On Monday night, the Germany U20 squad departed Frankfurt and headed to New Zealand for the U20 World Cup. Frank Wormuth and his squad kick off their campaign in Christchurch against Fiji on 1st June. The last two group games will also be played in Christchurch; Uzbekistan and Honduras provide the opposition. Goalkeeper Michael Zetterer will not be traveling with the team as he broke his navicular bone recently. He well be replaced by Schalke’s Timon Wellenreuther. Before Wellenreuther can travel to the pacific island, FIFA still need to confirm that he will be eligible to take place in the tournament.
“The build-up is massive,” said Wormuth. “It is one of the biggest events put on by FIFA.” The team wset off at 22:00 CEST. The team will land in Singapore at 16:30 local time where they will stop for three hours before heading to New Zealand, where they will land at 09:30 local time, thus giving them plenty of time to get adjusted to the time change.
On Monday afternoon, the team completed one final training in Frankfurt. The players trained individually at first, and then they trained in three different groups. The players who played on Sunday in the 2. Bundesliga took part in a light session. Only the fully fit players completed a full training session; the others completed light ball drills.
Wormuth: "We want to reach the semis"
The attitude of the team is “top notch,” said Werder Bremen's Levin Öztunali. Julian Brand was also very optimistic, “I am excited to go to such a lovely country. It’s always something special to play against teams outside of Europe. Last year's U19 Euros gave us confidence which we'll be utilising in New Zealand.”
Brandt is one of ten players, who won the U19 European Champions in Hungary, selected by Wormuth. “Our first goal is to win the group,” said Wormuth. Should this be the case, the team will also play their last 16 game and a potential quarter final in Christchurch. Despite so much confidence amongst the team, Wormuth does not see his team as the favourite for the title. “We can only determine who is in the driving seat after the group stage. We want to reach the semis.”