When Hansi Flick started a coaching career that no one could have guessed was going to be great, he kept looking to Amsterdam from Bammental. One of the greatest coaches of the decade worked for the local first division club Ajax, the greatest, as he would say himself, Louis van Gaal.
Little Hansi Flick coached the North Baden Oberliga side Victoria Bammental, and today, about two and a half decades later, he says in all seriousness that he applied some of what he saw at van Gaal to Bammental. Flick would not go so far as to call van Gaal a role model, their football tastes are a little too different for that, but he was definitely a formative influence.
Two and a half decades later, they are now standing a few meters apart, before the game they shook hands, from Bonds coach to national coach. Van Gaal’s Dutch hosted the German national team in said Amsterdam and, as you know van Gaal, he gave himself an assignment to play in this game. This glorified German coach has coached eight games for Germany so far, he has won eight times – who, if not the great Louis, should end this series? In the end he ended it – of course: it ended 1:1. Steven Bergwijn equalized Thomas Müller’s lead.
Hansi Flick was excited himself before this evening, he knows his team well, but he wasn’t sure which of the two whisperers on his shoulder he should believe. The little devil who said he shouldn’t be proud of the eight victories, which only happened against Liechtenstein, Armenia and Iceland? Or the angel who calmed him down because the victories were still stylish and convincing?
How seriously Flick took this task could be seen from his line-up, which represented a kind of starting eleven of the survivors. With Kimmich, Goretzka, Gnabry, Süle and Gosens, five potential starting eleven players were missing, which is why Flick decided to take a risk of which he was well aware of the possible side effects. He entrusted the defensive midfield center to two attacking-minded players, Ikay Gündogan and Jamal Musiala – a move that affected the entertainment factor of the game.
Both acted as double playmakers – they kept their own game going, Musiala in particular always impressed with those great snake-like movements that you can neither practice nor learn. However, their lack of toughness and the naturally underdeveloped defensive resilience also contributed to the fact that the Dutch were able to combine quickly through the German midfield again and again. The central defenders Antonio Rüdiger and Nico Schlotterbeck sometimes faced a difficult task, as they repeatedly saw orange-clad athletes dashing towards them at high speed.
Van Gaal is right again in the 1-1 draw against the DFB
This is how a game developed in which the spectators must have felt like they were playing tennis. Head right, head left, head right… neglecting their central midfielders, both teams’ attacking players swept the ball from penalty area to penalty area.
Müller plays nicely on Sané, Sané hits the side netting (12′, head right); van Dijk sends Malen, who runs over Schlotterbeck, Malacia narrowly misses the cross pass (18′, head to the left); Havertz plays for space, space crosses, Werner heads the crossbar (head to the right, offside, 21st). This right-left pattern continued throughout the first half, with coaches van Gaal and Flick seeing a lot of what they liked (attacking moments) and a lot of what they didn’t like (defensive resilience) almost equally.
It also showed again what is so fascinating about coach van Gaal, apart from the spectacular fascination he feels for himself. Van Gaal is possibly the only manager in the world who can concede a goal and still be right. If he were Hansi Flick, van Gaal patronizingly said the day before the game, then he would definitely field Thomas Müller – because Müller would certainly be particularly motivated against him, his discoverer of van Gaal.
In any case, shortly before the break, a last attack ran through the German midfield, Schlotterbeck sent Musiala left into the penalty area, his cross was aimed at Havertz and found the particularly motivated Müller via detours – who threw the ball under the bar with the routine of a goalscorer ( 45.). This rule applied under van Gaal, it applied after van Gaal, and it now apparently also applies under Hansi Flick: If you wobble at the back, it must at least rub at the front.
David Raum misses the 2-0 win against the Netherlands
What do you think the coaches said at half-time? Anyone who saw the progress of the game would bet on “keep it up”, the game remained lively and far too open in midfield. While the Dutch were initially happy not to be 2-0 behind after Raum’s shot (48′), this feeling of happiness later switched to the side of the DFB-Elf.
First, the passivity of the German midfield enabled the Dutchman de Jong to throw a diagonal ball at Dumfries, who won the header duel against space and brought the ball to Bergwijn, who shot in to equalize (68′). Five minutes later referee Pawson reversed a penalty he had previously awarded for the Netherlands for reasons that can be called interesting – Kehrer is said to have played the ball against Depay (73′).
In the end, both coaches could probably be satisfied. Flick’s team, which got very confused due to a few changes, survived a turbulent final phase without conceding another goal – and the great Louis van Gaal was of course the first to prevent the small national coach from Bammental from winning.