East London, an internationally recognized joker, he had planned everything for exactly this punch line for a long time: three games doing nothing, and then like a raid squad over the DFB -Elf attack. In order to avenge themselves for what, from the point of view of the English, horrible common football history, in which England had slipped into doom far too often without doing anything, in which then very often someone missed a penalty.
It was the 86th minute, a cross from Jack Grealish. Kane pushed her over the line as she fell.
Harry Kane saved his first tournament goal for the decision against Germany.
(Photo: Catherine Ivill / Getty)
In the stadium the screams of 40,000 fans who threw each other to their (and probably also that of the contagious Delta variant) joy. No penalties today, there would be no penalty shoot-out today. 2-0 for England. And Germany was out. Football’s staying home. At Wembley.
In the second half, Raheem Sterling had given the British the lead, then ten minutes before the end Thomas Müller had missed the best chance of equalizing after a counterattack. And so the tenure of national coach Joachim Löw ended on Tuesday evening after 15 years with a very puzzling tournament record.
A game like in a tactics seminar
This ball, which the Germans moved at this European Championship, would really like to send it to a therapy session to find out which of the creatures shown is his real one. Under hypnosis so that there is no fooling around. Against France, Löw’s ball was incredibly shy, had a face painted on him like the annoying volleyball by Tom Hanks in Cast Away, he would not have opened his mouth. Against Portugal he jumped euphorically from foot to foot, against Hungary he rolled on paths that only he understood. And now against England? As if it were actually intended for chess and not football, the ball moved carefully and around. Like in a tactics seminar.
While Löw had rebelled against popular opinion in the two previous games (successful against Portugal by allowing Joshua Kimmich to continue playing right-back; less successful against Hungary when he brought Leroy Sané), this time he acted almost as expected. He brought the recovered miller. And sent Leon Goretzka, who previously suffered from the long-term effects of a torn hamstring, into the engine room of the German game for the first time at this tournament. There, Goretzka toiled with his strength body instead of Ilkay Gündogan at the side of the movement artist Toni Kroos, of whom we still do not know whether he needs muscles for his stately passing game. The hard and the delicate, they formed an impeccable duet that day. The surprising note that Löw always needs in his symphonies is woven in by assigning Timo Werner to the front row for Serge Gnabry.
The Germans started cautiously. Not as energetic as against Portugal, but also not as weak as against France. First of all, waiting. England coach Gareth Southgate had finally adjusted his team a little differently compared to the preliminary round by switching to a three-way chain.
In the first quarter of an hour, a plan by Löw actually became visible: passes from both defense and midfield into the depths. Hence the nomination of the fast Werner. But not everything worked. Kai Havertz played out into Robin Gosens’s barrel on the left, but he didn’t even start. At the beginning two ball conquests by Kroos impressed the most. And then, seven minutes were played, an excellent pass from Müller into the course of Goretzka: He ran like a brewery horse, English stuck to him left and right like flies, but then shortly before the end and the penalty area he was in such a robust way people who do not adopt flies as their own. Kai Havertz sent the free kick from the best position into the wall.
New stands out
The English? Left the ball to the Germans as far as possible. And, as in the entire preliminary round, successfully ignored their actually best scorer Harry Kane. After 15 minutes, Raheem Sterling decided to warm up Manuel Neuer anyway: a full shot, a magnificent reflex. Since he was already warm, Neuer could easily grab the following header from Harry Maguire.
Far too seldom, only once, did Germany get a chance in which the players used the width of the entire field. Havertz played on the wing to Kimmich, who crossed to Gosens, his so congenial partner against Portugal on the other side – but today there were a few meters too much between Gosens and the ball. The best opportunity in the first half had the fast Werner, who was sent into the sprint by Havertz on the left wing.
Anyone who has followed the games at FC Bayern during their legendary six-cup conception months has learned that the team always played best when Goretzka and Kimmich operated at the heart of the game. How would the ball and game have gone if Kimmich had been released from working on the sidelines of the game?
Germany took the pace out of the game for the first time. Possibly the Müller put to sleep in such a way that shortly before the break whistle he played an insane bad pass that Sterling got. That England did not get in the lead was prevented first by Matthias Ginter with a rescue act at Sterling, then Hummels with a monster tackle, with which he reached Harry Kane (whom the ball naturally reached in a roundabout way and not after being passed by a teammate), just before the Graduation kept away.
A rocket-fast bullet from Havertz
Apparently they decided in the dressing room to immediately take revenge for this best chance of the English: the DFB-Elf was just back on the field when England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford steered a rocket-fast bullet from Havertz over the bar, the new one too would have liked to have held.
The ball now ran slower and slower in the ranks of the teams. As if they were in possession of a secret plan on both sides, which was only revealed to them and not to the audience. Their tiredness was suppressed by the memory of the legendary words of Franz Beckenbauer about the England versus Germany genre: “We call it a classic”. Something had to happen!
To make it a classic to his liking, Löw brought Gnabry for Werner after 69 minutes. That made the game neither faster nor more structured. Then Sterling met first, then Müller forgave. And then Harry Kane’s big minute struck.
At school, after such a puzzling overall performance, one would neither refuse nor recommend a transfer to someone like Löw. He would be called out: Just do what you want!
He does. He’s leaving now. Leaves the DFB after 15 years, that was already agreed before the tournament. He is one of only four German world champion trainers. And a few of those who were there with him seven years ago, at the memorable World Cup in Brazil around the legendary Campo Bahia training camp, will also be there tomorrow. When Löw will give another short speech in the less legendary training camp in Herzogenaurach. The goalkeeper Neuer will be there, the defender Hummels, the midfielder Kroos, the penalty area and life artist Müller. And then the paths will part. Probably not just from Löw and the German national team.