The need for Germany to beat Spain, in order not to be eliminated, contrasts with the fame cultivated after the 7-1, that the country produced its great reconstruction after falling in the first phase of Euro 2000.
In that Euro, the Germans were in last place in a bracket with Portugal, Romania and England. There is even a book published about the major reform, whose title is “Das Reboot” (The Reboot).
It explains step by step the process of rebirth of the German national team. And yet, after the 2014 world title, Germany was disqualified from the group stage of the 2018 World Cup. It had never happened.
After the 7-1 score, they played five matches in Cups: they lost to Mexico, South Korea and Japan, they beat Argentina in the Maracanã final, in extra time, and Sweden, in Russia, with a free kick by Toni Kroos in the 95th minute. .
That is, after Mineirão’s relentless thrashing, they didn’t win in ninety minutes in Cups.
Coach Joachim Löw, the tenth in a hundred years with the German national team, left after their elimination in the round of 16 of the Euro Cup, against England. But the dismissal was decided eight months earlier, after losing 6-0 to Spain, in the game that removed it from the League of Nations.
The 7 to 1 represented the decline of Brazil, but the emotional aspect was as important for that result as the technical one. The selection was not going well and Felipão made the wrong decisions, such as the selection of Bernard, against the will of his observers. The team had all the weight on a young 22-year-old star, who should have been part of an experienced team and became the only reference, after Adriano Imperador and Ronaldinho Gaúcho gave up their high-level careers.
Kaká was injured and Robinho committed the heinous crime, for which he was convicted, 17 months before the World Cup.
It would be normal for the Germans to win at the Mineirão. The 3-1 score would reflect that moment. The 7-1 was the sum of everything described above and the absences of the team’s star, due to injury, and captain Thiago Silva, due to suspension.
The 7-1 is not the symbol that everything was perfect in Berlin, nor is it destroyed here. The current crisis in Germany is also a reflection of the balance between the teams.
Which does not exclude the contrast between being pointed out as a symbol of modernity, in 2014, and collecting only dislikes afterwards.
Before the “Reboot”, the great German dishonor had happened in the Euro 1984, elimination in the first phase, in a game against Spain, today’s opponent. Directed by Jupp Derwall, former assistant to Helmut Schoen in the 1974 World Cup –any resemblance to Hansi Flick is not a coincidence–, Germany had a crisis with one of its stars, Bernd Schuster.
As brilliant as he was arrogant, Schuster refused to play for the national team after being scolded by Derwall for not going to Hansi Muller’s birthday party and publicly saying: “I don’t like Hansi”.
Derwall called Schuster, scolded him in two hundred words, and heard the phone go dead on the other end of the line. Schuster simply hung up.
Schuster’s wife stated that Derwall called her home and was drunk. The story, told in the book “Tor” (Gol), by German journalist Ulrich Hesse, ends with Germany’s 1-0 defeat by Spain and elimination in the group stage of Euro 1984. Derwall was sacked the following week.
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