Germany upended Scotland 2-1 in a Euro match played in Dortmund…

The first official match since the World Cup saw Germany face Scotland in the European Group Qualifier. Although the DFB squad had played their first match against Argentina, losing 2-4, not too much can be made of that, since it was a friendly that nobody really cares about (at least in Germany. Maybe Argentina wanted this “revenge”, but whatever. Look at the scoreboard from Rio and tell me which one you like better? I thought so…)

In any case, Joggi Löw knew he would start with a re-tooling of the World Champions. Three mainstays of the national team retired. Miro Klose had a fine run, and although his all-time scoring title over Gerd Müller is somewhat misleading, he was always a model professional. Still, he was already at the end of a glorious run, so no doubt his retirement wasn’t going to cause any loss of sleep for Löw. Per Mertesacker also stepped down, but again this is not a huge loss. He’s been downhill ever since he left Bremen, and hasn’t really been outstanding in England. A fine player at an international level in the right system, but not overpowering. The huge loss was of course captain Philipp Lahm, perhaps still the best outside defender in the world. He will be hard to replace.

With Ozil and Schweinsteiger missing, Germany was also weakened, but at least Marco Reus was back. Löw only had 8 reserves, and two of them were goalkeepers. (Scotland brought 12 reserves). Perhaps he was thinking if Germany started routing the Scots, he’d give Neuer the rest of the night off at halftime. Youngsters such as Sebastian Rudy (Hoffenheim) and Eric Durm (Dortmund) were in the back, and were a bit shaky at times. In addition, Gladbach’s Christoph Kramer started in midfield.

Scotland has been a non-factor in European football for several years, but manager Gordon Strachan seems to have them on the right track. They fought hard and gave Germany a good match. Thomas Müller got both goals (and barely missed a third off the post) to seal the win, but the Scots have to feel good about their performance. Joggi Löw couldn’t have been too happy, but he has a lot of young talent waiting in the wings, so over the Euro Group stages, we should see some good ones emerge. Germany has invested heavily in their youth setup, and it certainly paid dividends in winning the World Cup, and they’re turning out good players.

It shouldn’t really matter too much, as everyone expects Germany to win their group. Aside from Scotland, Poland, Ireland, Georgia and – yes it’s not a joke – Gibraltar are the competition. Yep, that Germany-Gibraltar matchup figures to be a memorable one. Maybe the DFB should send Hamburger SV instead to make it interesting. The Polish team could be pretty good, but even with experimental squads the DFB should be able to get the points.