I think mostly fitness, yes. He also looked into motivational coaches, but in the end he asked German Olympic athletes to join a training camp I think. Whatever works, good to shake things up a bit. The German football federation has too long been a bunch of senile old gits, covered in cob webs, any fresh input is positive.
Well tennis is almost as popular as football as a participants sport over here as well! I went to an international youth tournament over here in Enschede last summer and the physical differences between say English and German teenagers on the one hand and the Dutch on the other are enormous. The English and Germans physically, and in fact overall, are much stronger. I think that highlights the differences in approach in youth development. In Holland the focus almost entirely is on developing technical and tactical skills, and more importantly on having fun - even in the higher youth leagues. Dutch youth teams hardly ever get any results, I can't even remember the last time a Holland under 19 has qualified for a major tournament. When a youngster makes his professional debut over here he's allowed to make mistakes, they don't put the fear of god into a young winger when he doesn't get past defenders, as long as he keeps on trying that's fine. I think that might be the difference with Germany: the Dutch youth development doesn't seem as performance-oriented, and that in turn allows players to develop their individual skills.
I am an American living in Germany, and both my daughter & my son played for many years on German clubs. Every town has at least one football club & some a lot more than that in Germany (for boys). The level of coaching depends on the volunteer, only at the richest clubs are they actually paid substantial money. The number of girls playing football is much less than in the states, it usually takes 4-5 towns to make a team. But with the Auswahl (all star) system, I think there is just as much youth development as in the states.
Interesting comments, I am surprised. I always had the impression that the Dutch are particularly tall and strong. Can you really train strength that much? Many successful German players are not physically strong at all, Haessler, Littbarski and Basler spring to mind. But apart from this I think many German football experts have also said that we should focus more on the development of technical skills in the future. Another observation which doesn't seem to fit in what you say is that U19 tournaments are often won by mediterranean teams like Spain and Portugal, where the emphasis is more on skill than on strength. The whole thing is obviously more complicated.
It's just a personal observation of course, the Dutch teenagers looked puny compared to the English and the Germans.
I never played any serious sports in Holland, so I can't really tell. I did play basketball in Edinburgh though, and the Brits (mostly English players) were much smaller than the Germans I used to play with. Guess it all varies.
Johan - I am not disputing the current situation. Dutch players currently are definitely more high-profile. I am talking about the whole story of Holland vs. Germany (which this thread is about), which began in 1974 (or 1973 if the Ajax vs. Bayern EC1 match is considered as the starting point). Your original high-profile comment read like this (important points in bold). You were referring to the general history, not the current situation: I'd just like to add that Dutch footballers are in any case much more high-profile than the Germans because Holland has always had far more footballers moving away and playing for the top clubs in Spain, Italy and England. Historically, it is not "irrelevant" that good Dutch players have a tendency to leave their own league, not because they were so much better than their German counterparts, but because their own league was just too small. That is the main reason why they have to leavue their own league. This conclusion that quality Dutch players were of higher-profile due to more of them playing abroad than quality German players is not convincing. Only if both leagues had been roughly of the same size, such a conclusion would make sense.
No sorry, I don't fancy men nor women with too much testosterone. I wish you the best though ugly person!!
You don't understand my point. The point is that it is a fact that traditionally more Dutch footballers play abroad than Germans - and as the leagues they play in get more exposure internationally than the Bundesliga, people are more likely to know the Dutch than the Germans. It's exposure what I was talking about. Of two footballers, one Dutch and one German, of the same quality, the Dutchman is far more likely to play abroad. And of two footballers, one Dutchman playing in the premiership in England and one German playing in the Bundesliga, again of the same quality, the Dutchman is more likely to attract media attention than the German simply because they premiership attracts a geographically wider television audience than the Bundesliga.
