SoccerNewsIssue # 5, 09th September 2015

Continental/Division TiresAlexander BahlmannHead of Media & Public Relations PLTBuettnerstraße 25 | 30165 Hannover

Phone: +49 511 938 2615E-Mail: alexander.bahlmann@conti.dewww.contisoccerworld.de

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News

Loew’s especial delight – “The team have sur-prised me”Everything is fine again. The World Cup champions are back at the top. A stressful situation has been overcome and the weak pre-season has been corrected. Just one point is still required to ascertain participation at the 2016 European Championship. The aim is a fourth title for the German Football Association (DFB), says Joachim Loew, who showed his extreme happiness in Glasgow.

When Lufthansa flight LH 343 took off for home, the German national coach looked back on the intensity of the past few days – 3-1 against Poland, 3-2 against Scotland. He had not only expected six points to gain first place in the qualification group for EURO 2016, but he had demanded it as a matter of course from the national team. Hampden Park, the

world’s oldest stadium, greatly impressed him with its unique atmosphere and deafening level of Scottish chants. But Glasgow was not just a simple competitive international match, although the conclusion was as planned ticked off, duty done.

“The Germans are rightly world champions, for they play a fantastic passing game, even when under pressure”. The praise from his coaching

opposite number Gordon Strachan triggered satisfaction with Loew, because it characterised his team’s special hallmark so well, and it came from a former world-class player. But the national coach also had a special moment of pleasure. The 55-year-old was astonished by his team; totally amazed how good it was – especially without the customary weeks of training as prior to major tournaments. “I am really surprised how quickly the team

translated the specifications within two, three days”, Loew said. He had not reckoned with that after the scruffy season which followed the winning of the title in Rio. “But when all are together, everything happens faster than I thought”. A week ago at their get-together in Frankfurt Loew had straightened out ‘two, three things we must urgently correct’. But the German national team, the World Cup champions, simply are a representative team

The joy of World champions: Jerome Boateng, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, scorer Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, Mesut Özil (from left) celebrate a goal during

the 3-2 over Scotland. Photo: Imago

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with, particularly in the past season, regular changes in the squad and without permanent training sessions together.

Loew is striving for the title hat-trick World-European-World As against Poland, they intermittently showed in Scotland their offensive strength with extra-class combinations, but still lacked the killer

punch, however. And in defence, there are still many problems, particularly with set-pieces. However, the enthusiasm shown by the na-tional team in Frankfurt and Glasgow proved that the World Cup champion team still lives. One point is still needed to automatically compete in France between June 10 and July 10, 2016. “A draw in Ireland in October will do, but our aim is of course to book the ticket to

Tough battle for the German team during the 3-1 win against Poland: Mats Hummels “handles” Robert

Lewandowski (centre). Jerome Boateng and Jonas Hector watch spellbound. Photo: Getty Images

France with a win in Dublin and first place in the group”, Loew explained. Three days later the European Championship qualification will be concluded with the match against Georgia in Leipzig. Loew talks about winning the fourth European title for the DFB in Paris next summer. “We want to emboss a new era”, said Jerome Boateng. The central defender, who has been in top form for more than a year, reiterated Loew. Spain, the 2008 and 2012 European and 2010 World champions, are the example for the German national coach with these three successive titles. But with one all-important difference: the German triple title haul would be World-European-World.

In Glasgow Loew emphasised however, that the current team are still far from being ideal. “I never plan with that at such an early time”, he said. He still has ten months until the start of the European Championship. He wants to see Sami Khedira and Marco Reus in his regular team. And he made it clear that Emre Can was just “cast” in the last two matches, which means a screening test for him in the unusual position of right defender under competitive conditions. The Liverpool FC mid-fielder passed tolerably against Poland, but against Scotland he was the weakest player. His mistakes led to both conceded goals, but he assisted with the goal for 2-1. “Naturally there is room for improvement, and of course we must attend to him”, said Loew. It seems clear that other candidates such as Matthias Ginter, Sebastian Rudy and Tony Ruediger will be tested again in the future. On the left side, however, Jonas Hector continued to collect points for a regular place with his respectable, safety-intent game. The battle for the places 1-14 has started in the team. A good example is the recovery of Ilkay Guendogan who is-

News

Friendly in Hanover on November 17 without Holland?

