Germany and football, it’s complicated, not just since the women’s preliminary round at the World Cup. And the DFB is looking for answers.
Recently, Bernd Neuendorf has sometimes talked about his travel plans, he was drawn to far-off places, to Australia and New Zealand. Neuendorf is President of the German Football Association (DFB), at the women’s World Cup he wanted to travel to the round of 16 to support Germany’s national team. But Neuendorf’s plans were thwarted by reality even before the start of the journey.
That with Germany and the World Cup was not a success story, on the contrary. The round of 16 will take place without the two-time world champion. Neuendorf, 62, may now be saving himself from jet lag, but he might even have put up with it to avoid what awaited him instead on Friday (08/04/2023).
A press conference by the DFB took place in Hanau, the association actually wanted to inform about an action that should ensure closer ties between amateur clubs and national players at the men’s European Championship next summer. The main prize is an event day, time that internationals and amateurs will spend together. Instead, it was quite often about the elimination of women. Neuendorf said he would have liked to accompany the team, preferably to the final. “Now, unfortunately, I have to stay at home.”
Women, men, U21 – all out in the preliminary round
But that’s how it was sometimes with German football recently: you had big plans at the DFB, also talented footballers, but then something often happened. The men have recently failed twice in a row in the preliminary round at the world championships, with an EM in between, which ended in the round of 16. The team that no longer wants to be “The Team” last won a title at the 2014 World Cup.
And then there was the U21 national team. She had always reached the final at the European Championships in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and won twice. When another European Championship took place in the summer, Germany was one of the favorites – and was eliminated in the preliminary round.
The women were in the final at the 2022 European Championship and lost, it was Germany’s first defeat in the ninth European Championship final. And yet it was a success. So many had counted the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg among the favorites even before the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. It turned out differently.
Between claim and reality
“To be honest, it’s not our aim,” said Neuendorf, which wasn’t a surprise. The only problem is: German football has some problems, the training, the demands, the appearance – and the DFB is not always to blame. These are twilight days right now for an association that doesn’t appear to have been prepared for it. Surprisingly, only the early end of the women had been. The big question will now be what conclusions the DFB draws. Does he draw any?
Next to Neuendorf was Rudi Völler on Friday in Hanau, it was a home game for him, he was born there. Völler, 63, has been sporting director of the men’s national team for a few months and his opinion is wanted. Actually, Völler always has an opinion, this time too. You shouldn’t mix up the disappointing performance of men and women and the U21s, said Völler, “that would be wrong.”
So he made a separation. At the women’s World Cup, they all assumed that Germany would “at least reach the round of 16,” said Völler. “That was surprising and disappointing. But our women showed what they are capable of at last year’s European Championships.”
No more experiments – but is that really enough?
Of course, Völler also spoke about the men’s national team. Völler sees it as “a lot of room for improvement”. He didn’t have to fear any opposition. It was also about the national coach Hans-Dieter Flick, whom everyone only calls Hansi. Hansi Flick, said Völler, would “stop experimenting against Japan and France in September, bring in the base team. He said he would now narrow the circle of players a little.” Then yes.
An end to all experiments and circles that are getting narrower – in the world of sports director Rudi Völler, the analyzes are not unnecessarily complicated even in 2023. The only question is whether that does justice to the state of German football. Whether there are also officials at the DFB for whom that is not enough.
In the months after the botched men’s World Cup, when Völler had just started his job as sports director, he gave a lengthy interview to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. Völler said the DFB was “not to blame for everything”, citing a lack of center forwards and full-backs as examples. And the association can’t help it if the footballers lack passion.
In this interview, Völler was even willing to make a comparison, comparing Germany’s national team with that of world champion Argentina. He said: “Apart from Lionel Messi, who is outstanding and everyone gave him this World Cup title, I don’t want anyone to tell me that the Argentines are better than us.”
2023-08-04 23:35:10
#Crisis #DFB #days #twilight
