Noticia nº73.382

/noticias.info/ by FIFAworldcup.com

German fans’ hopes of their team lifting the FIFA World Cup™ Trophy on home soil rest on Jurgen Klinsmann. But it will be no easy task, as the Germany coach admits in this interview with FIFA Magazine.

FIFA Magazine: Would you rather win a game 3-2 or 1-0?
Jurgen Klinsmann: 3-2, because I used to be a striker. It’s simply more fun when more goals go in.

When a coach takes over a team he often tries to build from the back. You took a different approach; you preach an attacking style of play.
Our approach from the beginning has been to work with the players to develop an identity, to define a football philosophy that the players share and uphold on the pitch. Our primary aim is to get the ball forward quickly and play. Only once we had agreed on this did we turn our attention to the individual sections of the team and consider the players with whom it might work.

So is the balance right with regard to the FIFA World Cup?
We are convinced the results will come if every player on the pitch ‘busts a gut’ to implement our dynamic tactics. There’s enough quality in this young side to beat the bigger teams.

You stated your ambition of reaching the final early on. Wouldn’t it have been easier to say Germany were outsiders?
No, it wouldn’t. We’ve won the World Cup and the European Championship three times. So among the fans there’s automatically the expectation that we’ll be in the final of a World Cup in our own country. Germany were in the 2002 World Cup final, after all. Whether that was down to an excellent showing in Korea/Japan or merely luck is up for debate.

But I can’t just come and say we’ll be happy if we get to the quarter-finals. The most important reason for saying what I said was to get the players – now that we have injected youth into the squad – to consider these expectations. We didn’t want the players to be overwhelmed by the public’s dream of winning the 2006 World Cup. Instead, we wanted them to concern themselves with it over a longer period to put them in a position to achieve this major objective.

What you wanted was a learning effect...
Precisely. It’s harder to grasp the desire to win the World Cup in just one month. As well as bringing the players on in football terms, we wanted to encourage their development as people.

Despite all these efforts, if you come up against Brazil, you’ll be outsiders.
That’s correct. But we’ve learnt to live with the fact that we still lack a few things. That’s why we deliberately chose to play strong opponents in our friendlies. We aren’t at the same stage as Brazil or Argentina. But we know we can beat them if everything comes together. If it doesn’t, though, we don’t stand a chance.

Does that mean Germany need seven perfect games to win the FIFA World Cup?
Correct.

Is German football ready for your modern methods of team management?
That’s for other people to decide. I’m not changing anything for the sake of it. We simply want to improve in all the areas we can. When we saw we could get better in terms of fitness, we appointed new fitness coaches. When we realised a psychologist would help, we went in search of one – and found one six months later. That said, many things were good already. Rudi Voller left us a compact team. We just looked for areas where it was still possible to hone our performance.

With every change you make you leave yourself open to attack, though…
That will always be the case no matter what job you’re in. Whenever you change something you take away a little of what people have become accustomed to – until those affected are convinced the changes are right.

Hannover 96 coach Peter Neururer called you an 'apprentice'. Did that annoy you?
I have always emphasised what an honour it was to be asked to take charge of the German national team. And I have enough confidence in myself to do the job. But I’m not a coach with 20 years’ experience under his belt. So it’s true if someone says I haven’t achieved anything as a coach. The yardstick for my work will be how well we do in the World Cup. I have no problem with that whatsoever.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to implement your meticulous methods of working at a club, where you have the players at your disposal every day?
To implement them, yes. But the chance to lead your national team to the World Cup title on home soil doesn’t come around every day. The question of whether to accept or not takes 30 seconds to answer. That’s almost exactly the amount of time I needed to discuss it with my wife before accepting the offer and thus taking on a great job. I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I hadn’t.

One of the tasks performed by your staff is to watch lots of other teams. How much of this information do you pass on to your players?
When we take on Costa Rica in the opening match, I want to know everything there is to know about them. But a lot of the information of relevance to us as coaches won’t be passed on to the players. It’s only important for our own considerations. In front of the team we’ll always talk about our own strengths, as Kevin Keegan did when he was a manager. That’s our main focus. But we’ll always show video footage of the opposition.

But less is sometimes more.
The fact is that only a few messages actually sink in with the players when they’re out on the pitch. I know that from my own experience. You can’t go into a game with ten to 15 pieces of information. Two or three key words are enough; the game is far too quick for any more. The fascinating thing about football is that it’s a game for the players and always will be. Unfortunately, that is something that parents and coaches often forget when it comes to youth football in western countries. The coach has only a very small say in the decision-making process.

