The German U21 is about to end at the European Championship. Rudi Völler spreads purposeful optimism before the last group game, but calls for more Argentina and Morocco overall.
At the latest when the white cup of cappuccino was on the table in front of Rudi Völler, the DFB sports director was in his element. Leaning back on the red hotel chair, Völler swung his right arm over the empty chair next to him and chatted calmly with the journalists. One of his first words of wisdom: “In football you can train everything except speed”.
There is currently a full-fledged mood of crisis in the German Football Association – accordingly, some of what can be trained must actually be practiced again. The DFB team has only rarely impressed since the 2016 European Championship, the U21 national team is partly unhappy at the European Championships in Romania and Georgia, but also incompetent.
Völler openly admitted that the U21s are currently a “reflection of the senior national team”. The similar problems are “certainly no coincidence”. After an unfortunate 1-1 draw against Israel and the 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic on Sunday evening, the U21s are facing their first preliminary round elimination since 2013 – and as defending champions.
game luck? Mistake!
After the two performances, there was a lot of talk that the necessary luck was missing. I wasn’t lucky at the back and neither was I up front, captain Yann-Aurel Bisseck said after the game. Völler hit a different notch. The former striker recognized that you “have to minimize mistakes” and above all “win the crucial duels”. Völler’s conclusion: “It’s not okay to always talk about bad luck”.
Rudi Völler has been in office at the DFB for less than half a year as emergency sports director after the Qatar fiasco. The main goal of the man, who is always joking at the table with a good dozen journalists in Batumi, was to save the home European Championship or perhaps rather to save the mood in the country from that of the home European Championship. He wants to keep Hansi Flick’s back free. He also strengthens his back drinking coffee at the Black Sea, but Völler and the DFB seem to be running out of time.
Rudi Völler knows that, too, who repeatedly emphasizes that he has already experienced a lot in football and likes to start sentences with the words: “Believe me”. Hansi Flick’s experiments in the three test games in June were correct, you’ve now seen what doesn’t work. Völler had also described the quality of some players as not suitable for the national team. So far, he will hardly be able to bring Flick any personal tips from Batumi – probably neither will Kevin Schade and Josha Vagnoman, both of whom already have senior international matches under their belts.
Voller turns in circles
Schade and Vagnoman will probably not be the pillars of the DFB team when Germany opens the European Championship tournament next summer. According to Völler, the staff is not that important. Only “percentage points” were missing – and Völler once again referred that to the senior national team and the DFB juniors.
“We have wonderful players, but football is based on duels, one-on-one. There is a lack of emotionality, will, passion and consistency,” said Völler in his all-black outfit at the table in the press room. “The Argentines and Moroccans did that perfectly at the World Cup.” He is convinced that these adjustment screws must be worked on until the European Championships.
In the 40 minutes or so that Völler talked shop with the journalists about football and the problems in the DFB, the missing “percentage points” were certainly addressed half a dozen times. And this “intensity and determination” can still be learned before the home European Championship in 2024, because: “Believe me: in football you can train everything except speed”.