Germany started their Tokyo 2020 campaign with a 4-2 defeat against defending champions Brazil on Thursday in Yokohama. After trailing 3-0 at the break, coach Stefan Kuntz’s team showed their fighting spirit in the second half and pulled back two goals but were ultimately undone as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser. DFB.de have summed up all the post-match reaction.
Stefan Kuntz: Our build-up play was poor and we made a lot of bad passes. We didn’t play with courage and we misplaced a lot of our balls which created a lot of opportunities for Brazil to counterattack. We just weren’t in control of the game and they could have scored more goals. You hope as a coach that this will jolt the team into action. I would say that the boys aren’t quite up to the level physically yet either, but I don’t say that to disparage them in any way. That’s simply the way that things are in terms of our preparation. What’s important now is putting this game behind us as quickly as possible. It’s all about getting the team back on its feet so that we can show a different side of our game in the next two matches.
Florian Müller: It was a brutally tough game for us. We showed them too much respect in the first half and we weren’t committed enough in the duels. We just lacked a certain something in each area of the pitch and the Brazilians exploited that ruthlessly. In the second half we tried to improve our play and we succeeded at that. We kept our belief right up the end of the game. It’s a bitter feeling to have conceded right at the death. It’s just one game of football though and we have to put it behind us. We still have two group-stage matches ahead of us and everything is still within reach. We don’t want to make any excuses; we did a lot wrong in the first half. We cannot be afraid of our opponents going into the next game. We have to play with courage. If we can do that, then anything is possible.
Max Kruse: In a tournament like this, you have to get off to a good start as fast as possible and we didn’t manage to do that at all in the first half today. We’re not here just to take part in the ceremony, we want to actually achieve something. You struggled to see that before the break and it’s up to us to make sure that changes. After half time, we rediscovered our morale and kept pushing them. We have to build on the second half and take the positives from that 45 minutes with us.
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Germany started their Tokyo 2020 campaign with a 4-2 defeat against defending champions Brazil on Thursday in Yokohama. After trailing 3-0 at the break, coach Stefan Kuntz’s team showed their fighting spirit in the second half and pulled back two goals but were ultimately undone as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser. DFB.de have summed up all the post-match reaction.
Stefan Kuntz: Our build-up play was poor and we made a lot of bad passes. We didn’t play with courage and we misplaced a lot of our balls which created a lot of opportunities for Brazil to counterattack. We just weren’t in control of the game and they could have scored more goals. You hope as a coach that this will jolt the team into action. I would say that the boys aren’t quite up to the level physically yet either, but I don’t say that to disparage them in any way. That’s simply the way that things are in terms of our preparation. What’s important now is putting this game behind us as quickly as possible. It’s all about getting the team back on its feet so that we can show a different side of our game in the next two matches.
Florian Müller: It was a brutally tough game for us. We showed them too much respect in the first half and we weren’t committed enough in the duels. We just lacked a certain something in each area of the pitch and the Brazilians exploited that ruthlessly. In the second half we tried to improve our play and we succeeded at that. We kept our belief right up the end of the game. It’s a bitter feeling to have conceded right at the death. It’s just one game of football though and we have to put it behind us. We still have two group-stage matches ahead of us and everything is still within reach. We don’t want to make any excuses; we did a lot wrong in the first half. We cannot be afraid of our opponents going into the next game. We have to play with courage. If we can do that, then anything is possible.
Max Kruse: In a tournament like this, you have to get off to a good start as fast as possible and we didn’t manage to do that at all in the first half today. We’re not here just to take part in the ceremony, we want to actually achieve something. You struggled to see that before the break and it’s up to us to make sure that changes. After half time, we rediscovered our morale and kept pushing them. We have to build on the second half and take the positives from that 45 minutes with us.
