Training camp in Seefeld
Löw’s goal for the European Championship: he wants to avoid an unworthy end
Strict look: Joachim Löw in March 2021
© Ina Fassbender / AFP
Joachim Löw starts in his last tournament mission as national coach. He wants to”hold out to the end.” It starts in the Tyrolean mountains – again for Müller and Hummels. Everything is prepared for intensive work, from the lawn to the privacy screen.
After all, when the celebrity returnees Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels move into a DFB quarter for the first time this Friday after two and a half years as reactivated football internationals, the sun should shine over the Seefeld plateau. Then 17 degrees are predicted at 1200 meters. It would be a real contrast to the cool, rainy grey that, before the start of the preparation for the European Football Championship, the vanguard with the coaching and support staff around Joachim Löw received on Thursday in Tyrol.
From the balcony of the suites in the impressively located Teamhotel Nidum, the national coach can also look out on the still snow-covered mountain peaks and the enchanting Inn Valley when the weather is nice. The panoramic view from top to bottom symbolizes the range of Löw’s final tournament mission: a final summit storm is the plan, another deep crash like at the 2018 World Cup is the other extreme.
Joachim Löw wants to leave through the big gate
Title, final, semi-finals: The 61-year-old Löw has avoided publicly formulating a concrete and overly research goal after the roller coaster ride of the last three years. What is clear: The world champion coach of 2014 wants to step down through the big gate.
“Get started and hold out until the end,” says Löw’s tournament announcement. 27 Days Plus x is the time window. The unworthy and early end would mark a European Championship exit after the last group game against Hungary on 23 June in Munich. The optimum would be 45 days together until the big European Championship final on 11 July at Wembley Stadium in London.
But let’s start in Austria’s mountains. Everything is prepared in Seefeld to prepare Löw’s 26-man squad an ideal working environment even in Corona times. For tourism in the Olympic region, the DFB stay is” extremely important ” after the months-long lockdown. “It is an accolade for the region that you can start the summer again. It goes from zero to one hundred for us,” said Elias Walser, Managing Director of the Olympiaregion Seefeld.
Hosts hope to promote the region
The hosts hope that the stay of the DFB team will promote Seefeld “as a safe holiday region” in times of the pandemic, as Walser told the German Press Agency: “The team is ideal for this.”In February, when Tyrol was declared to be a virus, variant field, doubted the Seefeld. “I thought, oha, this can be close,” admitted Walser. Now the Corona situation is more relaxed.
Red “welcome” flags flutter in the wind everywhere. The team hotel is decorated with banners in black-red-gold. “The team greets the Olympiaregion Seefeld”, says on the slope. Since Thursday, two team buses have been parked in front of the hostel with a huge spa area.
It is less than three kilometers to the training site. The grass pitches below the Olympic ski jumps were intensively maintained. Next to it is a fitness tent. A privacy fence with the faces of Müller, Hummels and Co. has been set up all around, so as not to allow uninvited views of Löw’s tactical practice units. Even a hiking trail into the Mösertal was closed for holidaymakers. “We let the team train in peace,” Walser remarked.
Training camp is immensely important
For Löw, the training camp is always a central component before a tournament, even the last time before Hansi Flick, 56, takes over his post. “We are together again for the first time over a longer period of time. One point in the preparation is to find yourself as a team, ” announced the outgoing boss. A central task will be to reintegrate the former world champion duo Müller/Hummels – as bosses.
Löw is not worried that the 2019 completed by him Ausbootung of the long-standing executives could have a negative impact: “Hummels and Müller are very integrative in their personality.”And most of the current national players “know them inside and out”.
Müller and Hummels can use the entire ten days in Tyrol to rediscover their roles-on and off the pitch. Because many actors with high ambitions will arrive late. Toni Kroos is expected after his corona infection at the earliest in the coming week, as well as the Champions League finalists Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City) as well as Timo Werner, Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz (Chelsea FC), who will be opponents in Porto on Saturday.
After all, the six England professionals in the DFB squad can hope to avoid a corona quarantine in Tyrol. Because Austria’s government granted its own football selection a special permit for a test match against England in Middlesbrough. After the game on June 2, David Alaba and Co.do not have to quarantine after returning from the virus variant area England. The DFB strives for a similar special rule for its footballers.
By the way, Austria’s national team will move into the Nidum two days after the departure of the DFB squad. The ÖFB team has chosen Seefeld for its basecamp during the European Championship finals. “The fact that the DFB and the ÖFB are here with us one after the other is also not normal,” said Walser, Head of Tourism, proudly. But these are not normal times either.
