TV criticism of Germany against Spain
“Now we’re in” – the world champions on ZDF feel the World Cup
In the second you have really arrived in the tournament: ZDF presenter Jochen Breyer (left) and football expert Jörg Kramer
© ZDF / Michael Braunschädel
“A wild game”, that’s what ZDF expert Christoph Kramer wanted. In the end, Germany showed a strong game against Spain, and not only Sandro Wagner went to bed satisfied.
When it’s all over, Tom Cruise takes the wheel and embarks on his Mission Impossible. Whoever was responsible for the program planning that evening on ZDF, it is hard to imagine that this blockbuster, which appears smug given the footballing melee, was placed there purely by chance. However, when Lalo Schifrin’s legendary theme music sounds around 10:45 p.m., the actual mission of the day has already been accomplished. Impossible? A little bit.
Mission Impossible, hardly a film title could have been more suitable for this World Cup match day, as Hansi Flick’s team was already under immense pressure after the 2-1 defeat against Japan. In the second German television, this time it was the turn to deal with Qatar, the pulse was kept high in the afternoon, showed team bus trips pimped up with drone recordings and CCTV-like effects, jazzed up the absence of the national player, who was traditionally required by the PK before the game, to a boycott and tried to lure Oliver Bierhoff out of his reserve in the interview. However, in comparison to the Japan game, he turned out to be surprisingly well recovered and looked forward optimistically and relaxed.
World Cup 2022 in Qatar
Germany in the individual criticism: A Munich brings the turning point, a Bremen shows the killer instinct
The trio Merte/Kramer/Breyer is in the lead
Similar mood in the ZDF studio with host Jochen Breyer, the guests with him the traditional tandem: Per Mertesacker, who seemed so cool as if he had climbed into the ice bin again shortly before the show, plus Christoph Kramer, who at the end of the first World Cup week still exudes the same grin vigor as at the beginning. ZDF had fulfilled his wish from the tactics board, and the national team finally offered him, at least in part, what he had hoped for from the kick against Spain: a wild game.
In general, the tactics board: no matter how old-fashioned the team changing room props may be – after a week of the World Cup, ZDF and Triple Merte/Kramer/Breyer are ahead. With the second one you can see it better so far, or to put it another way: It’s hard to imagine that these days the phrase “Come on quickly, honey, Esther and Basti will be right there” will be heard somewhere, or nails will be chewed feverishly when Jessy Wellmer Talk round conducted in the first. Everyone from Hitz, the Hammer to Almuth Schult to Sami Kheidira does a solid job, really wild, to quote Christoph Kramer, but it won’t.
The sockless look is irritating
It’s different on ZDF, where Merte and Kramer tease each other, one makes the other’s wish elf mad, and the other way around, everyone grins broadly while listening: Oh, I like it when Per switches to serious mode, Kramer comments so ironically and honestly his laugh while listening to his former national team-mate. Sitting with your legs apart may still irritate you, as does the sockless look at Mertesacker and Breyer, but: while the first was still ahead, it seems that a little desert sand has slowly trickled into the gears, but in the second you are against it only now really arrived in the tournament.
Sandro Wagner’s Schauzer, an untranslated interview with Spain’s Morata, Thomas Müller, who has almost returned to his usual chummy arrogance after winning the first point, Kramer’s vision that it will go very far and Mertesacker’s emotional state that you’re really in the tournament now is – somehow it fit that evening in the second. And while Tom Cruise started the aforementioned Mission Impossible, Sandro Wagner already had the beard tie on his bedside table: As a German supporter, you go to bed in Qatar contentedly. Let’s hope there’s no rude awakening against Costa Rica… now that we’re really in it.