Bayern Go Big in UCL

25:41Jurgen Klinsmann:And it's not, I would say it's not as international as definitely the Premier League is or even Spain. And this is something that hopefully will change the next couple of years because I think they understand now because of the third time not being qualified for the World Cup that they need to change. They need to do things differently. they need to open up to not only foreign players, which they do if they can financially kind of afford them, but also different coaching ideas, different type of coaches. And if they are successful, and I think Cesc Fabri guys, could there be a bit the locomotive of that new coaching wave that could have a big influence in Italian football?

26:27Jurgen Klinsmann:That would be fantastic. A lot more on what's happened in the Champions League over the last few days, He's available over on our YouTube channel. Just go over and subscribe to ESPN FC.

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28:28Chicago Fire taking on Inter Miami in MLS last night. It'd be a record crowd over 60 ,000. Lewandowski up against Lionel Messi and it would be Lewandowski who draws first blood. Fantastic goal, man. It's a great ball then as well. But that's him. That's him in a nutshell, isn't it? That's brilliant.

28:56That's really, that is so difficult. Four minutes to go though in the first half. Messi with a chance. Good save. Great footwork though. Surprise, surprise. Here we go. I'll get that. Keeber does well. That's a good save.

29:17Casemiro. He's got a few goals, hasn't he, since joining MLS. another one here. He actually scored a few of these last year in the Premier League, so it's no surprise that it goes to MLS. I said that last week and he laughed at me. I had a bit of a confrontation here. He doesn't know. Lewandowski. Oh, get lost. So pushing here. That's two get losts. But then who gets involved? Rodrigo de Paul. Of course. He plays Peacemaker. No. He comes, has a go at Lewandowski. Now, lip readers are suggesting that he said something about the Copa America and something about the World Cup as well. Suggestions are he's saying, who the hell are you?

30:01I've won the Copa America twice and the World Cup. Anyway, away from that. He's very, I don't know, very aggressive. Very argumentative as it finishes. Chicago Fire 1, Inter Miami 1. into Miami. Still find themselves nine points off Nashville at the top of the table. Jürgen, I imagine when you moved to England, there must have been a little bit of chirping, a bit of banter from players, especially about you being German. Does that wind you up at all?

30:36Jurgen Klinsmann:I mean, a bit of trash talk, I think, happens everywhere. I think that probably that trash talk from DePaul to Lewandowski was a little bit too too heated or a bit too much could be. I thought, you know, the referee should have done that a little bit better also because what they did with Lewandowski in these couple of incidents there, it was not only that scene, it was also before that. It was too much, you know, and then I think, you know, DePaul needs to show a bit of respect there to Lewandowski too, even if Lewandowski maybe didn't win the World Cup before. But these kind of things, once there is a lot of emotion on the plate, they happen.

31:18Jurgen Klinsmann:And there is provocative talk. You try to get the other one out of balance, mentally out of balance, basically. And I think about over the years that it's got a lot better. I think nowadays, with Stevie and Craig, there was a lot of that stuff going on. Did it ever get into your head, Jürgen? Did you ever listen to it? Oh, it does. It does. I mean, it does. You're just a human being. I mean, whatever they say, whatever you say then, you know, definitely gets into your head. It's just part of it. The best way to do it is always respond by what you're doing in action on the field. And I mean, I was in a lucky position.

31:59Jurgen Klinsmann:You know, I knew that I couldn't kind of shut them up if I score a goal or two. That is the easiest way when you have your strike. For a defender, it might be more difficult, or for a goalkeeper, you know, to do something exceptional in order to quiet the other side down. But it is part of the game. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jorgen. It was around the time when you came to Tottenham. Weren't you getting a lot of stick or a lot of flack for accusing you of diving? And then you took that into your celebration, didn't you? If memory serves me right. Yeah, I mean, I didn't know what they were talking about.

