National coach André Henning and captain Mats Grambusch talk about the forthcoming Hockey World Cup in India in an interview with Sportschau. A conversation about expectations, the squad and sports policy issues.
sports show: In the run-up to this interview, I tried to find news or up-to-date information about the national team! The yield was very meager! Are you surprised?
Andre Henning: We already know where hockey stands, and in recent years we have noticed that hockey does not get a large presence in the media landscape, which of course we find a pity and also disappointing. At the same time, I’m surprised, because a world championship of Germany’s most successful ball sport is already a big event. – Especially if you want to watch hockey, you can do that quite well in India.
We’re playing in two huge stadiums, one for 16,000, one for over 20,000, which will be full quite often, with hockey-crazy crowds, I think it’s worth pointing out. And to be honest, I wish there was more. I am firmly convinced that public service broadcasting also has a mandate to cover the spectrum of sports a little more broadly than just the top 3 sports, and I can therefore say that I am glad that we have been invited to do that is a good first step. At best, of course, we also do a lot to make the headlines – in a positive sense.
Mats Grambusch: In my timeline on Instagram and elsewhere, of course, things move relatively quickly, and quite a lot of news pops up there. I also have the sports show app, but so far there hasn’t been that much (laughs). Of course, one hopes from year to year that now is the year when it clicks.
What expectations does the German national hockey team have for the World Cup in India?
Mats Grambusch: We are currently fourth in the world rankings. We have three teams in front of us, two of which are clearly a step ahead, and they’ve proven that several times in recent years, also in tournaments, especially Belgium. But the Australians are just a tad ahead of us too, but we all have the same expectations. We want to come home as world champions, come to Germany and I’m really convinced that we can do it. I think we’re going there with high expectations and we’d like to confirm them.
Part of the preparation is that you, as the national coach, prepare the team for the coming opponents. How strong are the preliminary round opponents – Japan, Belgium and South Korea – to assess?
Andre Henning: We were able to play against both Asian teams at the preparatory tournament in Spain. That was a very important experience for the team because this Asian style of play seems rather unorthodox to us. This is a different tactical structure, which we perceive to be a bit wilder and a bit more chaotic. Adjusting to that is new because it doesn’t correspond to the top teams. It is precisely because of this that it is particularly difficult and challenging. We responded with a lot of structure, typically German, and that worked quite well. … Nevertheless, it’s clear that those are the two mandatory wins for us. – Belgium will be the big game, Belgium is reigning world champion, reigning Olympic champion. The World Cup system is such that if we should beat Belgium and finish first in the group, we skip a round of 16, there is an intermediate round that only applies to numbers two and three in the group and that’s the game very important against Belgium. – It was very important for us that we beat Belgium once in the Pro League. That gave us a lot of self-confidence that we now also know that on a good day we can “crack” anyone.
What is the roster like? Who is going with you?
Andre Henning: We have a very good package together right now. The quality across the board is definitely there and at the same time this range of players has achieved incredibly good results. If you look at the competitive games we’ve had this year, including the penalty shootouts, we’ve got 13 wins out of 16 games, that’s a very good rate. Now, with the team we have, it’s really about finding this level of coordination, these subtleties, these automatisms that aren’t 100 percent right now. It’s also very important that we take that into the tournament as an expectation. For us, out of the 20 we take to India, ten weren’t at the Olympics last year. So there are already a lot of newcomers, also returnees, not only young, but also young and the mix has to be found, of course. That will probably only be found there over the course of the week and possibly in the preliminary round, so that we can then see that we can get to the point of knockout games.
It’s easy to make a connection to the captain’s armband through Messi and the World Cup. What kind of bandage does Mats Grambusch wear?
Mats Grambusch: It’s pretty clear to us. I’ve been playing for Rot-Weiss Köln, my club team, for three years with the rainbow armband and we introduced that to the national team as well. It’s not such an issue for us as it is for the DFB boys. For us, this is a matter of course and a question of the values that we embody. Which, admittedly, I personally embody. That’s why there’s just a catch for us, it’s sort of shelved because it’s so obvious.
Germany’s hockey player Mats Grambusch in action.
What is your opinion on political statements in sport?
Andre Henning: For me it is incredibly important that we stand up for our values and also symbolize them to the outside world. We can see that it’s obviously not the norm everywhere, as Mats has just portrayed it for himself. I see that with Mats and the team as well. That such signs are normal, they are also important to them, but the topic is no longer as unusual for them as it is for other national teams. I think that’s a very important sign and a very important statement on the platform. Of course I had a lot of discussion about it now, does that have any place in sport? Isn’t that a political statement?
Accordingly, I am very happy happy and very proud, and I very rarely use the term “being proud of my team”, then it has to be great hockey or particularly positive behavior, but I’m really proud that the team is dealing with it in the way that they are so up front goes away and that it is such a matter of course.
I don’t experience that we have a discussion or that a team splits about whether we want to make statements in the right direction or whether we want to be role models, because I have to say that too: What is sport ultimately for? there? What is competitive sport for? Why is something like this being broadcast on TV? Sure, it has an entertainment factor, but above all, young people should see their role models and emulate them. It would be great if these role models showed exemplary behavior, i.e. the way they appear, how they behave on the pitch, but also exemplary behavior in the way they stand for, what values they have embody. And if a team embodies such values, then for me a World Cup is a success in many respects without us touching a ball.
Do you feel any kind of pressure, nervousness, tension just before departure?
Mats Grambusch: pressure, not at all. The anticipation increases from day to day, especially because we have met the “Westerners” of the team again in the last few days and have held some training sessions. That’s when you got a first tingling sensation. But because we’re not full professionals, we also have other topics on our minds that you have to tick off beforehand. We’ve been away for a whole month now, and if you work or have a family, you have to arrange a few things beforehand. That’s why everything came to us now, it moved every single player a little bit, and that’s why we weren’t so excited about this World Cup mode. But the moment we say hello, at the latest then it will come over you and you’ll just look forward to the World Cup. However, you really don’t feel the pressure yet. From my experience, I think the worst games in terms of pressure are the round of 16 or quarter-final games, where you’re clearly the favorite and you know you have to win. It’s the most pressure there is, although that pressure is also a nice thing because you know if you play well you win because you’re the better team.
How are the days looking in India leading up to the first game against Japan on January 14th?
Andre Henning: We actually do another training session on site and two mini test matches, it’s so common that you play 40 minutes instead of 60. Once against South Africa, right on the second day, to “groove in”, and on day four against Australia. It’s a great test for us, we haven’t seen them for a very long time, the last game against them was the Olympic semi-finals. They will raise the bar again and pull us up to our World Cup level. That’s elementary, you can’t go over it like you can in a training session, you get into hockey speed very quickly. We deliberately took a two-week break beforehand, of course there were training sessions, small group training but no more team training, which was also necessary after the intensive preparation phase beforehand. So that means coming back through training, acclimatizing, playing the two games and then, at best, being fit for the first game.
I think you both have very good memories of a Junior World Championships in India 10 years ago. You became world champion there, you as a coach and you as a player. A good omen?
Mats Grambusch: In the meantime we’ve been back to India a few times and didn’t manage it that well. André was national coach at the time, only for this one year, I was allowed to play in exactly the same position as I will now play again ten years later. If you want to speak of an omen, that would be nice.