The German national soccer team is starting direct preparation for the World Cup. National coach Julian Nagelsmann conjures up a “really good family”, sports director Rudi Völler is the good-mood uncle who has already experienced everything.
Although the uncle thing is a thing, because Völler is called “Aunt Käthe” and has been since the 80s. “This is now my fifth World Cup – in the third role”he opened the hot phase of preparation on Wednesday, which would also be called that at 14 degrees Celsius, but in Herzogenaurach the thermometer showed around 30 degrees.
In this respect, this is a fitting introduction, because around 40 degrees and high humidity are expected at the first World Cup game against Curaçao on June 14th in Houston.
In his third role at the fifth World Cup, and now also a weather prophet
But Völler says he can assure you of one thing. It won’t be any hotter than in Dallas in 1994, when the third preliminary round game of the World Cup against South Korea was scheduled. He is still grateful to Berti Vogts today for putting him on the bench. “I’d love to be back in the knockout phase”he told the then national coach, “That was just brutal.”
Almost 50 degrees were measured in the USA in the summer of 1994 than in Germany “Perhaps the players were even better than in 1990”. But instead of successfully defending the world championship title, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Bulgaria.
“It has to be right within the company. But it wasn’t right back then. There was always some sort of unrest.”said Völler.
Rudi Völler will now be playing an active role at a World Cup for the fifth time. The player existed three times, then the team manager in 2002, and now he is the sports director of the German Football Association, responsible for the national team.
Julian Nagelsmann is experiencing his first World Cup in an active role. He is the national coach who is supposed to break an embarrassing series in German football. The DFB team was eliminated in the preliminary round in both 2018 and 2022.
Precedence for Uncle Rudi: press conference in Herzogenaurach
The probability that this will happen again is mathematically lower, because in the bloated tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico with now 48 teams, only a third of the teams instead of half will have to go home after the group phase.
| Date | Appointment |
|---|---|
May 27th | Start of the 1st World Cup training camp (Herzogenaurach) |
May 30th | Champions League final |
May 31st | Test match against Finland (Mainz) |
June 2nd | Start of 2nd World Cup training camp (Chicago) |
June 6th | Test match against the USA (Chicago) |
June 8th | Move into the World Cup quarters (Winston-Salem) |
June 11th | World Cup opening game |
June 14th | 1st World Cup group game against Curacao (Houston) |
June 20th | 2nd World Cup group game against Ivory Coast (Toronto) |
June 25th | 3rd World Cup group game against Ecuador (East Rutherford) |
In order to leave the DFB’s selection well into July, if possible until the final day on the 18th (local time) in North America, Nagelsmann ordered his “Most important message: We have to act like a real family.”
Völler is convinced that this will succeed. Nagelsmann “wonderful words” found when the squad met in Franconia, with the exception of Kai Havertz, who was still busy in the Champions League final. He is sure that the World Cup will be good, even if he doesn’t want to announce “any target.”
“No muzzles”, “I’d like more peace”, but “it’s all about football”
With the aura of the experienced uncle, Völler also ironed out the question of whether the team would be prepared for the special political situation that US President Donald Trump has been provoking since the beginning of his second term in office.
It will be a meeting like in Qatar, when the mouth-to-mouth gesture was found as a compromise after the one-love armband was banned by the world association FIFA, but against the will of some players “certainly won’t give anymore”.
There are “no muzzles” and he too would have “I would like a little more peace” in the world, but: “We’re there to play a World Cup. In the end it’s all about football.”
From training to training, then the next game
For Julian Nagelsmann, it is particularly important that it is all about football up to and including tomorrow. It will help the players “to stay in the here and now”. The next training session is the most important, and then the next game comes, which is important.
There will be three training sessions in Herzogenaurach, and the test against Finland in Mainz will take place on Sunday (May 31, 2026, live ticker at sportschau.de) from 8:45 p.m.
Neuer is still missing: “But you don’t need to worry”
Oliver Baumann will be in goal because Manuel Neuer is due to take a break due to a sore calf. “But no one needs to worry”said Nagelsmann, who in turn didn’t have to worry. “If there’s a headwind, I’ll still be there”said Rudi Völler.
