Schweinsteiger: "Anticipation is growing"

Having been sidelined with various injuries, Bastian Schweinsteiger is back in action, fulfilling the role that head coach Joachim Löw expects him to play together with Philipp Lahm – that of team leader. In this interview with DFB.de writer Steffen Lüdeke, Schweinsteiger talks about why he loves the seaside, how he sees himself as part of the German team, and about Germany’s chances at EURO 2012.

team.dfb.de: Bastian, on your afternoon off, you went for a stroll through Gdansk…

Schweinsteiger: …and I loved every minute of it! It made for a welcome change from daily routine, and I think it’s important for us players to not just stay in the hotel but also try to learn something new about the region or the city you’re in, and for a comparatively long time at that. In South Africa, for example, we went on guided tours, first of Johannesburg, later Cape Town. And as the result against Argentina confirmed – it didn’t do us any harm at all!

team.dfb.de: You are known to like cafés and the sea, so Gdansk must be right after your own heart.

Schweinsteiger: Absolutely! I like the old part of town, and Sopot of course, a young, modern seaside resort. I love the sea – there’s this gorgeous scent of summer in the air, the sun shines, it’s warm, and everybody’s relaxed.

team.dfb.de: Is there any philosophical side to it, too? The fact that man, when confronted with the vastness of the sea, deems himself small and insignificant?

Schweinsteiger: That too. Spending time at the sea has a soothing effect on me, as has a trip to the Bavarian mountains. I like going on hiking tours, you get rewarded with breathtaking views from the summit.

team.dfb.de: You come across as very focussed. Can you take your mind off football during a tournament?

Schweinsteiger: Yes, I can, and being able to do that is hugely important. At a tournament, I think about football almost all the time, so change and variation are a must for me. It’s the same back home in Munich. I like the hustle and bustle of the city, but sometimes I need a bit of peace and quiet. I need both worlds: the thrill and excitement of football, but also the reassuring ordinariness of “normal life”.

team.dfb.de: According to Bayern team-mates Holger Badstuber and Philipp Lahm, losing to Chelsea FC in the Champions League final did have a positive effect, after all – their hunger to succeed, they said, was greater than ever before.

Schweinsteiger: I had been feeling that hunger long before the actual match, basically from the moment I heard that Munich would host the final. I have learnt how to cope with losing that match, though. We’ve lost the game for a reason.

team.dfb.de: So you’re holding your head in despair?

Schweinsteiger: Not any more. You see, had we done everything right and still lost the game, it would have been much harder to come to terms with it. But that’s not how it was. In football, winning or losing depends on a host of little details. Chelsea certainly were not the most creative of sides, but they made the most of what they’re good at. Luck, as some people have suggested, didn’t really come into it, except of course in the penalty shoot-out.

team.dfb.de: So everything was meant to be that way?

Schweinsteiger: Let’s just say that there were two potential stories waiting to be told. These could have been ‘the first club to win the UEFA Champions League final on home turf, fielding a very young team’, or alternatively ‘the trophy goes to a team of older players unlikely to experience such a big event again, after tragically losing the final four years ago on penalties’.

team.dfb.de: Has this increased the pressure on you winning something at the Euros?

Schweinsteiger: How do you define pressure? We’re all living privileged lives. People in need, people fighting for sheer survival, they’re under real pressure. For me, this tournament is something of a trial, a huge challenge to show what we’re capable of, to go to the max. If we manage to play to our full potential on a consistent basis, we can lift the trophy, it’s as simple as that. But that’s not what I would call pressure.

team.dfb.de: Would you agree if I said that in 2010, the team thrived on enthusiasm, whereas now it’s primarily efficiency?

Schweinsteiger: Not necessarily. Don’t forget that the group matches in South Africa were anything but easy, with the game against Ghana being the first make-or-break “final”. Also, the matches against England and Argentina were not all lightness of being, it’s just that we managed to take the lead early, and that made things much easier. I hope we’ll soon re-discover our rhythm here at this championship.

team.dfb.de: Imagine the Germany of 2010 playing against the current team; who’d come out the winner?

Schweinsteiger: We had a good team then, and we’ve got a good team now. The difference is that in South Africa, some ten players were experiencing their first major tournament. These guys are back again, but they’ve changed and are far better versed in the do’s and don’ts of tournament football, knowing what to do to be successful.

team.dfb.de: That goes for you as well, doesn’t it, as one of the key players?

Schweinsteiger: Yes, but the role of ‘leader’ is one I have always been ready to assume. Everybody must shoulder part of the overall responsibility, but it takes players who show the direction and find the right words to say. That’s not an easy thing to do.

team.dfb.de: Above all mentally speaking.