“We are going to the European Championship without Holland!” The German fans chanted their favourite slogan in Glasgow during the World Cup champions’ 3-2 victory over Scot-land, but the issue entails some complications for the German Football Association (DFB). An international friendly between the German national team and the Netherlands has been scheduled for November 17 (Tuesday) in Hanover. But the Dutch may well be unavail-able on that date, as they could have to con-test the play-offs.

It depends on whether the currently fourth-placed in their group win their last two mat- ches against Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic. So the Czechs, as well as the Ice-landers, with both already qualified for EURO 2016, would have to assist the Dutch with wins against Turkey. Consequently the deci- sion whether the international in Hanover can be held against the requested opponents, will have to wait until October 13. Only if the “Oranje” team, a year ago the World Cup bronze med-allists, cannot exploit their opportunity to finish in third place in the group, will the pres-tigious game against Germany take place.

sued a warning, especially for World Cup champions Mesut Oezil and Bastian Schweinsteiger, who no longer perform on their previous level, that regular places must be constantly defended.

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The fans in Iceland (population: 300,000 humans and 80,000 horses) have plenty to smile about: they’ve booked their tickets to France for next

year’s Euros! Photo: Visit Iceland

ALLEZ BOOM!

Limp, limp, limpYour correspondent discovers absurd simi-larities between Mannheim, Iceland and Asterix. And he’s also realized the true meaning of “nether lands”.by Freddy Boom

We interrupt this PDF program to bring you some breaking news that’s just occurred to me. And I crave your indulgence if you don’t get my drift right away. Fancy a few lines on Ger-many’s performance? Or England’s qualification? Right, then: Götze, one-nil; Rooney, two-nil; blah, blah, rhubarb, rhubarb. That’s all I have time for on that front today, but bear with me – you won’t regret it. Because the news is that Waldhof Mannheim have qualified for the 2016 UEFA European Cham-pionship in France. “Waldhof who?” I hear our readers from outside Germany say. By way of explanation, I’ll just don my hat as Professor of Sports Sciences at the University of Soccer News Editorials and conduct an instant seminar on “German football culture in the 1980s, as reflected in the harsh reality of the lower amateur divisions”.

No, please don’t switch channels or download a different PDF, for what you are about to receive is the kind of exclusive know-ledge that will guarantee you free drinks all night at the next trivia pub quiz. As you may or may not be aware, SV Waldhof Mannheim 07 are now languishing in a division called Region-alliga Südwest, which is the fourth tier of German football, hav-ing previously sunk as low as – and won promotion from – the fifth tier. You should also know that Waldhof Mannheim are the nodding dachshund on the parcel shelf of German football’s family saloon. A symbol of homeliness, bourgeois bliss, self-

congratulatory provincial smugness – pardon my French, dear natives of Mannheim – and above all, of footballing mediocrity “par excellence”, as those of us with French grandmothers like to say. In days of old, when Mannheim – pronounced “Mannem” by the locals – were still playing in the lofty heights of the Bundes-liga, back in the dim and distant Eighties, their trainer was a certain Klaus Schlappner, nicknamed “Schlappi” (roughly trans-latable as “The Limp One”), whose rotund, ruddy visage topped by his trademark tartan trilby put one in mind of nothing so much as an amateur angler, heading for a quiet day by the river. If you’d seen the guy, and know your Asterix, then you couldn’t help thinking of the seriously paunchy Roman prefect Surplus Dairyprodus from “The Golden Sickle”, who we see reclining on a chaise longue (those French words are everywhere!), slurping at a roast chicken leg and, bored out of his mind, uttering the

legendary words (with a little translator’s license): “I feel so limp, oh limp, oh limp.”

