The offense is in World Cup form, the defense is still far from it

However, national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team is currently a long way from that. The World Cup begins in two and a half months in the USA, Canada and Mexico – and after the first game of the last regular season, the DFB team clearly left more question marks than exclamation marks.

In the 4-3 win on Friday evening against Switzerland, at best the offense was already in tournament form. Florian Wirtz played outstandingly, setting up two goals and scoring two more himself. Serge Gnabry impressed with a goal and an assist, and Kai Havertz, on his comeback after almost a year and a half, showed what quality he can actually give this team in attack.

Havertz created chance after chance, but the lack of match practice was obvious – he didn’t take advantage of any of his sometimes very good opportunities. In addition, debutant Lennart Karl was someone who was able to provide fresh impetus from the bench. After coming on as a substitute, the 18-year-old initiated several attacks on the right side – something that Leroy Sané had hardly managed to do before.

So there were definitely positive things about this 4:3, not least the result. But it came about extremely bumpily. Nico Schlotterbeck made simple mistakes before both Swiss goals, and his teammates too often appeared insecure and nervous during the build-up under high pressure. Even Jonathan Tah, who had recently been in good form, showed a mixed performance: a goal on the one hand, a positional error with a goal conceded on the other.

The impression remains: the defense is still a long way from being ready for a World Cup. In central defense it is still unclear who will be seeded in the tournament – even if Antonio Rüdiger was on the bench for 90 minutes in Basel.

But it is clear that in June you need a duo that is at its absolute peak in order to be able to keep up with the top nations. Germany allowed far too much against Switzerland – as they did in November against Slovakia and especially in Luxembourg.

The starting position is certainly not as difficult as it was at the beginning of 2024. However, there are still too many construction sites that coach Nagelsmann has to close quickly. On Monday against Ghana (8.45 p.m., RTL), the team has one last opportunity to show a different face before preparing for the World Cup. If this succeeds, the necessary momentum could perhaps emerge from the current uncertainty.