The countdown continues. The UEFA European U19 Championship will begin on Monday (12:00 CEST) when Germany face France in the tournament opener. It’s an event that Germany has been preparing for both on and off the pitch for a long time. In an interview with
Peter Scheffler for
DFB.de, the Germany U19’s head coach Guido Streichsbier spoke about his final squad and the team’s aims for the home European Championship.
DFB.de: Mr Streichsbier, you ended your eight day training camp with a friendly and the announcement of the final squad for the U19 EURO. It looks like you left all of the hard decisions until the end.
Guido Streichsbier: True, the decision was really difficult for the coaching staff. Above all, it was hard because the boys have a lot of quality and are a close-knit group. The home European Championship is their overall target and a dream for them. To only have to send five players home wasn’t a particularly pleasant task but it’s a part of international football.
DFB.de: You took Johannes Eggestein, Gökhan Gül and Janni-Luca Serra, three of the 1998 year group, to the training camp. How did they get on?
Streichsbier: All of the 23 have been giving their all over the past few days and made the decision on the final squad very difficult. I can’t accuse anyone of having a bad attitude. The younger players integrated themselves quickly into the team and showed the enormous potential they have. This week allowed us to see how they could bring their exceptional quality into the 1997 team and what they could add to the core of the squad. Gökhan has taken over a position at centre-back which was up for grabs due to injuries to other U19 players. It’s great that VfL Bochum have supported him. Janni gives us the opportunity to have a big striker, which is something that we didn’t already have in the squad. My stance on Johannes was that I already had a striker with second division experience who would also bring a high level of quality to the team in Cedric Teuchert. Johannes is an outstanding talent and has the environment at Werder where he can mature into a top player. It made more sense for his develop to let him go back and train with the first team at his club rather than giving him a substitute role at the European Championship. I thanked Werder once again yesterday for allowing Jo to come for the last week.
DFB.de: Was it the right decision to take 24 players to Schladming?
Streichsbier: Definitely. It was good as we were able to simulate real match situations, recover from injuries and enjoy some down time. It also gave the players the chance to press their claim after three months without any internationals. All of the players who came to the camp are also still on standby. If anyone gets injured we will know the best player to call up to suit our needs. We hope that won’t be the case but last year Marcus Sorg had to replace two players an hour before the squad had to be confirmed because of illness.
DFB.de: What’s your evaluation of the recently concluded training camp?
Streichsbier: The conditions were great. We had eight days to work intensely. The first few days were a bit sluggish because the players had different requirements after long periods off following the end of the season. I was very happy with the final three days though.
DFB.de: How content were you with your team’s performance in the friendly against the DFB-U21s and 1860 München’s U21s?
Streichsbier: It’s a shame that we weren’t able to score. The important thing was that we created three or four clear chances in each half. Defensively we stood our ground and barely let anything through. We would obviously have rather ended the training camp with a positive result but even if we had won not everything was perfect. There are still a little bit of uncertainty after the preparation. You don’t know how the team will be exactly until the first game is over.
DFB.de: What are your aims for the first match against Italy and the rest of the tournament?
Streichsbier: We are going into the Italy game with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence. As the European U19 Championship is part of the qualification process for the 2017 U20 World Cup, qualifying for that is our minimum aim (the top five teams qualify, there is a play off for the fifth spot). This is our primary objective as we want our players to be a part of as many tournaments as possible so we can round off their club trainings with internationals. As the players and coaches, we want to achieve the maximum.
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The countdown continues. The UEFA European U19 Championship will begin on Monday (12:00 CEST) when Germany face France in the tournament opener. It’s an event that Germany has been preparing for both on and off the pitch for a long time. In an interview with
Peter Scheffler for
DFB.de, the Germany U19’s head coach Guido Streichsbier spoke about his final squad and the team’s aims for the home European Championship.
DFB.de: Mr Streichsbier, you ended your eight day training camp with a friendly and the announcement of the final squad for the U19 EURO. It looks like you left all of the hard decisions until the end.
Guido Streichsbier: True, the decision was really difficult for the coaching staff. Above all, it was hard because the boys have a lot of quality and are a close-knit group. The home European Championship is their overall target and a dream for them. To only have to send five players home wasn’t a particularly pleasant task but it’s a part of international football.
DFB.de: You took Johannes Eggestein, Gökhan Gül and Janni-Luca Serra, three of the 1998 year group, to the training camp. How did they get on?
Streichsbier: All of the 23 have been giving their all over the past few days and made the decision on the final squad very difficult. I can’t accuse anyone of having a bad attitude. The younger players integrated themselves quickly into the team and showed the enormous potential they have. This week allowed us to see how they could bring their exceptional quality into the 1997 team and what they could add to the core of the squad. Gökhan has taken over a position at centre-back which was up for grabs due to injuries to other U19 players. It’s great that VfL Bochum have supported him. Janni gives us the opportunity to have a big striker, which is something that we didn’t already have in the squad. My stance on Johannes was that I already had a striker with second division experience who would also bring a high level of quality to the team in Cedric Teuchert. Johannes is an outstanding talent and has the environment at Werder where he can mature into a top player. It made more sense for his develop to let him go back and train with the first team at his club rather than giving him a substitute role at the European Championship. I thanked Werder once again yesterday for allowing Jo to come for the last week.
DFB.de: Was it the right decision to take 24 players to Schladming?
Streichsbier: Definitely. It was good as we were able to simulate real match situations, recover from injuries and enjoy some down time. It also gave the players the chance to press their claim after three months without any internationals. All of the players who came to the camp are also still on standby. If anyone gets injured we will know the best player to call up to suit our needs. We hope that won’t be the case but last year Marcus Sorg had to replace two players an hour before the squad had to be confirmed because of illness.
DFB.de: What’s your evaluation of the recently concluded training camp?
Streichsbier: The conditions were great. We had eight days to work intensely. The first few days were a bit sluggish because the players had different requirements after long periods off following the end of the season. I was very happy with the final three days though.
DFB.de: How content were you with your team’s performance in the friendly against the DFB-U21s and 1860 München’s U21s?
Streichsbier: It’s a shame that we weren’t able to score. The important thing was that we created three or four clear chances in each half. Defensively we stood our ground and barely let anything through. We would obviously have rather ended the training camp with a positive result but even if we had won not everything was perfect. There are still a little bit of uncertainty after the preparation. You don’t know how the team will be exactly until the first game is over.
DFB.de: What are your aims for the first match against Italy and the rest of the tournament?
Streichsbier: We are going into the Italy game with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence. As the European U19 Championship is part of the qualification process for the 2017 U20 World Cup, qualifying for that is our minimum aim (the top five teams qualify, there is a play off for the fifth spot). This is our primary objective as we want our players to be a part of as many tournaments as possible so we can round off their club trainings with internationals. As the players and coaches, we want to achieve the maximum.
