Before kick-off, light blue was a dominant color on Saturday night.

The peace logo, merged with the brand design of the German Football Association (DFB), shone brightly in the Sinsheim Arena.

In an ordinary world it would simply have been the start of a World Cup year, but this test match against Israel was overlaid several times by topics of a completely different scope.

Christian Kamp

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

As the players entered the arena, they passed a blue banner with the message "Peace" and, in Cyrillic letters, "Me."

A huge blue and yellow heart for Ukraine was shown in the block where Hoffenheim fans are usually at home.

Bernd Neuendorf, the new DFB President, spoke on the ZDF microphone about his political plans for the World Cup in Qatar and how gratifying it was against the background of German-Israeli history to be able to come together for a "peaceful football game".

Finally, the deceased football personalities Egidius Braun, Horst Eckel, Jürgen Grabowski and Hans-Jürgen "Dixie" Dörner were commemorated.

Lots of topics and messages, these are turbulent times for the national players too, who have to find a way of dealing with them.

In terms of sport, it was a probationary game in which national coach Hansi Flick gave some returnees and second-row players a chance.

It turned out to be an evening that was fun, with a German national team that was committed, enthusiastic, enthusiastic about the game, went to work in the 2-0 win, but ultimately also a bit imperfectly.

For a long time it looked like a talent show, sometimes with a touch of magic, but not yet tournament toughness - which was mainly expressed in a certain awkwardness to make something countable out of superiority against an Israeli team that was committed to damage limitation, but no World Cup benchmark was: Excuse me, where did you go to the goal again?

Standards provide the goals

The balls needed to be at rest for the goals.

Kai Havertz converted a corner kick from David Raum in the 36th minute, Timo Werner saved a free kick from Ilkay Gündogan (45+1) to make it 2-0 just before the break.

In the final minutes, Thomas Müller had the best set piece chance, but instead of a bursting of joy over the goal, with which Müller would have drawn level with Uwe Seeler (43 goals), only the "clang" of the goalpost could be heard.

In added time, Kevin Trapp saved a penalty from Yonatan Cohen.

Havertz' opening goal came at a time when the joy of seeing the audience again in the full Sinsheim stadium was already threatening to collapse in frustration at the usury of opportunities operated by the German team.

The question of reliability in front of goal will arise in the next few months, and probably already on Tuesday, when the tests continue in Amsterdam against the Netherlands (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the national soccer team and on ARD), then probably with the available forces in the first row.

Only four of them were there against Israel: Gündogan, as captain and commander in the centre, Thilo Kehrer, the long-term player under Flick, this time on the right side of defence, Havertz, in his prime role as the jewel of German football, and Werner, again for quite a while as an attacker by the unfortunate figure before his legwork was rewarded;

his sixth goal under Flick looked suspiciously offside, but you can be lucky sometimes.

Of those who were allowed and supposed to show themselves, Raum, Jamal Musiala and Nico Schlotterbeck did it best.

Raum, who bravely worked the left flank, Musiala, who appeared everywhere and unpredictably wherever an offensive action had to be initiated, and Schlotterbeck, who threw in one or the other sleek vertical ball from the center of defense on his debut - but he caused the penalty just before Enough.

Julian Weigl fitted back in neatly without overpowering, Julian Draxler slipped into the background too often, Jonathan Tah was hardly asked until he was spot on with a shot by Hoffenheim's Munas Dabbur early in the second half.

For a long time, goalkeepers Marc-André ter Stegen (first half) and Trapp (second) could only be said to be present until Trapp saved Cohen's penalty.

In Flick's team, Müller came on for Gündogan after the break, he took over the position in the offensive line from Musiala, who now came a little more from the depths and also did it excellently.

Perhaps the most dynamic phase followed, but the big picture of the game remained the same, the Germans stormed and pushed, but did not find the goal.

After an hour, Anton Stach, the second debutant, and Christian Günter were allowed to gain experience, and later Leroy Sané and Lukas Nmecha a few more minutes.

A foul on Nmecha led to a penalty – but, which was fitting for this evening, not the goal.