Do you catch my drift, O students of footballing culture? For this is the last bend in the long and winding road we have traveled together to catch up with recent events in the EURO 2016 qualifiers. As anyone who has ever played football knows, it isn’t always possible to take the direct route to goal. But be that as it may, Mannheim has a population of about 300,000, a modest pool of talent from which Waldhof manages to recruit a team that can hold its own in the twilight zone between the fourth and fifth divisions. Iceland, meanwhile, is a country short on trees and with temperatures that rarely reach double figures, but long on diminutive horses, hot springs (“geysers”), the world’s largest natural blast-furnaces (“volcanoes”) and a

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Quote of the day

Iceland’s national trainer Heimir Hallgrímsson after their 1-0 victory in the Netherlands.

Danny Blind, after Holland lost to Iceland in his first game as Bondscoach – probably thinking the same

thing as his Icelandic counterpart, but for different reasons.

The reality speaks for itself.

A beer tonight would be nice.

rugged lava-strewn landscape that NASA, Neil Armstrong and some other geezers (sorry) used as a training ground for the first moon landing. Like Mannheim, Iceland too boasts a population of about 300,000 (plus 80,000 horses), and it is a team drawn from this mod-est pool of talent that has inflicted defeat not once, but twice, on Holland – the team rated number three in Europe – in the current se-ries of Euro qualifiers. The 1-0 home defeat in Amsterdam dumped the Netherlands in the nether-lands of the group table (excuse the politically incorrect play on words, see-voo-play). This was also the first time in 52 years that Holland had come off worse in a European Championship qualifier at home. So after pillaging a 0-0 draw against Kazakh-stan, the plucky band of Vikings from near the Arctic Circle will be joining the party in

Paris next summer. Which is a bit like Waldhof Mannheim thrashing Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League, or qualifying for the UEFA Euros, come to that. Vive le sport!

Oh, and talking of Real, or rather Real Life: the plain truth these days seems to be that foot-ballers are worth more than the stadia whose hallowed turf they grace. Even Belgians are now being bought and sold for the kind of money that extra-terrestrials like Messi or Ron-aldo would fetch in an intergalactic end-of-the-universe sale. And while we’re on the subject of vast sums of cash, here’s a journalistic gem I unearthed recently and can’t resist sharing with you. Following the official announcement that, if Cristiano Ronaldo should ever leave Real Madrid, the contractually agreed transfer fee would be a staggering one billion euros,

it was calculated that the value of 1 Ronaldo at today’s exchange rate is equivalent to 18.4 tonnes of 50-euro bills, 4 Airbus 380 airliners, 9,090 Porsche 911 Targas or 100 million tubes of hair gel, depending on your personal requirements. And this piece of priceless infor-mation brings a quantum of solace, if not to Holland’s new Bonds-coach Danny Blind, then at least to your friendly local football fan, Mon-sieur Freddy Boom. What a relief it is to know that an ordinary but well trained bunch of lads descended from the Vikings and with a col-lective market value equivalent to five trawler-loads of mackerel, can have the rest of Europe quaking in their (football) boots.

As if that were not enough, here’s yet another exclusive scoop for you: at the edge of the microphone range, following an interview not

given to SoccerNews after the Netherlands’ 3-0 drubbing by Turkey, Danny Blind – admit-tedly not slurping at a roast chicken leg, but probably seeking a potent source of Dutch courage – was heard to say: “I feel so limp, oh limp, oh limp.”

PS: Sorry, I almost forgot to mention that San Marino’s goal in their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Lithuania on Tuesday evening marked the first time in 14 years that they had found the back of the net in an away game, ending a run of 37 goalless (at least for San Marino) matches on foreign soil. It was also their first goal in their current bid to qualify, pushing up their goal difference to a mere minus 26. Whatever next, I hear you say? I’m backing them to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But only they get drawn in the same group as Holland.

