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Munich (dpa) - 128 days.
That's 18 weeks - or more than four months.
Over this long period, Joachim Löw has to carry around the agonizing ballast of the 0: 6 swatter against Spain.
The national soccer team's long winter break will not end until March 25, 2021.
But then the World Cup qualification will go straight to the limit: The opening game against Iceland is followed by an away game in Romania and another home game against North Macedonia every three days.
Three point games in seven days means: three chances of probation for players and coaches in the final screening before the nomination of the preliminary EM squad.
The start of the European Championship year will be the first significant delivery date for the eternal Federal Jogi in 2021. "It is important that we successfully play the three qualifying games," said Löw.
A good two and a half months before the start of the tournament against world champions France in Munich, there is an urgent need for a change in mood among the German fan base.
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The long-term partnership between the 60-year-old Löw and the German Football Association has become fragile.
A permanent “business as usual” is out of the question.
The EM, which has been postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic, will be the ultimate endurance test;
even if Löw's contract ends after the 2022 Winter World Cup in Qatar.
“We don't have a game, but we won't stop work until March.
We have a lot to do, »said Löw when he presented himself publicly three weeks ago and campaigned for trust in himself and his way to the EM.
A trust that many fans have withdrawn from the 2014 world champion coach, which the otherwise divided DFB leadership expressed to him after the only but severe defeat in 2020.
Löw is convinced: "The team has a very good future, also over the years to come."
And he is still absolutely convinced of himself and his work.
The actually difficult Corona year 2020 was simply classified by DFB Director Oliver Bierhoff as an "exceptional situation" in which the further development of the team inevitably had to stagnate.
Löw set other priorities: he spared some stars, experimented with newcomers.
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Löw does not want to deviate from his fundamental “red line”.
His thoughts for the international matches in the spring tend not to revolve around the 2014 world champions Thomas Müller (31), Mats Hummels (31) and Jérôme Boateng (32), who he retired in 2019.
Löw is reluctant to roll backwards.
He is supported in the upheaval by Bierhoff and the head of the association around President Fritz Keller.
Internally at the DFB, the EM will operate unchanged at the turn of the year under the clear project name “First tournament year for the new team”.
2019 was the “year of upheaval”, and 2020 was given the title “a special year”.
Löw believes in the repetition of the glorious past.
Third place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was considered to be the hour of birth of the 2014 world championship team. "This team developed in a tournament," recalled Löw.
Innovative and energetic, he created a new football “Made in Germany” a decade ago with his then assistant coach Hansi Flick.
By the way, Löw did not bring back Michael Ballack, who was injured shortly before the World Cup.
Now history should repeat itself with the new generation of players around Kimmich, Gnabry, Goretzka, Süle, Werner.
"I have to agree with Jogi Löw that 2024 should be the big event in Germany," said DFB President Fritz Keller.
At the latest at the home European championships, Germany should be a real title contender again.
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According to Löw, the players need tournament experience for this.
“In 2010 or 2012 we didn't have the leading players on the field,” he said.
Neuer, Müller, Boateng, Özil, Khedira or Kroos also had to mature over years.
"We cannot inject experience", said Bierhoff in his 2020 analysis: "You have to work for it."
Joshua Kimmich, who was injured during the rubdown in Spain, sees his generation in the debt.
“We have not yet been able to repay the national coach's trust perfectly.
It's up to us to bring the talent and potential onto the pitch, ”said the 25-year-old midfielder in“ Deutschlandfunk Sport Talk ”.
In the interview, the FC Bayern junior boss spoke plainly: "We all know that we are playing bad football at the moment."
At the disastrous World Cup in Russia in 2018, Löw did not have the courage to rely more on the fresh Confed Cup winners from 2017.
The well-deserved world champions of 2014 should fix it again.
It went wrong.
He doesn't want to repeat the mistake.
“Young players who have potential must be given space and time to develop”, is Löw's credo for the European Championship year, which will also have a decisive impact on his personal future.
Because Löw has learned one thing in professional football: "A coach is always the very first to be held responsible for success in the end."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201229-99-839738 / 3