No desire for deep stacking
Flick thinks Russia’s World Cup exclusion is good
03/06/2022, 8:38 p.m
National coach Hansi Flick finds the exclusion of the Russian national soccer team from the World Cup playoffs and thus the World Cup without alternative. Flick formulates the maximum goal for his own team.
National coach Hansi Flick has judged the exclusion of Russian athletes and teams from international sporting events such as the World Cup in Qatar because of the war in Ukraine to be correct and without alternative. “The sports world has sent a signal that the Russian athletes have been excluded,” said Flick on Sunday in the ARD “Sportschau”: “They can’t do anything about it, but you have to send a signal, even if you feel sorry for the athletes because they can’t help it. Ultimately, it’s Putin’s war. But there’s no other alternative for me.”
Like everyone else, he is following “very closely what is happening in Ukraine, of course with concerns that we all have,” said the 57-year-old on Russia’s invasion. The former Bayern coach was concerned about the current situation. At the same time, he is impressed by the willingness of the people to help, for example in his home town of Bammental: “None of us know what’s coming. But you can also feel the solidarity with the Ukraine.” However, the war in Europe is “very, very scary”.
“We’re not piling deep now”
For his own team, which had qualified early for Qatar as the first in their own qualifying group, Flick set the greatest possible goal for 2022. “It’s nice how the players pull together, how everyone implements the guidelines well. You can feel a spirit of optimism there. Everyone wants to be there in Qatar. Everyone wants to be world champions. That’s our big goal. We’re not stacking too low,” said Flick.
“We want to try to always perform as best we can in the game,” said Joachim Löw’s former world champion assistant. As Loew’s successor, the 57-year-old has set a record as national coach with seven wins in the first seven international matches under his leadership.
The national team will come together for the first time this year on March 21 in Frankfurt/Main to prepare for the friendlies in Sinsheim against Israel (March 26) and then in Amsterdam against the Netherlands (March 29). “We have a very strong team as opponents in the Nations League, but also in March with Holland,” said Flick. In the Nations League in June and September, Germany will meet European champions Italy, European Championship finalists England and Hungary in two-legged games. The World Cup finals in Qatar begin on November 21st and end with the final on December 18th. The preliminary round groups will be drawn in Doha on April 1st.