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England will compete at EURO 2016. Wayne Rooney scored his 50th international goal from the penalty spot

past Yann Sommer during the 2-0 win over Switzerland at Wembley. Photo: Imago

News

England celebrate EURO participation and Rooney record

More than 75,000 fans made the pilgrimage to the great EURO party at the revered Wembley Stadium, and celebrated a new goal-scoring record by Wayne Rooney & Co. during the un-important match against Switzerland (2-0) on Tuesday evening. Euphoria has returned to the home of football, England, as the team of team manager Roy Hodgson had already booked the ticket to the European Championship in France three days earlier when beating San Marino 6-0 and achieving the optimum with seven wins from seven matches.

A year ago such enthusiasm was hardly in the mind. The elimination of the “Three Lions” after the first round at the World Cup in Brazil was accompanied by scoff and mockery in the over critical press, and ticket sales for in-ternational matches plummeted. Now comes the reconciliation, with Rooney playing a major part. The star Manchester United striker scored seven goals in the current qualification. His last goal was his 50th in a national shirt, overtaking legend Sir Bobby Charlton as the record goal-scorer. And Rooney immediately declared his love for team England: “I will play for England as long as the coach wants me”.

The footballers of Iceland have also earned legendary status. They ascertained their place, together with the Czech Republic in Group A, among the 24-team field at the European Championship. A rather unspectacular goalless draw with Kazakhstan was sufficient to qualify

the team representing the 330,000 Icelandic people for a major tournament for the first time ever. The head of government Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson even considered declar-ing that red-letter day of September 6 a nation-al holiday. But the 1-0 win over the wobbling World Cup bronze medallists Netherlands was much more remarkable. The hot favourites suf-fered even worse with a follow-up 3-0 defeat in Turkey, meaning the Oranje can’t even reach a play-off place on their own.

Attention is drawn to the qualification of the so-called small nations. Such as Austria, who in Group G actively qualified for a European Championship for the first time, with an ex-hilarating 4-1 victory in Sweden. In 2008 the Alpine republic was a co-host so automatically qualified for their first ever European Champi-onship participation.

And further outsiders are knocking on the EURO door – also thanks to the new 24-team

format. British nations in particular for, in ad-dition to England, Wales and Northern Ireland may also start planning. The Welsh, centred around 100-million-man Gareth Bale, had to delay their European Championship party after a goalless draw with Israel. But the top team in Group B should gain the needed point in their concluding home match against Andorra.

The initial position for Northern Ireland in Group F is similar, as they hold a four-point advantage over third-placed Hungary. A late equaliser by Kyle Lafferty to make it 1-1 against the Magyars in added time was very valuable. “Kyle who?”, they will ask at Norwich City. The striker has not yet played a single minute with the Premier League club this season, but he has scored seven goals for Northern Ireland. A fourth team could join the three teams from the British Isles. In Group D, topped by Germany, either Scotland or neighbours Ireland might reach at least a play-off place.

And the big ones? Title holders Spain need no longer worry after a 1-0 win in Macedonia, and the same holds true for European runners-up Italy, even though the “Squadra Azzurra” did not overly impress their own fans with two below par 1-0 wins against Malta and Bulgaria. As long as 37-year-old veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who earned his 150th cap, continues to save the day, the minimalist tac-tics may well work out in the future – possibly also in France. It’s quite certain that World Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, and World Cup champions Germany, will also be there. After a 1-0 win in Albania his Portugal need just one more point.

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In 1963, Storchenmühle launched “Niki”, the world’s

first child car seat. Photo: Recaro

In 1973, consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest published the findings of the first ever

child car seat test. No wonder the young man in the mock-up photo is wearing a helmet –

most of the seats were only good for scrap metal after the test. Photo: Test

Did you know ...

... that in Luxembourg child car seats are mandatory even for 17 year-olds?

