I was going to write something last night, but had I done so that would have been a very stupid idea. Not that it mattered anyway since when I sat down to write the words just weren’t there. All of my angry ranting disappeared which isn’t such a bad thing. I could rant about the absurd Erdogan-gate situation, the fact they picked Neuer over ter Stegen, their conservative team selection in contrast to the Confed Cup last summer, youth not being given enough of a chance, Nils Petersen being dropped before he really had a chance to make an impression yet the useless Mario Gomez getting picked (again). And there’s much more to rant about too, not least the way the press and people are attacking Jogi. It seems people have very short memories, a genius one summer, then the next a stupid weirdo who should be sacked. It didn’t take long for the insults to start flying or for them to get personal. Nor did it take long for the tabloids to start speculating about a possible successor, before they had even landed in Frankfurt. And what a strange little list they’ve cooked up; Jurgen Klopp, Julian Nagelsmann, Stefan Kuntz, Jupp Heynckes (just what are these people smoking I’d like to know), Arsene Wenger, Matthias Sammer and last but not least Hansi Flick. It seems like the so called journalists are just as bad as the crazies on the internet. But I’m not getting involved with that, not this time, I’m not wasting my time arguing with randoms on the internet. Not because Jogi isn’t worth defending, more that they aren’t worth the energy.
Though there is one very important point I have to mention, they are not as some tabloids have taken to saying “Ex world champions.” Not yet they aren’t, until the next team wins that trophy they are still world champions. And the players who won in 2014 (and Jogi too) will always be champions. They won the world cup, they won the confed cup – nothing can ever change that, no matter what happens next.
And it’s for a similar reason that I’m not going to write out the little rant about the Erdogan situation, or anything else. There’s enough negativity and criticism going around, there’s no need to add to it. Getting angry won’t change what happened. As for being upset I think I’m pretty much done with that now, actually I was done with the tears by the end of the post-match show. Done with being upset but not the disappointment, that will take a lot longer to go away. Whilst the anger is disappearing the sense of a stunned silence and a “I can’t believe that really happened” feeling is still there. The anxiety over waiting for Jogi’s decision does not make it any easier. Not that I plan on sitting around waiting to see what happens. Germany are out of the world cup but the summer is not over, there’s still the rest of the world cup to watch and I hate to admit it but it hasn’t disappointed. And more importantly I have the Jogi highlights to put together from the last game. I’ve been putting it off, waiting for it all to sink in properly, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen anytime soon.
On the subject of obsessions this would logically speaking be the perfect time to walk away from all of this, to make a clean break and move onto something new. It has after all been four years and it’s been quite a while since I’ve had an obsession that has lasted that long. Logical it may be, but I can’t, not like this. Besides I don’t think you get to choose when an obsession is over and done with, at least I never have, they tend to have a life of their own. And I’m just not done with this one yet.
The title could refer to the last world cup, but it actually has another meaning. It’s been four years since I started posting on here and I honestly never thought I’d stick with it that long. In those four years it somehow feels like a lot has happened and yet nothing at the same time. In the last year in particular things happened that I never imagined would actually happen. I think about death quite a lot, write about it and spend way more time than I should planning the perfect death. Yet I never imagined I’d actually try to do it. Obviously I didn’t succeed, and I’m still not really sure if that’s a good thing or not.
The point is I didn’t and all this stuff about getting knocked out of the world cup being the worst thing to happen ever and the end of the world got me thinking about the matter. It got me thinking about Robert Enke, even if ARD hadn’t aired that documentary a few weeks ago my thoughts would have gone to him. If I could remember the quote I’m thinking of I’d quote Jogi on the matter, I’m sure he said something about how losing a match or getting knocked out of a tournament isn’t the worst feeling in the world/the worst that can happen, things like Enke dying, that’s the worst thing. I think I might finally be mature enough to see things that way. I wasn’t a few years ago, back then I thought Freiburg getting relegated was the end of the world. Now this hurts a lot more than relegation ever could, but the principle is the same. I’m not going to lie and say football is just a game because it’s not, it means so much more than that. But I know life goes on after this, I’m not spending days moping around because of it.
There’s a picture from tonight’s after show which can sum up my ramblings better than I ever could. Translated it means “Success makes it easy to be proud.” It’s easy to support a team when they’re winning and doing great, like it was easy to support Freiburg in the 2016/17 season when they were having one of their best seasons ever. The season that followed it was a lot more difficult to endure, but it never crossed my mind to abandon them. And the same goes for Jogi and die Mannschaft. There’s no earthly reason I can see to do that. When this obsession is done (if it ever is) I’ll know it, and now is not the time.