32:39Jurgen Klinsmann:So the papers were all over me and a friend of mine, actually. I came from Monaco and Arsene Wenger to the Spurs in 94. And so the first game was at Sheffield Wednesday. That's right. And we drove up to the stadium with the bus and there were thousands of fans from Sheffield Wednesday holding up signs 5.6, 5.7. And the team was cracking up. and I asked Teddy Sheringham, I said, what's going on? He said, well, Jürgen, that's your welcome here in the Premier League. You know, they want to give you a vote for diving. And you know what we're going to do is you're going to score a goal today and we're all going to do a dive.

33:16Jurgen Klinsmann:So in that first game, obviously, I was lucky enough to score then a goal and I did a dive in front of the Sheffield Wednesday fans in their stand and gave them my response to it. But most importantly for me, it was a lesson to also understand the kind of humour that the English people have. They wanted to see a reaction, but what you cannot do is being then offended by anything. And it was a good lesson for me to start the Premier League. Can I just go back quickly, slightly more serious, to Rodrigo de Paul and those antics? it seems that the horrible antics of the Argentinians, particularly in the World Cup final, and the ramifications from FIFA for their actions after the whistle, and not just for what they were doing in the game, has changed them not a jot.

34:10It hasn't even changed the mindset. It just seems it's a continuation of distasteful stuff from some of these Argentinian players. It's not going to change them. It seems to just be, not them all, but certain ones, it's in their psyche. And you'd have thought with the World Cup, because that was a disgrace. During the game was a disgrace. After the game, certainly was a disgrace. And I know they're getting absolutely hammered for it. And whatever they get hammered is not enough, because the whole world was watching that. But they just seem to carry on. But it's not going to change because Argentina as a whole, doesn't think they did anything particularly wrong.

34:55You know, the rest of the world is talking the way we've been talking about it, but actually the whole of Argentina is like, what are you talking about? Leave us alone. So why are you going to change when basically it's us against the rest of the world? So it's never going to change. It's just not. And we better get used to it. I'm glad Lewandowski just sort of laughed it off. whatever I was going to tell you the worst one I ever saw taking the bait for getting trash talk was Gaza right we played Tottenham at White Hart Lane and Steve McMahon and Ronnie Whelan wound them up verbally the whole game and by the end he was running around and you could see the tears coming down his face he was so frustrated and upset with and the two of them I mean the two of them were giggling and he's crying his eyes out.

35:50So, yeah, if you take the bait, that's how bad it can get. Am I sure they'll be discussing it in some more detail tonight on Football Americas, plus discussing the goal for Serginho Dest, Davies as well for CONCACAF, scoring in the Champions League. That is available this evening at 8.30 on the ESPN app.

36:13There we are then, the first round of Champions League matches is done and dusted. I don't like these Thursday games. Oh, okay. All right. Get them on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Get them out of the way. Good. Right. Stay tuned. Extra time's next. Not very good about it. Well, I think Europa League's going to be any better. Welcome in to the Thursday. Welcome in to the latest edition of Extra Time. Thank you very much for all your questions. Craig, Stevie Jürgen is with us. Jürgen, given that Stevie could play in almost any position on the pitch, how exactly are you utilising a prime Steve Nicol in your tactical set-up that's a bit of a stretch any position's a bit of a stretch goalkeeper he couldn't play it I tell you what there was one place I 100 % couldn't play centre forward centre forward right yeah can't play when we're back to goal ok but anywhere else we're not taking the mick you could play yes at the highest level anywhere else yeah but centre forward no ok Jürgen so not centre forward we'll scratch that off where are you putting him

37:16Jurgen Klinsmann:No, I play him right in the middle of defence and have free kind of spirit going forward, a bit like Beckenbauer did in his days. He was in the middle of the defence when Michael Thomas scooped the ball over him. I don't know what he is with the outside of his foot. Well, you're not. You were in the middle. No, but you were covering. You were covering. Well, apparently I wasn't covering. Well, you sold yourself. You sold yourself. I didn't sell myself. What did you do?

37:47Jürgen, did you ever play anywhere else apart from up front?

37:56Jurgen Klinsmann:I actually started second division when I came out of the youth ranks, I started the defensive midfield because I was the one that ran the most and my job was to play against the number 10 of the other team. but I did that only in my first year when I was 17 or 18 at home games because the coach said you know if we play you only in home games and you kind of neutralize their number 10 and in away game I choose still an older player but then the year after that I think the coach understood that I'm better off playing up front and I started to play only my entire career as a center forward. But yeah, it kind of worked out, I suppose.

