NAGOA: The Germany U-17 World Cup team held a training session at the Nagoa Panchayat ground, on Monday evening.
“The team is very happy to be in Goa (India) after the 15 hours long journey from their country on Sunday”, informed media manager of team Germany Ronny Zimmermann.
The Germany team which arrived in the State had their first training session on the beach under the leadership of head coach Christian Wuck on Sunday after their arrival.
“Running on the beach and physical tone up were part of the session, besides other technical coaching aspects,” Ronny said.
“The 20-member team are in a very good shape and fitness too. Best among them is striker Jann-Fiete Arp, who played in European Championship in May and has scored seven goals in five matches. But to our bad luck we lost the semi-finals against Spain in the penalty shootout.”
Captain Jann-Fiete will join the team later due to his commitment with Hamburg in Bundesliga, who made a debut against Werder Bremen on Sunday.
Relating on the concept of catch them young, watch them grow, Ronny mentioned that the teenagers are trained from the age of 15, wherein several scouting camps are held and put to rigorous training by well trained coaches. Later, the selected go under step by step process. Both studies and training go hand-in-hand and if there are no matches, the teachers teach them for two hours every day. Right now, two of them are with the team, one is teaching science and another language.
Further, he stressed on the weather here saying the team is consuming more water due to humidity.
On the chances of winning the title, he felt that it was not just about the title but participation in the event and development of the players was very important.
Hundreds of football lovers were there at the ground to have a first look at the Germany team.
