عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

Euro 2024 Host Germany Looks To Rebuild After World Cup

Germany's National coach Hansi Flick, right, talks to Florian Wirtz during the national team's training session at the DFB campus prior to the international match between Germany and Peru, in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday March 22, 2023. (dpa)
Germany's National coach Hansi Flick, right, talks to Florian Wirtz during the national team's training session at the DFB campus prior to the international match between Germany and Peru, in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday March 22, 2023. (dpa)
TT
TT

Euro 2024 Host Germany Looks To Rebuild After World Cup

Germany's National coach Hansi Flick, right, talks to Florian Wirtz during the national team's training session at the DFB campus prior to the international match between Germany and Peru, in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday March 22, 2023. (dpa)
Germany's National coach Hansi Flick, right, talks to Florian Wirtz during the national team's training session at the DFB campus prior to the international match between Germany and Peru, in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday March 22, 2023. (dpa)

Another World Cup failure, another rebuild for Germany. This time there's even more at stake.

Germany will host next year's European Championship and is desperate to avoid another debacle at home.

The Germans once took pride in having a “tournament team,” one that could put distractions aside to perform when it mattered. Following group-stage exits at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and a round-of-16 loss at the last European Championship, however, Germany has not won a knockout game since the now-defunct Confederations Cup in 2017.

The current rebuild — with Germany able to skip qualifying as Euro 2024 host — starts with friendlies against Peru on Saturday and Belgium on Tuesday.

Germany coach Hansi Flick's squad is a mix of regulars like Emre Can, Timo Werner and Joshua Kimmich, and some more experimental picks. The six players getting their first call-ups include two right backs, Josha Vagnoman and Marius Wolf. There is also AC Milan defender Malick Thiaw and 21-year-old winger Kevin Schade, who is a bench player for Brentford in the Premier League.

Just like predecessor Joachim Löw after the 2018 World Cup, Flick has left out Bayern Munich forward Thomas Müller. The 33-year-old Müller signaled his international career might be over in an emotional interview at the World Cup in Qatar, but then changed tack to say he was still available for selection.

Müller has been here before. After Löw dropped him in 2018, he ended up being recalled in 2021 in the aftermath of a 6-0 loss to Spain.

“We appreciate each other and will continue to be in good contact,” Müller posted on Instagram last week after it was confirmed Flick would not select him.

Some other big names are out of the squad temporarily, whether because of injury (goalkeeper Manuel Neuer broke his leg while skiing) or personal reasons (midfielder Ilkay Gündogan became a father last week). The reasons for dropping Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger and Bayern forward Leroy Sané are less clear-cut, but seem to be part of Flick’s experiments in the rebuild.

Flick already bet on youth in his World Cup squad by selecting forwards Jamal Musiala, Karim Adeyemi and Youssoufa Moukoko, which made the latter the youngest player to ever play for Germany at the tournament at 18. All three will be missing from the upcoming games with injuries.

Another promising youngster, Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz, will return after missing the World Cup with injury.

Löw spent 2019 and 2020 working on his own failed rebuild. That means there is already a large pool of players who have been tried in the Germany team and discarded, especially at problem positions like left back, where Flick seems to have settled on Leipzig defender David Raum over other potential candidates like Inter Milan's Robin Gosens.

Most Viewed

 
 
Sports

Rafael Nadal Retired after the Davis Cup. It's a Rare Team Event in Tennis

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, left, shakes hands with Rafael Nadal during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, left, shakes hands with Rafael Nadal during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
TT
TT

Rafael Nadal Retired after the Davis Cup. It's a Rare Team Event in Tennis

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, left, shakes hands with Rafael Nadal during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, left, shakes hands with Rafael Nadal during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Rafael Nadal wanted to play his last match before retiring in Spain, representing Spain and wearing the red uniform used by Spain's Davis Cup squad.

“The feeling to play for your country, the feeling to play for your teammates ... when you win, everybody wins; when you lose, everybody loses, no?” Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, said a day before his career ended when his nation was eliminated by the Netherlands at the annual competition. ”To share the good and bad moments is something different than (we have on a) daily basis (in) ... a very individual sport."

The men's Davis Cup, which concludes Sunday in this seaside city in southern Spain, and the women's Billie Jean King Cup, which wrapped up Wednesday with Italy as its champion, give tennis players a rare taste of what professional athletes in soccer, football, basketball, baseball, hockey and more are so used to, The AP reported.

Sharing a common goal, seeking and offering support, celebrating — or commiserating — as a group.

“We don’t get to represent our country a lot, and when we do, we want to make them proud at that moment,” said Alexei Popyrin, a member of the Australian roster that will go up against No. 1-ranked Jannik Sinner and defending champion Italy in the semifinals Saturday after getting past the United States on Thursday. “For us, it’s a really big deal. Growing up, it was something that was instilled in us. We would watch Davis Cup all the time on the TV at home, and we would just dream of playing for it. For us, it’s one of the priorities.”

Some players say they feel an on-court boost in team competitions, more of which have been popping up in recent years, including the Laver Cup, the United Cup and the ATP Cup.

“You're not just playing for yourself,” said 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, part of Britain's BJK Cup team in Malaga. “You’re playing for everyone.”

There are benefits to being part of a team, of course, such as the off-court camaraderie: Two-time major finalist Jasmine Paolini said Italy's players engaged in serious games of UNO after dinner throughout the Billie Jean King Cup.

There also can be an obvious shared joy, as seen in the big smiles and warm hug shared by Sinner and Matteo Berrettini when they finished off a doubles victory together to complete a comeback win against Argentina on Thursday.

“Maybe because we’re tired of playing by ourselves — just for ourselves — and when we have these chances, it’s always nice,” Berrettini said.

On a purely practical level, this format gives someone a chance to remain in an event after losing a match, something that is rare in the usual sort of win-and-advance, lose-and-go-home tournament.

So even though Wimbledon semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti came up short against Francisco Cerúndolo in Italy's opener against Argentina, he could cheer as Sinner went 2-0 to overturn the deficit by winning the day's second singles match and pairing with Berrettini to keep their country in the draw.

“The last part of the year is always very tough,” Sinner said. “It's nice to have teammates to push you through.”

The flip side?

There can be an extra sense of pressure to not let down the players wearing your uniform — or the country whose anthem is played at the start of each session, unlike in tournaments year-round.

Also, it can be difficult to be sitting courtside and pulling for your nation without being able to alter the outcome.

“It’s definitely nerve-racking. ... I fully just bit all my fingernails off during the match," US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz said about what it was like to watch teammate Ben Shelton lose in a 16-14 third-set tiebreaker against Australia before getting on court himself. "I get way more nervous watching team events, and my friends play, than (when it’s) me, myself, playing.”