38:35Craig, the Pedri-Rodri partnership is working better than the World Cup. What is different now? It's early days, isn't it? Yeah, it's a bit early for that. Well, two things. Well, first and foremost, they haven't played anybody with the same level as Spain were playing at the World Cup. They've played some of the weaker teams in Spain. And they've played Athletic Club. I think it was Elche.

39:04Can we tell you or just watch you suffer? No, tell me. Rayo Vercano. Rayo Vercano. Valencia. Valencia. Bayernord. Bayernord, yeah. You got a motor, though. There's a lot going on. I was getting mixed up with Real Madrid because they played Real Sociedad. Anyway. Oh, understandable. So, shut up. You committed yourself to Michael Thomas. Oh, yeah. There we go. Yeah, I mean, I do hope it works. I don't see how it can't work. There'll probably be Rodri and Pedri and then they get Dani Olmo or Fermín López, it can rotate. I wouldn't say it didn't work at the World Cup, it's just that De La Fuentes decided that there was going to be a better balance with different players, be it Mikel Moreno, be it Dani Olmo, be it Fabian Ruiz.

39:52So he worked in different partnerships within, and we talked about this during the World Cup, there was no partnership out of all those players for Spain, or there was no midfield three out of five or six potential players to select there was not a bad midfield in there whatever one he picked was always a pretty good midfield so he had that option it just so happens that he felt he had a better option with Pedri on the bench unfortunately for him and that's what gave Spain and it's hard to argue with that because I think that was down to Pedri as an individual probably wasn't of those five or six you're talking about Pedri as an individual was probably the worst out of a lot of them he wasn't at his best at all so I think a lot of the reason that's why he ended up but he got dropped pretty early in the tournament because he didn't play well Jürgen is this the year Hansi Flick finally delivers the Champions League for Barcelona and more importantly do you actually see Barca going all the way and winning it just a little twist on that How impressed are you with the way that Hansi Flick has controlled everything in Barcelona since he's moved there with regards to now he's very much got his DNA all over this side?

41:08Jurgen Klinsmann:No, I'm hugely impressed by all the work that Hansi Flick is doing there since the beginning on. Even if, you know, the first season, it was high, high risk football. with pushing up the back line all the way to a halfway line and conceding a lot of goals and counter breaks from the other teams. But Hansi Flick is a fantastic people manager. He's a little bit like Carlo Ancelotti. Obviously, he's younger than Carlo Ancelotti, but this is a bit his style. He understands especially the strengths of his players. Obviously, you need to understand strength and weaknesses and work on both sides, but he builds everything on the strength of his players and is very, very good in communicating with his players.

41:55Jurgen Klinsmann:And maybe it was a good thing, I said that a few times, that in the beginning he didn't speak Spanish and didn't understand everything that the Spanish media said because of all the goals that they conceded in their first year. And because I think the players understand that he's not only a good, smart manager, but he's also a good person. He's good with them in the locker room, he's good with them outside, maybe going for a coffee or spending some time there, in developing talent, because that's where Hans Ifli comes from. He was in the very beginning of his career at Hoffenheim. He built this young Hoffenheim in the lower divisions and brought them up towards the Bundesliga.

42:37Jurgen Klinsmann:He was working with the kids, with the young players, and then he became also obviously assistant manager to Joachim Löw, winning the World Cup then 2014 with Germany. He's a great people person and that's what what I think does a lot of good things to these Barcelona players. And despite all the pressure at Barcelona, which there is, he's not, to the point Jürgen saying, he's not been frightened even at the most pressurized moments to throw some of these kids in. Yeah. We look at the young left back that's playing, that started this season because there's an issue with Baldi. And he's playing ahead of Cancelo as well.

