Only the weather is annoying. The Leverkusen double winners are starting their preparations for the European Championship in good spirits. Nagelsmann’s “worker” Andrich, however, does not want another nickname for the big home tournament.
Florian Wirtz pulled his purple hood down over his face like some of his colleagues. National coach Julian Nagelsmann also preferred to protect himself from the cold water from above. Robert Andrich, however, simply threw his rain jacket to the side. In the sloppy Thuringian weather, the Leverkusen double winner demonstrated in his first training session for the European Championship that the cliché of the intrepid “worker” is unshakable.
The uncompromising football worker was not interested in another nickname before the visit of the special forces unit to the national team’s training camp. “Special operations commando” for the European Championship? “I wouldn’t call myself that directly,” said the 29-year-old. Club colleague Jonathan Tah next to him grinned, because the comparison was actually quite fitting.
Andrich was selected by Nagelsmann for crisis situations. He is supposed to be there alongside his friend Toni Kroos when things get tricky. In football terms, of course. And not in real emergencies like the police experts who trained the national players in Blankenhain to be collectively prepared for difficult situations on the pitch at the European Championships.
“A special forces team must function perfectly. It must have solutions in all situations, support each other, and be at the forefront when it comes to communication. I think there are a lot of elements that the ladies and gentlemen can teach us,” said the national coach, explaining team psychologist Hans-Dieter Hermann’s idea for the training afternoon.
Müller doesn’t need singing bowls
Thomas Müller, who has known Hermann since his first days with the national team 14 years ago and has already taken part in some special measures, thought the event was really good. “I’m not talking about any kind of motivating factor or any kind of mental factor, that you do singing bowl therapy and then everyone feels good. It’s more about looking at functioning behaviors and maybe learning one or two things on a factual level,” said the 34-year-old.
Müller may also remember. Nagelsmann’s predecessor Joachim Löw had dubbed some players “special forces” on the way to the World Cup triumph in Brazil in 2014. The current national coach called the special forces training mission in the DFB headquarters a “very important item on the agenda” on the way to the home tournament, where each player would receive a bonus of 400,000 euros for winning the title, as the DFB confirmed in response to a dpa query. However, if the team is eliminated early, as was the case recently in Qatar, there will be nothing.
Keep a cool head in extreme situations
“Protecting each other, being there for each other, always keeping a cool head even in extreme situations, finding solutions. That’s something for the team,” said 36-year-old Nagelsmann, who therefore did not want to attend the team-building event at the Golfhotel Weimarer Land.
Nagelsmann also had automatisms practiced on the training pitch – under difficult conditions. The rain was pouring down so heavily that Andrich felt a little persecuted by the low-pressure system. “We flew out of the rain and into the rain,” he said. Standards, a potentially decisive factor in the European Championship, were on the agenda. And after the arrival of the Bayer trio and captain Ilkay Gündogan, the national coach had 24 players on the pitch for the first time.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was also able to prepare for his DFB comeback on Monday in the European Championship test against Ukraine in Nuremberg after recovering from a gastrointestinal infection. The number one then had to do some hard work together with DFB newcomer Maximilian Beier in a supermarket parking lot in Blankenhain. Hundreds of fans had come there for an autograph session. Neuer was even handed a baby over the barrier so that he could put his name on the romper.
Self-charging batteries
Andrich, Tah and Wirtz are all familiar with football euphoria. The trio from double winners Bayer Leverkusen arrive in Blankenhain in a winning flow and create the atmosphere in the DFB circle that can carry a team through a tournament. “I would be lying if I said it didn’t give you a good feeling. You definitely arrive with a lot of self-confidence and the desire to continue to be successful,” said Tah. After the long season and the title celebrations, the batteries “recharge themselves”. Even in the constant rain.
Source: Stern
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