“Everyone is happy, everyone is hot”

Making the jump to the national football team as a player in the Bundesliga table leader is actually nothing surprising. But for Robert Andrich, the first appointment by national coach Julian Nagelsmann was unexpected.

The 29-year-old midfielder is currently not a regular at leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Although he was used in six of seven games this season, he was only in coach Xabi Alonso’s starting line-up once.

“Very surprising”

“The timing was very surprising for me because personally things have been going better and better for the last five years and for me personally it’s just not that satisfactory at the moment,” said Andrich after the second day of training for the DFB team in Foxborough.

Nevertheless, he was very happy about the call from Nagelsmann. And he confidently added: “And I also believe that I have worked it out over the years.”

Andrich is enjoying his time in the USA. “I think you can personally leave a little bit of the negative at home and look forward to this incredible experience here in the USA and at the DFB, to soak it all up, get it all out and just do your best,” said Andrich: “That’s why There is no room for negativity.”

Nagelsmann sees Andrich as a six-man with a different profile than that embodied by captain Ilkay Gündogan, Joshua Kimmich or Leon Goretzka. The Leverkusen player could “be a kind of destroyer,” explained the national coach. Andrich also brings a special sense of responsibility for the defense.

Now, like the other newcomers Chris Führich (VfB Stuttgart) and Kevin Behrens (Union Berlin), he is hoping for it, perhaps on Saturday in Hartford against the USA (9 p.m. CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the national team and on RTL) or next Wednesday in Philadelphia to make his international debut against Mexico (2:00 a.m. CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the national team and on ARD).

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He feels great motivation in training and in the squad: “Everyone is looking forward to the games. Everyone is excited for the games. If a new coach is there, then you might have another two or three percent more, you can step on the gas, you have new input.”