The Jersey with the Federal Eagle – Joy or Burden?

This post may get a little emotional here and there, but that may be down to my enthusiasm for our nation. I ask your forgiveness for that in advance.

…but actually I don't want to! Why should I apologize for emotion when it comes to my fatherland? Perhaps because one or two players wearing our federal eagle on their jersey were missing the passion that a German football fan is entitled to hope for?

The match against our guests from Turkey is an excellent case for addressing, by way of a remote diagnosis, certain things that, from a fan's perspective, are already quite irritating!

Let's first talk about Kenan Yildiz and how our reporters from the private broadcaster RTL portrayed him last Saturday, 18 November 2023. For those who don't immediately recall the name: I already reported on the Kenan Yildiz case in my post, DFB Talent Development – Sharpening the Focus, and pointed out that we may need to change our view of players and talents. In keeping with the motto that to a hammer everything looks like a nail, it's up to us.

Asked about a debut for the German national team, Kenan Yildiz told Bild, "My mother is German, my father Turkish. Germany never approached me, never contacted me. I would have considered a request, but there was no call from the DFB."

But do we want a player on the German team who would merely "consider" it if the DFB got in touch?

I don't! And perhaps there are other people who see things the way I do? A player who was born in Germany, grew up here, and was developed here should feel proud to be allowed to play in the national team's jersey.

If that is not the case, then under no circumstances do I want to see that player representing our nation.

A little more patriotism, for all our hospitality, would suit us well!

And, incidentally, that is what I expect from our players too.

A match result (an outcome goal) depends on many factors that a coach or the players cannot directly influence.

Markus Weise pointed this out emphatically,

recipient of the 2003 Coaching Award of the Baden-Württemberg State Sports Federation,

Olympic champion in 2004 with the women's national hockey team in Athens,

Olympic champion in 2008 with the men's national hockey team in Beijing,

2011 Coach of the Year (awarded by the German Olympic Sports Confederation, DOSB),

and Olympic champion in 2012 with the men's national hockey team in London,

in his talk, "Hey Coach, Can You Also Coach?", to the audience of the International Coaches' Congress (ITK) 2019. In this context, I would very much like to recommend this talk to you, parts of which can be seen on YouTube.

Incidentally, the DFB managed to secure Markus Weise's services at the end of 2015; as head of concept development, he played a major role in shaping the build-up of the DFB Academy. Our football association was rightly celebrated for this. Unfortunately, the DFB had already lost this expert again by mid-2019.

So a match result is an outcome goal. Achieving it is not entirely in the hands of the coach and players. Action and performance goals, on the other hand, can very much be directly influenced by the people involved!

For today's post, a shortened explanation will do: of course we all want to win a match. That is an outcome goal. But achieving an outcome goal is not fully controllable, since there can be many disruptions that jeopardize reaching that goal, for example:

things happen in the players' or the coach's private lives that prevent them from playing (a traffic accident, etc.),

key players get injured on the pitch,

referee decisions are made incorrectly,

…

It is therefore advisable to pursue action and performance goals. These can, among other things, be along the following lines:

In individual tactics: the goal is, during a defensive action, to always show the opponent the way toward the wing and to prevent a pass into dangerous zones by blocking passing lanes! Or

Regarding technique: the goal is to play the pass to my teammate without spin and to set it up so that he can continue play with an open body position! Or

At the conditioning level: to improve football-specific speed by X.X seconds during training (a short 15-meter sprint triggered by a game-realistic cue).

I am firmly convinced that fans, with more or less technical background, develop a good feel for the performance put on display by "our" team.

So when even the national coach himself says that the "emotional level" in the first half of the match against Turkey wasn't high enough, and we as fans can only confirm this impression from past performances, then even by way of a remote diagnosis it must be said that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark"!

Is it down to the players and their motivation?

Is the "football business" as we experience it today perhaps the cause?

Frequent club changes, "striking your way out" of a club, astronomical transfer fees and player salaries? The early influence of player agents? Marketing one's own personal brand, and the poisoned egotism that comes with it?

Are our stars so comfortable that playing for Germany becomes more of an obligatory duty than a highlight?

Have our players lost their sense of what it means to be allowed to play for the national team?

Is it down to the drawing-board coaches and their need for recognition?

Have our coaches by now become too used to viewing the pitch like a chessboard with corresponding pieces? Does the experimenting of concept-driven coaches lead to a loss of trust and less personal responsibility?

In other words, do our coaches / coaching staffs / coaching entourage forget the level of trust that is the basic prerequisite for outstanding performance development and unfolding? Has the level of trust between Leroy Sané and Julian Nagelsmann, for example, already regained the quality needed for international top performance to flourish on that basis? Do players and coaches even have the time to build a basis of trust? Can a healthy culture of constructive conflict then arise on that foundation? Do the players take on self-responsibility and personal accountability? And has everyone consequently committed 100% to the team's action goals?

Right at the start of his talk, Mr. Weise defines the social bonds "crowd" (has no interest in the goal and takes no part in the responsibility), "group" (shared goal, but when things get tight, responsibility is pushed away), and "team" (there are shared goals that continue to be pursued even against brutally strong resistance).

Only a team, he says, is capable of delivering top international performances. In my view, these are also necessary to be successful in today's world of football!

A team is also easy to recognize, Weise continues, namely when the "I" recedes into the background in favor of the "we"!

We would wish that for our national team and the national coach!

I look forward to taking up another topic in talent development with you next week under my column "So schaut's aus." Until then! Stay healthy, and always a good match!