Since Olympique Lyon was confirmed as Bayern’s next opponent in the Champions League, the French coach has been asked by German reporters: Why is your name Rudi?
Rudi Garcia solved the riddle on Saturday: His father was a cycling fan and an ardent admirer of our unforgettable road world champion Rudi Altig. The rest came by itself. “I’m a bit German,” says Rudi.
This revelation was almost to be expected, it fits like the icing on the cake of an amazing trend: three and a half German coaches are in the semi-finals of the premier class. There is not even room for Jürgen Klopp, he said goodbye to Liverpool in time, it would have been too tight.
Lyons Cach Rudi Garcia in the quarterfinals win over Manchester City
What: AP
So let’s buckle up, the week is going to be exciting: Julian Nagelsmann (Leipzig) meets Thomas Tuchel (Paris) on Tuesday evening, and the next day the Tiki Taka destroyer Hansi Flick (Bavaria) also wants to show “our” Rudi and his Lyoners how pressing works.
Origin 1958
Twenty years ago you shouldn’t have told anyone, you would have been locked up. At the time, German coaches were considered tactically undernourished, they preferred to limit themselves to our proven virtues and Franz Beckenbauer’s strategy: “Go out and play.” As a TV expert, Günter Netzer put the philosophy behind: “No matter how clever tactics are as good as a stupid goal. “
And now this: As clever tinkerers, the German coaches suddenly take the air to breathe, the desire to do magic – and take the ball off before they even have it.
What has happened there?
The miracle originally dates back to June 29, 1958. It was the day on which a 17-year-old child prodigy named Pelé scored two goals in the 5-2 Brazilians against the Swedes in the World Cup final in Stockholm and was born as the king of football – but above all another child was born at the same time in the Swabian town of Backnang, who remembers today: “When I was six, my father registered me in the D-Jugend, and I already divided the ten-year-olds into teams and gave them commands . “
As we know today, Ralf Rangnick became a revolutionary in German coaching. As a young visionary, he trained the third division SSV Ulm 1846 ready for the Bundesliga, a team without stars – as “Professor Dr. Rangnick ”(according to the astonished BILD Bundesliga tester Max Merkel) he invented the ball-oriented room covering with a back four and pressing.
That was new. Until then, we Germans had lagged behind in terms of tactics – and were amazed when the upstart Rangnick drew his innovative system in chalk on a school blackboard one evening in the ZDF sports studio. The wife of national coach Ribbeck is said to have said spontaneously in front of the television: “Erich, why don’t you let yourself play like that?” What Ribbeck replied to her is unclear, only his public reply is known: “These are truisms – were the coaches in the Bundesliga because so far complete idiots? “
Not all. But many. “In Holland, Italy or Switzerland they were tactically further,” knows Rangnick.
Especially the Dutch. One of the coaches there was named Louis van Gaal, and long before he evangelized FC Bayern, he blasphemed with impunity that we Germans only have to narrow the rooms when setting up the game, because then automatically our man markers get what they like least: the ball Leo Beenhakker, another luminary, answered a reporter when asked about the strengths of German football: “Do you have half a minute?” If necessary, it could have been faster.
Learning from Lobanowski and Sacchi
The most modern coach at that time was Valery Lobanovsky. He conquered Europe with Dynamo Kiev, and a friendly match in Backnang is considered to be an awakening experience for the young trainer Rangnick there. “They were always one more,” he remembers, “they kept surrounding us.”
His other teacher was Arrigo Sacchi at AC Milan. He looked like Louis de Funès, was originally a shoe seller and never a great footballer – and with the view in Germany at the time, Rangnick estimates, “he would never have got a chance in the Bundesliga.”
Thomas Tuchel is currently still suffering from the consequences of a broken foot
Source: dpa
Gone, barred. The coaching world is suddenly upside down, foreign countries want Germans. Liverpool loves Klopp, Tuchel shows it to his Parisians, and Real was keen on Nagelsmann two years ago. “Not yet,” said the gifted man, but they’ll call him again, the media hymns to the virtuoso genius are too loud. “Nagelsmann is currently writing his doctoral thesis”, wrote “El Mundo Deportivo” most recently, and the “Marca” sees him as the father of “a German symphony”.
Like Mozart, the boy wonder actually wanted to play the triad in this Champions League: He has already dethroned the coaching kings José Mourinho (Tottenham) and Diego Simeone (Atlético), and Nagelsmann could have crowned the final with Pep Guardiola at best. But that failed because of Radel-Rudi. Half a German trainer is already too good for the best.
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