Schweinsteiger: Thank you for saying that! Because I didn’t use to think so when I was young. I heard players like Michael Ballack, Oliver Kahn, and Jens Lehmann saying how energy-sapping everything was and, truth be told, I didn’t take them seriously at all. But now I’m going through the same kind of experience. During a match, you’ve got to take in a million details, focus on countless things at the same time, so much so that after matches, I feel this tremendous fatigue, not necessarily physical but mental. Take the Champions League semi-final in Madrid, or the recent match against Denmark. You won’t believe how tired I was! What’s more, I don’t just play for myself, but for 82 million Germans. When you feel you owe it to them to perform as best as you can, you need a lot of energy.

team.dfb.de: How do you prepare yourself mentally for such challenges?

Schweinsteiger: I like drawing on the experience of people who need to handle extreme situations, such as (the German downhill skier) Felix Neureuther, who’s a good friend of mine. For two minutes’ racing down a slope, he’s got be focussed 1,000 percent. I’ve done my fair share of downhill races, and I know how it is – you’re waiting for your turn in the second round, you hear how those before you finish in record time, and you know you just mustn’t make even the slightest mistake!

team.dfb.de: So you seek other top athletes’ advice?

Schweinsteiger: Yes, but not just people in sports. There are many other people I know who’ve mastered a lot of challenges. But the group of people who really understand me, is quite small.

team.dfb.de: Is this something you regret?

Schweinsteiger: Well, that’s just the way it is. Only few people can really appreciate what it’s like to play at this level. Most of the fans out there only see the climax, the goal, and they adore the goal-scorer, which is perfectly okay. But I love exchanges with real experts, the ones who grasp the importance of, say, recovering possession in mid-field, or of a player moving into space at just the right moment in time. For example, when discussing Barcelona, the great majority of people will say that Xavi and Iniesta are their most important players.

team.dfb.de: But…

Schweinsteiger: But for me, this is Carles Puyol. He’s the head of the team, he leads by example, even though some of his team-mates look the more skilled footballers.

team.dfb.de: What would you say is key for the German team’s success?

Schweinsteiger: That we have a consistent philosophy we believe in, from the team and the coaching staff to the doctors, physios, and administrators. We’re a tight unit, no-one’s afraid to say his opinion to the others’ faces because he can be sure nothing will get out of the dressing room. We have a great sense of togetherness.

team.dfb.de: Three wins from as many group matches – a perfect record so far.

Schweinsteiger: Yes, I’m more than happy, but events could have taken a different turn – van Persie nearly opened the score, Jakob Poulsen hit the post. It wasn’t all plain sailing. If we manage to learn the right lessons from these situations, we’ll come out a better team, exerting more dominance and wasting less energy in the process.

team.dfb.de: Did you watch Spain playing against Croatia?

Schweinsteiger: Yes, and before you ask – I’m glad for Spain to have progressed to the next round, simply because they’re a top team. Sure, they’re a major rival to be up against, and had they been eliminated, a huge obstacle would be out of the way… But I want to play against, and possibly beat, the best possible opponents. I like doing it the hard way. Having said that, I wouldn’t refuse the trophy if Spain were out of the running (laughs).

team.dfb.de: You recently raid that to beat Spain, Germany would have to do it “the German way”…

Schweinsteiger: By that I mean showing commitment, fighting spirit, absolute willpower, and passion – just the kind of qualities we’re being envied for by many people. Interestingly, foreigners applaud us for what some people back home tend to put down. The good thing is, we’ve also added a great dose of skill to the mix, and we have intelligent, technically gifted players.

team.dfb.de: First things first, though. Greece await you in the quarter-final.

Schweinsteiger: Yes, and it’ll be ever so hard to play against an opponent who’s likely to sit deep and play on the counter. We have great respect for the Greeks, especially as many “experts” were saying they didn’t stand a chance of progressing from their group. We mustn’t under-estimate them, and we hope that fans in Germany realise that we’re anything but through yet!

team.dfb.de: What exactly are you trying to say?

Schweinsteiger: That we need them! It’s just fantastic how they’ve supported us. I mean in the game against Denmark, they were singing practically throughout the second half, urging us on no end, until we finally scored that second goal. Knowing that fans in Germany and in the stadiums stand behind us as one, is tremendously important for a team as young as ours. And I’ll be happy if they go on rooting for us, even if the going is tough, or we beat Greece by 1-0 “only.”

team.dfb.de: How do you go into a match like this?

Schweinsteiger: With a great sense of anticipation. And it’s getting bigger by the day. After three wins, we’re full of self-confidence. I am just dying to get out there and play the ‘perfect’ game. Let’s hope we get as close as possible to that on Friday.

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Unterstützung von Deutschland, morgen werden wir schlagen Griechenland... Hahaha. Grüße aus Guatemala!!! (Jorge Barrientod, Guatemala)