Werder’s vice captain Per Mertesacker is set to play centre back for the German national team at the 2010 World Cup. After the first 24 hours in South Africa, he took questions from...
Werder’s vice captain Per Mertesacker is set to play centre back for the German national team at the 2010 World Cup. After the first 24 hours in South Africa, he took questions from...
Werder’s vice captain Per Mertesacker is set to play centre back for the German national team at the 2010 World Cup. After the first 24 hours in South Africa, he took questions from media members at the German Football Federation’s official press conference. <b<WERDER.DE</b> wrote down the most important notes. Here is Part One of his comments.
Per, you and the team arrived on Monday and have your first day in South Africa behind you. What are your first impressions?
I feel that quite a bit has already happened. I am in South Africa for the first time and am very consciously taking in all these impressions. There are some nice things but also some things that you have to fight through first and make you think. It is an entirely different country, something totally different than Germany. But we will work very hard.
The team left an early German summer and arrived in approaching winter. How difficult is the adjustment?
We have to get used to the air conditions a bit after we got over the flight. I had some sleeping problems during the flight but I compensated for that in the bus on the way to the team hotel.
Technically there are also some hurdles to overcome. It’s been reported that the new German federation mobile phones can call to Germany but not to your team-mate in the next room. Is that correct?
The communication with the most important people back home is going very, very well. I have only not been able to reach my parents yet. I think they are perplexed that I have a different mobile number for this tournament. They can’t really understand that. We have received telephones here in which the numbers of all the team-mates are saved. We have never had that. But I don’t need that. I would rather use the phone in the room to call my team-mates. I think it’s easier like that. Besides, it’s probably cheaper as well.
What’s the atmosphere like after finally arriving?
We had a lot of setbacks to overcome with all the injuries. But we have been together long enough as a team to have gotten over it very well. We feel really comfortable in the group and are excited about the first training sessions.
They will certainly have quite a bit of focus now on Australia’s game, no?
The excitement about the first game is certainly increasing. We are totally concentrating on that. The goal of course is to get the full three points. Should that not work out, it would not be a good start. But I don’t want to think about the negatives at all.
You and Christoph Metzelder made up a dream defensive combo at the 2006 World Cup. You had the best challenge value in the whole tournament. Is that possible with Arne Friedrich as well?
Back then we had a lot of confidence and worked very well. And we need that to be the case again. It’s clear that we don’t want to perform any worse. A good habit of going into challenges is important. We want to allow fewer goal chances, present ourselves confidently and give the team the ability to play good games.
