It is almost an impossible mission to find among the 48 World Cup teams a rival as friendly as the one Manuel Neuer will meet this Sunday on his return to international football. Germany’s starting goalkeeper, who does not play with team since in July 2024 of the Euro Cup against Spain, (7:00 p.m.; La1 and Dazn)—one of the Caribbean islands that until 2010 was part of the extinct Dutch Antilles—the German team’s jersey for the fifth consecutive World Cup, a record that until now was held alone by Lothar Matthäus.
That the most successful European team in history – four World Cups and three European Championships – faces the smallest country that has ever entered the tournament – some 156,000 inhabitants, almost the same as Logroño, Marbella or Badajoz – must constitute something like the most unequal debut in the history of the World Cups. Also after Neuer, whom he rescued for the group in May amid tremendous expectations, was unable to play a single minute in the two preparatory wins against Finland (4-0) and the United States (1-2) due to the injury he suffered in his left calf. “If I had a 22-year-old goalkeeper, the situation would worry me more, but Manuel has accumulated many games and experience. He doesn’t need many tests to regain his rhythm,” said the national team coach. team on Monday, when the goalkeeper was finally able to return to training in the open session held in Winston-Salem (North Carolina), where Germany has its headquarters, in front of some 3,000 fans.
At the press conference, Nagelsmann highlighted the “aura” of the goalkeeper, champion of a World Cup, 13 Bundesliga titles, two Champions Leagues, two European Super Cups, two Club World Cups, seven Cups, one League Cup and eight German Super Cups. Throughout the week so did the rest of the colleagues who paraded before the media. “You can tell if he’s in the goal. You have to shoot a little more positioned. He’s one of the best goalkeepers of all time, but also a very calm man. When you talk to him, you feel his experience and his understanding of football,” said Deniz Undav, the Bundesliga’s second top scorer this season. “He has that special charisma, that special character. When we were very little, we saw Manuel in goal when we still watched the games on TV. That’s why he has great respect,” added Jonathan Tah, his teammate at Bayern.
When Nagelsmann saw Mexico and Canada in January, he began to think about the goalkeeping situation. He first used Oliver Baumann (36 years old) as a starter, but for him the best player he could bring to the World Cup in that position was Neuer, a footballer with an enormous size and a privileged aerial command of the area who during his career stood out for his reflexes, his agility and his footwork, developed especially during Pep Guardiola’s time at Bayern. “The main task was to nominate the three best goalkeepers. We decided that these three [Neuer, Baumann y Alexander Nübel (29)] will be part of the list. “We contacted Manuel and asked him if he wanted to play with the national team again,” the coach explained on May 21, the day he announced the call for the championship. “Manuel is ready and will leave tomorrow,” he added yesterday in Houston to settle the doubts.
Nagelsmann’s announcement came after the exhibition that Neuer gave in April at the Santiago Bernabéu during the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. The goalkeeper, hit by injuries for a long time – in December 2022 he fractured the tibia and fibula of his right leg while skiing in the Alps – and the passage of time, did not seem the same, but that day his level reminded us of the imposing goalkeeper he had been, no matter how much in the return leg.
In Houston, a grid city designed for cars where they circulate all the time cadillacs and vans pickupswhere the heat is scorching and humid and where until this weekend the only signs that this is one of the 16 venues of the tournament were left by the Latin American community and the posters scattered throughout the streets, Germany will try to win its third match in a World Cup since against Argentina. The team He only added two wins in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, where he did not even pass the first phase.
and that the German team aspires to everything in a group that also includes Ivory Coast and Ecuador, in addition to Curacao, a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and whose team is full of footballers born in Holland who are children and grandchildren of emigrants from the Caribbean island. “We want to be world champions,” Nagelsmann launched in the midst of a streak of nine consecutive victories. On that path that the coach fantasizes about, Neuer will be in charge, the man who returned to Germany to occupy the goal and who today will equal the record of Frenchman Hugo Lloris as the goalkeeper with the most games (20) in the history of the World Cup.