It’s tough being a teenager in the Grand Duchy of Luxem-bourg, but only if you happen to measure less than 150 cm from head to toe and want to travel by car. „Children up to the age of 17 who are less than 150 cm tall may only be transported in an appropriate child safety seat,” write German automobile club AvD, warning their members heading for Lux-embourg. Just short of voting age but strapped into a child car seat? It sounds so incredible that car hire firms like Sixt make a point of spelling it out to their customers, referring to “special regulations” that apply in the EU’s second-smallest member state: “Even up to the age of 17, children require a suitable child car seat if they are smaller than 150 cm.” Fortunately, not every European country makes traveling by car so potentially em-barrassing for adolescents. In Germany, for example, Section 21 of the Road Traffic Act prescribes that children up to the age of 12 and less than 150 cm tall may only be transported by car in “child retention systems (child safety seats)”.

It was in Germany, incidentally, that the world’s first child safety seat was created. Called “Niki”, the seat launched by manu-facturer Storchenmühle in 1963 had little in common with modern day child retention systems – not in terms of design and certainly not in terms of safety. Long before the advent of the Isofix or Latch era, Niki, which had no head restraint, relied on twin metal brackets that hooked over the back of the rear seat. Black humor it may be, but the choice of names like “Ast-ronaut” and “Astro Jet” for later models may not have been too far off the mark. Because in the event of an accident there was no guarantee that the whole contraption, including the child, would not fly off the back seat. In 1973, German consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest subjected all child safety seats of the day to a comparative test and published the results un-der the headline “From Safety to Scrap Metal”. Of the 15 seats

tested, eleven proved sub-standard: “Tubular frames folded into just so much scrap metal or simply broke and smashed into the front seat, child and all,” wrote the testers.

By the way, Luxembourg is not the only EU member with, let’s say, unusual road traffic regulations. In Spain, dogs traveling by car must also belt up. Truth to tell, however, local driver’s pay little attention to this piece of legislation. If you’ve ever taken to the road between Asturias and Andalusia, the chances are you won’t have seen many harnessed hounds en route.

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NOTRUF AKTIVIERTSSIIE SIND MMMIT DER NNOTRUUFZEENTTRALLE VVEERBUUNDDEN

BBITTE SPRRRECHHEN SSIIE JEETZTT

SOS

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SOS

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Surfing via streetlight: Streetlights that act as WiFi hotspots would make for widespread Internet access. Photo: EnBW

Did you know ...

... that in Germany you can use a streetlight to surf the Net?

The smart streetlight of the future will be a real all-rounder, capable of just about anything, except perhaps making a cup of tea. At the upcoming International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, energy utility EnBW will be presenting a smart streetlight concept by the unlikely name of “Sm!ght”. Behind the name is a streetlight that can do a whole lot more than light up a dark roadway. During daylight

hours, the base of the actual lantern, lowered to shoulder height, acts as a WiFi hotspot, of-fering public access to the Internet. The lower section of the mast will feature a conventional domestic-style power socket and a three-phase charging point with rapid-charging functiona-lity at up to 22 kW, enabling both electric cars and e-bikes to top up with power. There will also be an emergency call button with which to contact the nearest emergency services dispatcher for rapid assistance. At the same time the top of the mast will start glowing like a beacon to guide the rescue services. At night the lantern itself comes into its own. As dusk begins to fall the mast telescopes to its

full height and two LED panels unfurl, provi-ding the necessary light sources. If required, the lantern can also be fitted with sensors that measure noise, particulates, barometric pressure, humidity or temperature. This new streetlight concept is currently being tested in several German towns.

Right now there are some 20,000 electric cars on Germany’s roads and according to government forecasts there should be one million of them by 2020. The biggest obstacle to achieving this goal at present is the inadequate recharging infrastructure. By 2025 some 7,000 charging stations will be

needed in Berlin alone. And instead of setting up these charging points in town centers at €10,000 a shot, the multifunctional streetlight could hold the key. Most streetlights are located right where cars are parked – by the side of the road. So what could be more obvious than to recharge them with energy straight from the lampposts? Berlin-based start-up Ubricity originally came up with the idea of using streetlights as charging points back in 2007. And the additional functionalities of the Sm!ght concept, not least its WiFi connectivity, could also help drive forward other topical issues such as automated driving.