National team
No EM fever yet: Völler protects Flick
National coach Hansi Flick (l) watches his players during training. photo
© Federico Gambarini/dpa
Exactly one year before the home EM kicks off, there can be no question of euphoria about the national soccer team. Even a T-shirt campaign with the chancellor doesn’t change that.
The Chancellor was no help for Hansi Flick either. After a good 15 minutes with maximum protocol-related anticipation, Olaf Scholz said goodbye to the countdown appointment in Berlin exactly one year before the home EM for the cabinet meeting.
At the same time, the national soccer coach and his off-track national players were preparing for training in sunny Frankfurt/Main. The unit on the DFB campus, which lasted a little over an hour, without triple champion Ilkay Gündogan with intensive passing games, seemed like any other – like everyday life in a low mood.
Two days before the next test match in Warsaw against Poland, DFB sporting director Rudi Völler was told live on the radio how the euphoria at the European Championships was going twelve months before kick-off in Munich. Between 80s songs he had selected, listener questions were read to the 63-year-old on Wednesday morning on Hit Radio FFH. The first was not about youngster Jamal Musiala’s favorite song, or what Niclas Füllkrug likes to eat – the listener wanted to know whether Hansi Flick would remain a coach despite everything.
Völler on Flick: “An absolute top trainer”
“Yes, of course,” replied the former team boss in his own tone of conviction, which can also sound casual because of an actually unnecessary question. Flick is “an absolute top trainer who will do everything to ensure that we bring enthusiasm back to Germany in the next few games,” said Völler and promised for the game on Friday (8.45 p.m. / ARD) against Poland and which has therefore become more important than planned Flicks former Bayern top player Robert Lewandowski an increase in performance.
“We want to do better, and we know that we have the players who can inspire people,” said Völler, knowing that the sad 3-3 win against Ukraine in Bremen on Monday also failed was like Flick’s system experiment with the back three. It was the tenth winless game from the past 14 international matches. The team was whistled at in between. That’s also unsettling, said Jonas Hofmann from Mönchengladbach: “We’re just people on the pitch.”
The DFB professionals played their frustration off their souls on Tuesday at the bowling evening together. The DFB entourage travels to Warsaw on Thursday. “In the end, the result is what counts. It’s our job to deliver results,” said Hofmann after training. Champions League winner Gündogan from Manchester City and also Robin Gosens from the final losers Inter Milan and Timo Werner, who was still injured, were absent. Gündogan and Gosens, who arrived at the DFB quarters on Wednesday evening, could still play a role in Flick’s change ideas for Friday. Game number three against Colombia will follow next Tuesday.
Chain of three under observation
Alongside Lewandowski, a difficult-to-assess, youthful Polish selection is approaching his back three, whose composition the national coach has to put to the test. There will be “many emotions, not only sporting ones but also private ones,” said Lewandowski before seeing many old acquaintances again. The fact that the striker, who played a key role in Flick’s triple triumph in 2020 with FC Bayern Munich, can now worsen the situation surrounding the national coach is an anecdote from this international phase.
The emerging criticism of the national coach is “a bit part of our business,” said Völler. “You have to take that seriously, of course. But you shouldn’t overestimate it either. That’s also out of a certain disappointment.” Flick still carries “the mortgage” on his shoulders from the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022. But he had previously shown, and also at Bayern, “what a great coach he is. Every day he thinks about how we can improve a few things, and we will.”
Home EM “very important event” for Germany
Shortly after Völler’s status-now job guarantee for Flick, Chancellor Scholz (SDP) in Berlin described the European Championships at home as a “very important event” for Germany. A lot of people would be “excited” for the tournament and “many see it as a big festival in Europe”. Whether he was involved in the excitement remained open in the Chancellor’s garden. Scholz showed up next to tournament director Philipp Lahm and tournament ambassador Celia Sasic with a white T-shirt with the inscription “Home game for Europe”. The EM motto of politics could also be read on the base on which the silver cup stood.
In Frankfurt, Flick, Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, Emre Can and Leroy Sané were scheduled to visit the anniversary celebration of the host city of the European Championship in the afternoon. The quartet wrote a number of autographs for a good half hour and fulfilled selfie requests. But that wasn’t necessarily the highlight of the day in the Main metropolis either. Thousands of people took part in the big company run on Wednesday, which paralyzed parts of the city.