Fair points. But then again the players on the German national team have had more exposure in World cups and European cups over the last 40 years so I think it evens out In any case it's going round in circles and Dean Fingers has made a good point that only alcohol can move the discussion forward. Or alternatively, a sensible definition of 'high profile', which we don't have, apart from counting players who won European football player of the year (and we know who came out on top there). On the other hand you can also raise your profile by wearing silly glasses, driving fast cars or imitating domestic animals which seems rather difficult to measure.
Fine, you refuse to get my point either. For the last time, you are referring to the current situation only. Premier League? Started in 1992. We are talking about Germany vs. Holland history, which started in the early-70s. No Premier League around back then. The English First Division during the 70s and 80s? Hardly comparable to the EPL of recent years. I doubt that the Bundesliga during the 70s and 80s was that far behind the English First Division in terms of media coverage and profile, and additionally, not too many Dutchmen played in England during the 70s and 80s (Thijssen being the most famous). Looking at the Latin leagues, you had quite a number of Germans playing in Spain (70s/80s) and Italy (80s) - easily on par with the Dutch. I listed their names already in previous posts. The only scenario that proves your claims is found in the current situation, yet I never denied that the Dutch currently have more high-profile players. But during the 70s, 80s and early-90s, Germany had easily as many high-profile players as the Dutch (if not more), and since this thread is about the history of this rivalry, you have to take this into account. With reducing this Germany vs Holland affair to the recent 10 years, you are conveniently leaving out 2/3 of this rivalry`s history - and that is not acceptable.
Let's first establish that the rivalry has only existed for 30 years. Prior to 1974, Holland was an insignificant football nation on the international level. Also I will stick with my original theory of Dutch football being more high-profile. I'm pretty confident that much more has been written and said about Dutch football by neutral journalists than about German football - something you could easily research (how many books does Amazon offer on German football, and how many on Dutch football, for example). One possible explanation is that there have simply always been more Dutch players than German players in high-profile leagues, again SINCE Holland has become a prominent football nation. And this explanation is actually being kind to German football Gregoriak. Because if this explanation isn't fair, we'll have to conclude that neutrals simply are more interested in and fascinated by Dutch football than in/by German football.
id just like to put in my two cents, but i suspect the reason for much of the attention being on dutch football is infact related to the fact that most dutch played in high profile leagues....(i guess youre wondering why im repeating what you said, neeskens), but this, imho, is down to the fact that the german league has for a long time, been one of the top 3 leagues in europe, and therefore, as is the case with many spanish and italians, germans havent really felt the need to go abroad to play in bigger clubs... this, and the general dislike towards the germans from much of europe, and the stereotype that comes with being german (in one word - boring), are major reasons for german football not being written about or as 'popular' as dutch football dutch footballers certainly may be more eye catching (cruyff is infact my favorite footballer of all time, and i SERIOUSLY rate him above both pele and maradona), but the german greats from the past will always be recognized by the real followers of the game... i dont think many dutch footballers from the last 30 years (except cruyff and MAYBE van basten - although theres gerd muller) can be placed above the german greats from the same period...
I've never said that Holland produced more football stars or that the Dutch are better. Just that our footballers tend to get more attention in the media.
I hope you allow me to get back to the topic: After reading all your posts I have to admit that Holland didnt have that many more talented players than Germany since '74. But then I still ask myself: Where does the rivalry come from? I'm pretty sure it's not WWI/WWII and apparently it's not a difference in talent. And it's not the attention players get in the media - Dutch players are more popular today as Johan pointed out, but German players got more attention until the beginning of the 90's. We also discussed the possible reason that it is the success of Germany that causes Dutch fans to be envious, but then again... if this was the reason of the rivalry, every nation except Brazil should be envious and rivals of Germany, not just Holland and England. So what is it? A mixture of all things mentioned above?
Well it is definiteliy not WWI. Also WWII plays a large role in that rivalry (from the dutch point of view). The rest is about the 1974 final (also only from the Dutch). After that we didn´t meet or Holland did not play a major role in football till the late 80s). Then came 1990 and Rijkaard and the Koeman incident (when was that?).