Ready in 48 hours: How teams prep from one match to the next

JINJIANG, People’s Republic of China – The physiological demands of playing a football match are high, among the highest in sport. The intense 90-minute action, the added time and the relentless travel to and from the stadium take a toll. So how do athletes get up and ready to go once again within 48 hours at a tournament like the FISU University World Cup – Football, where they must play a match every second day?

We tailed the team from Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Germany to find out just what they do for those 40+ hours between the end of one match and the start of the next. A lot, it turns out, of careful planning in training, recovery and nutrition is required.

Physio Eva Wenzlik, Julius Maximilians University of Wurburg (GER)“Our first priority after the game is to attend to injuries or pains that any player may have,” says physio Eva Wenzlik, who is one of five officials accompanying the 17-man playing squad here in Jinjiang. “We attend to them, to take the tension out of the muscles and help them cool down. Each player gets individual attention.”

“Even before that, we do a 10-minute run immediately after the game,” adds Head of Delegation Anton Kramer. “And then we do the stretching.”

“Once we get back to the hotel, we have dinner together and then make sure everyone gets enough sleep,” he continues. “Sleeping enough is also very important so we want the players to sleep well, and long.”

Anton Kramer, Head of Delegation, Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg (GER)Does that mean the players who have travelled all the way to China for this tournament, don’t get a chance to take in the sights and sounds of the city at all?

“Sure, they do,” chuckles Kramer. “After dinner, the boys can go out a little bit to see the city. But of course, not to go to pubs or clubs. Our plan is to get to the quarterfinals, and we work very professionally towards that.”

“We will see how the tournament pans out for us and then decide if we want to relax those rules a little bit.”

On the morning of the ‘rest day’ in between matches, breakfast is usually followed by a light workout of some kind. “We do aqua jogging and stretching,” says physio Sebastian Fries. “The aqua gym is a kind of core training. It is not so intense, in fact it is to relax the muscles by alternating between warm water, cold water and sauna.”

It is then time to start focusing on the next match and that’s when Head Coach Gerhard Bömmel brings in the video analysis to prepare strategies.

Head Coach Gerhard Bömmel, Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg (GER)“We analyse the videos from our games and from the games of our next opponents,” says Bömmel. “Then we have meetings with the players. Usually, on the rest day we talk about the game from the night before. The following day, we will talk about the team we are scheduled to play next.”

Assistant Coach Tim Lorenz explains further. “At first we look at the video analysis among our coaching team and after that we sit together with the players and give them feedback based on the analysis.”

After having lunch together, the team takes an afternoon break from 1-3pm. This is followed by a low intensity outdoor training or practice.

On the evening of 24 November, the team is at the Jinjiang Middle School grounds, playing some ‘soccer-tennis’ and receiving attention from the two physios.

Physio Sebastian Fries trains with the squad“The evening training is also very light, very easy,” says Sebastian Fries. “Our players are very strong and in very good physical condition. So we try to do something different with the ball, like soccer-tennis, or you can say football with tennis rules.”

“The idea is to get them to move and have fun,” adds Eva Wenzlik.

The next morning, which is a match day, the team will do some walking, stretching and dynamic yoga for mobilisation. That will be followed by the second strategy meeting, where the focus would be on the upcoming opponents.

Tim Lorenz explains that the team strategy may be tweaked somewhat, based on the opposition. “Normally we have our own system, and we don’t change it because of the opponent,” he says. “But we could make little changes after seeing (on video) what the opponents are doing, to make our game plan more efficient.”

Assistant Coach Tim Lorenz, Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg (GER)Lorenz, interestingly, is the captain of the Julius-Maximilians team but has stepped into a coaching role here at the University World Cup due to the age restrictions.

“For example, in the game against Taiyuan University, we had the 4-2-3-1 system to have two players in the wings,” he continues. “In the first game (which they lost to University of Malaga) we had only one player in the wing so in the next game we wanted to play a little bit more in the middle, put more pressure in the wings.”

“We are good with both systems, that is our big advantage,” he smiles.  

It remains to be seen what formation the Germans come out in, when they take on University of Wollongong (AUS) in what is essentially a knockout match between the two.

The winner of the clash, in all probability will join Group A leaders University of Malaga (ESP) in the last eight. One thing is for sure though – it promises to be an excellent match and the Germans are ready for the challenge.

Photos: Xiaohan Huo