With a loud whistle, Hansi Flick signalled to his team that their final training session was over. It is not always easy to stop the players from playing, and so it proved yesterday evening in Belo Horizonte. Flick had to really blast out a note on his whistle before the players finally followed him off the pitch.
Defender Jérôme Boateng was one player engrossed in the task at hand as the session ended, practising headers with goalkeeping coach Andy Köpke. Köpke kicked a long ball 30 or 40 metres into the air before Boateng leapt up, leaned his upper body backwards and then quickly forwards again to catapult the ball almost all the way back to Köpke with his head.
"The entire stadium will be against us"
At the FIFA press conference later that afternoon, it was clear that the repeated heading practice had not caused Boateng any harm as he spoke clearly about the tournament, his performances and, most importantly, this evening’s semi-final between Germany and Brazil (live on ZDF from 22:00 CEST). He also described the immense anticipation of taking on Brazil and finally being able to walk out onto the pitch.
“The whole stadium will be against us, but I think that’ll just make us more motivated,” Boateng said. He sees the team’s unity as the key to their success. “It’ll be important for us to work as a team, help each other and be there for one another from the first minute to the 90th and even longer than that if need be, just like in our other matches,” the 25-year-old explained.
Boateng is the embodiment of these principles of team spirit and sacrificing your own ego for the sake of the team. The defender has already experienced a lot at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, including playing against his brother Kevin-Prince, but above all he has demonstrated his versatility.
"I’ll always give my best for the team"
The Bayern Munich defender has never made any secret of the fact that he sees himself as a centre-back and has played consistently in this position for club and country for some time now. Despite this, Boateng was perfectly happy to comply when informed by national coach Joachim Löw before the tournament that his services would be needed at right-back. “I’ll always give my best for the team no matter where I’m asked to play,” he said after the 4-0 win against Portugal, adding: “In our current situation, I can be of more use to the team playing on the right.”
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With a loud whistle, Hansi Flick signalled to his team that their final training session was over. It is not always easy to stop the players from playing, and so it proved yesterday evening in Belo Horizonte. Flick had to really blast out a note on his whistle before the players finally followed him off the pitch.
Defender Jérôme Boateng was one player engrossed in the task at hand as the session ended, practising headers with goalkeeping coach Andy Köpke. Köpke kicked a long ball 30 or 40 metres into the air before Boateng leapt up, leaned his upper body backwards and then quickly forwards again to catapult the ball almost all the way back to Köpke with his head.
"The entire stadium will be against us"
At the FIFA press conference later that afternoon, it was clear that the repeated heading practice had not caused Boateng any harm as he spoke clearly about the tournament, his performances and, most importantly, this evening’s semi-final between Germany and Brazil (live on ZDF from 22:00 CEST). He also described the immense anticipation of taking on Brazil and finally being able to walk out onto the pitch.
“The whole stadium will be against us, but I think that’ll just make us more motivated,” Boateng said. He sees the team’s unity as the key to their success. “It’ll be important for us to work as a team, help each other and be there for one another from the first minute to the 90th and even longer than that if need be, just like in our other matches,” the 25-year-old explained.
Boateng is the embodiment of these principles of team spirit and sacrificing your own ego for the sake of the team. The defender has already experienced a lot at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil, including playing against his brother Kevin-Prince, but above all he has demonstrated his versatility.
"I’ll always give my best for the team"
The Bayern Munich defender has never made any secret of the fact that he sees himself as a centre-back and has played consistently in this position for club and country for some time now. Despite this, Boateng was perfectly happy to comply when informed by national coach Joachim Löw before the tournament that his services would be needed at right-back. “I’ll always give my best for the team no matter where I’m asked to play,” he said after the 4-0 win against Portugal, adding: “In our current situation, I can be of more use to the team playing on the right.”
He has certainly been useful. The Berliner delivered such convincing performances at right-back against Portugal, Ghana and the USA in the group stages and again in the last 16 against Algeria that even Boateng himself would probably not have been surprised to finish the 2014 World Cup on the right side of defence. But Joachim Löw had other plans for the quarter-final against France, moving Philipp Lahm from midfield to right-back and deploying Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira as defensive midfielders while pairing Boateng with Mats Hummels in central defence.
Boateng went about his task just as convincingly as he had done on the right in the previous matches, winning almost all of his tackles without committing a foul. In Germany’s five previous World Cup matches, the total number of fouls committed by the Bayern man amounts to just four. As he said himself, “the best way to help the team is to win the ball without fouling the player.”
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Friends Boateng and Dante set to reunite
The defender will be seeking to continue this pattern of fair play this evening, in a match made all the more special by the fact that he will play against his Bayern team-mate and friend Dante.
“It’s neither an advantage nor a disadvantage. He knows us and we know him,” explained Boateng. “I’m happy for him because there’s a very good chance he’ll get to play. Of course, it’s an unusual situation because he’ll be on the other side today, but we can’t pay any attention to that – we want to win the match. We’ll be friends again afterwards.”
With that, the ten-minute FIFA press conference drew to a close. This time Boateng did not need another loud whistle blast from Hansi Flick to prompt him to bid the assembled press goodbye and step down from the podium.