Do you treat all your players the same?
No, I don’t. We live in the year 2006 and football has become individualised. I have to find a way of communicating with each player. Some respond to visual things, some seek an intensive conversation, while others need comforting occasionally. This is precisely why we’re convinced we can benefit from the work of sports psychologists. Football is still in its infancy when it comes to the mental side of coaching top athletes. Many individual sportsmen and women are ahead of football in this respect.

The players have to accept this help, though.
Sure they do, which is why it’s only worthwhile if an interpersonal bridge exists. And it can take years for it to have an effect. That’s why the route we’ve taken is wrong really. Sports psychology should be introduced at U-15 or U-16 level, not in the senior team. Should our first steps in this area prove a success at the World Cup, we’ll consider how we can extend it down to the youngest age groups.

The closer we get to the FIFA World Cup, the more experts are criticising you in their opinion pieces and columns. Do you ever feel like ringing them up to defend yourself?
There comes a point, of course, when you bottle up your anger, that’s only human. And after the game against the USA in Dortmund I took a direct approach at the press conference and criticised some sections of the media. It wasn’t a general broadside because everybody knew which publications were meant. But I always get back to what is essential very quickly. I’m simply trying to keep negative vibes away from the team. I want them to see that the coach isn’t bothered by any of this, that he totally believes in his players.

Read an exclusive interview with Franz Beckenbauer

In doing so, you create a winning mentality. I’ve experienced it as a player at major clubs and observed it at others. When I was with Inter Milan at the beginning of the 90s, our local rivals AC Milan had huge success with (Franco) Baresi, (Frank) Rijkaard, (Roberto) Donadoni, (Marco) van Basten and (Ruud) Gullit. They said to themselves, 'It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing a village team or Barcelona today, we’re going to thrash them.'

At the same time there’s a modern trend for increasing numbers of former players and coaches to be paid by the media to make provocative statements. It’s something you have to accept. A new profession has been opened up; new jobs have been created (laughs). It doesn’t upset me at all.

Is there a moment at the FIFA World Cup that you’re particularly looking forward to?
Yes, there is – the opening whistle at the first match. When you can say, 'We’re off'. Because every one of us wants to experience this World Cup and take in the sights around us and the atmosphere. I’ve taken part in six major tournaments and have always experienced them very intensively, whether we were successful or not.

Would you go so far as to say that you’ll enjoy it?
I’ll be tense and going through the same emotions as the players; I’ll 'live' the matches. It’s going to be a great experience for our community.

Why did you take so long to answer the question of who’s going to be your number one goalkeeper, in other words, who’d won the duel between Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann?
Quite simply because we have two world-class goalkeepers and I didn’t know what was going to happen before the World Cup started. If I’d decided against one early on and the other had sustained an injury, the first might no longer have been in top condition. The competition spurred them on and I ask myself why the goalkeeper situation should be any different to that of the right-back or the centre-forward. I have to keep the players on their toes.

A number of players in your squad have not been playing regularly for their clubs. Is this a disadvantage or might these players be fresher than others at the FIFA World Cup?
Take the example of Greece, who went to EURO 2004 with a number of players who had regularly sat on the bench for their clubs. In Portugal they went into their matches with the utmost passion. Another question will be how the top players from the major leagues will cope with the demands of playing in lots of different competitions. During the last World Cup in Korea/Japan, a number of stars did not play to their full potential. Among those affected were (Zinedine) Zidane, (Luis) Figo, Rui Costa and the Argentinians. But you only find these things out during the tournament. As a consequence of the 2002 World Cup, FIFA has extended the break between the end of the league season and the World Cup, which for me is a good measure.

You are giving a lot of thought to German football and how it can be improved. Why did you not extend your contract beyond the FIFA World Cup?
Generally I can certainly see myself carrying on after the World Cup. But my work will be judged by how well we do. Let’s be realistic: if we get knocked out early, I’m out of a job whether I’ve got a contract or not. As things are now, there’d be no follow-on costs for the association. But that’s not something I’m thinking about right now because I’m having too much fun doing my job.

Is being Germany coach a dream job for you?
It’s an unusual one, a wonderful job that cannot be bettered. That’s why I wasn’t bothered about being 'only' third in line after Ottmar Hitzfeld and Otto Rehhagel had turned the position down.