Mario Götze no longer wants to deal with the messed-up football World Cup in Qatar. Germany’s winning goalscorer in the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina prefers to look ahead to the European Championship at home in 15 months. “In the end it was a bitter experience for many of us if you only look at the result,” said offensive player Götze, who is preparing with the national team for the first international matches of the year against Peru and Belgium in his adopted home of Frankfurt, looking back on the preliminary rounds -Out in Qatar.
“The great thing about football is that it keeps going. You quickly have new tasks, new challenges. It’s now about looking to the future, remaining solution-oriented,” said the 30-year-old, who national coach Hansi Flick brought back to the national team for the World Cup after a five-year DFB break. The home EM is still a bit far in the future, said Götze. Nevertheless, it is already a matter of developing “a positive feeling” and “tackling the topics as a unit with a lot of anticipation and a lot of energy”.
Kimmich: “Build continuity”
His Frankfurt teammate Kevin Trapp therefore attaches sporting value to the upcoming games on Saturday (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for international matches and on ZDF) in Mainz and three days later in Cologne. “These are two games that can be important for us. It’s the first games this year. We want to start with good results,” said the 32-year-old goalkeeper. Personally, Trapp has to accept that after captain Manuel Neuer’s serious injury (broken leg), Flick is planning to score against both Peru and Belgium with competitor Marc-André ter Stegen from FC Barcelona.
“It’s about preparing well for the European Championship. It’s about finding yourself as a team so that you can then go into the home EM as well prepared as possible,” said Trapp after the national team’s public training session on Monday evening in Frankfurt, which was attended by around 3,500 fans, including many children. “We want everyone to be happy, that people can identify with us,” said Trapp: “But of course we intend to make people happy not only with signatures, but also with performance.
Meanwhile, Joshua Kimmich was surprised at Flick’s squad composition for the upcoming international matches. “I wasn’t surprised that one or the other was new. I was rather surprised that one or the other wasn’t there,” said the FC Bayern professional to the Munich Merkur/tz media group. He doesn’t want to name names because he would otherwise unintentionally forget other players, “but Marco (Reus), Ilkay (Gündogan), Thomas (Müller), Niki (Süle), Leroy (Sané), Toni (Rüdiger) – just the last ones I would have expected three on the list,” said Kimmich, who was appointed DFB captain for the duels with Peru and Belgium.
For the first two matches after the disappointing World Cup, Flick will not be using several established stars, instead he has called up six newcomers with a view to the 2024 home European Championship. According to the national coach, he wants to test “possibilities and options in all positions”. He had explained the non-consideration of Sané with currently rather low chances of use for the Bayern Munich professional. “The big season finale is coming up, but it’s also important for us that the players don’t just train, but play. Not all of us would have had this opportunity, ”said Flick on Monday in Frankfurt.
Kimmich meanwhile called for good results in preparation for the 2024 home European Championship. “For me it’s all about finding the rhythm. That we gain self-confidence in every game – also build a certain continuity. For me, these are not classic test or friendlies. For me, every one of them is a preparatory game – and we have to win every single game,” said the midfielder.