Seifert criticizes Germany's youth teams

Since Germany's 2014 World Cup win in Brazil, the country's youngster haven't been able to keep up and DFL boss Christian Seifert is not happy about it. "When I take a look at what the German FA and the league has invested in talent development, then the bottom line is results in recent years have just not been good enough," said Seifert to German sports magazine "Sport Bild" on Wednesday.

Above all, the 46-year-old is unhappy with error analysis. "In this case, too many answers were given too early. Perhaps the individuality of things is lacking, or maybe we are putting too much emphasis on tactical value. There's just too much maybe involved," said Seifert, demanding more. "The German FA and the league must take a closer look as to whether the development in 2015 is as good as it should be."

The way forward, for Seifert, is in the coaching. "We need the best training in the world. This can be achieved with little financial backing, but can make a huge difference," said the DFL boss. These comments echo the disappointment of Germany's Sporting Director, Hansi Flick. Speaking at the international head coach congress in Wolfsburg last week, Flick said he wasn't happy with the performance and it was time to analyze what went wrong. Nevertheless, Flick did say: "We were at all five UEFA and FIFA tournaments this year. That is a huge success."

At the U20 World Cup, Germany was knocked out in quarterfinals. The U19s exited the European Championships in the first round, while the U21s fell at the semifinal hurdle in their edition of the same tournament. The U17s went one step better by making the final, but with the bar so high losing in the European Championship final to France in May of this year was no consolation. All eyes will be on them come October 17 though as they have the chance to make amends at the U17 World Cup in Chile.

jh/rd (SID)