It may be hard to fathom now, but a year ago Germany’s defense played a starring role in securing the country’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup. Slovakia may have shocked Julian Nagelsmann’s men in an opening 2-0 defeat, but the Germans conceded just one goal in their next five matches (and no goals in the last four) to eventually win the World Cup qualifying group after all.
That was also the last time Germany managed back-to-back clean sheets. In fact, Germany has shut out its opponents just
once in the last 10 matches—in a friendly match against Finland—as the 2014 winners fell desperately short in the latest edition of the World Cup.
There are many problems for new Germany manager Jürgen Klopp to fix, but stabilizing the defense was certainly high on the list. That defense crumbled against the Netherlands with FC Barcelona loanee Marc-André ter Stegen in goal and still saw Germany concede a goal (with Alexander Nübel as the net’s steward) in their first encounter with Greece, but it certainly looked better against Serbia and in the rematch against Greece.
As the squads changed during the international break, Jonas Urbig stood in goal in the latter matches. It would be silly to claim he excelled, given he only had to make three saves, but he certainly provided a very calming presence to the backline. Besides, his early save against Greece was very important. Who would have known the former FC Köln player would impress so much in his first two matches in a Germany shirt?
This international break will not have made Klopp’s job of finding a new No. 1 easier. But he will now know that Urbig can shoulder the burden of being Germany’s goalkeeper. That can only help.
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