43:16You look at QBRC, how much his game has improved. And he's still a teenager. He's won a World Cup. You look at, over the period of time, Casado's played. Marc Bernal has played before his cruciate injury. I know he's back now. Obviously, Lamin-Yemal's a youngster, but he's a world beater, so that's an easy one. So it's not just been about the brilliance of Lewandowski when he was there, and now Rafinha and Jamal, he's put, I'm going to say, five or six youngsters into this Barcelona team at key moments during the season and he's given them a chance. He's not just going, oh, they're too young, it's going to be a big, I'm going to, actually, I'm going to take the safe choice and go for the experience.

43:58He's thrown some of these kids in and when they've played well, he's kept them in the team. Final question. How did you guys cope with getting older as footballers when your body cannot do what it used to do before but also having players you used to dominate run past you it must be difficult mentally well as as i'm as you well know and i think this sums up when i played my final my 46th game for scotland and my only game under bertie volks and when i went up to the bar after the game and all the players had been running past me and I was aching and I got up and my dad said to me do you want a beer and I went I'll have a beer and he went to me time to retire as you well know that story so when your dad's telling you it's time to retire it's time to retire and I I don't he played longer than me because he wanted to play on that's the difference I didn't want to play on I was fed up with the injuries and the operations and dragging yourself onto training ground during the week and I just had had enough and when you're in that mental state and if that's your mental state it's time to go if you're not enjoying it anymore You've told the story about Michael Owen before Steve Yeah What was that?

45:14I was playing centre back as Jürgen said and I was playing against Liverpool reserves at Anfield and I was playing for Sheffield Wednesday reserves and there's this young kid up front what is he? 5 foot 2 I was a bit taller than that I don't think so. And there's a ball played up to him, and I've got him. He's facing his own goal, and I've got him. And I'm like, yeah, I've got him. And then the next minute I'm like, where's he going? Like a cartoon. It was literally like a magician had just taken him out of fresh air, and I didn't know where he was. And I turned around, the ball was in the back of the net.

45:55And I'm sat on the bus on the way home. because nobody knew outside of Liverpool who Michael Owen was. And I was sat in the bus on the way home and I'm thinking, I think it's time I packed it in. That was it. That was it. That was the trigger. That was it. That was for finishing, yeah. He scored in the UEFA Cup game between Celtic and Liverpool at Celtic Park that I played. The one that Marker scored the great goal at the end to make it to each in injury time. Michael Owen, I think, was 17 or 18. And he just burst on the scene. and I can't remember exactly when the goal was but I think it was around 20 minutes he gave Liverpool a 1-0 lead and it was exactly the same thing.

46:32Stubbs and Reaper were the two centre-backs and not one of them got within 20 metres of them. He was absolutely... I remember when he scored in the two to the lead I thought, this could be a long night. But there he was. When he first came on the scene he was so fast. But they reckon all that speed was to the detriment of his career later on because of the hamstring issues that you had, whether that's right or not. Jürgen, when was your kind of moment where you thought, ah, this may not be the future anymore?

47:04Jurgen Klinsmann:Well, my last year then was in 98, 97, 98, before the World Cup in France, and then after that World Cup I retired. It was just the fact that I was not capable anymore to listen to managers, you know, the coaches telling me, we're going to do now 10 sprints here, we're going to do now that shifting game there, and I just could not listen anymore. For me, it was just a sign of it's time. It's time to do something different. But I mean, the love for the game always stayed there. I kept on playing until today. We play every Sunday, you know, an over 55 league and we have a blast and it's exactly what was mentioned there.

47:41Jurgen Klinsmann:And the question is, is that your body is not doing what your mind wants it to do. and that frustration happens to me every Sunday because you just see your limits and you're just laughing you're laughing it off and you're just having a good time with your friends but yeah it is something that you realize when you look back then I think all of us, former professional players would probably say I should have stopped maybe a year or two years earlier because you need just to get through that moment when you realize yeah you're not the same anymore than you were maybe a year or two ago and that's when you just you need just to go to stop.

48:24Jurgen Klinsmann:Stephen what do you think? Stephen should we think about the Connecticut over 55 on a Sunday? Absolutely not. You with your hips? Yeah I'm going to chiropractic tomorrow my pelvis is so my pelvis is so out I'm gonna I couldn't oh my god no chance. I remember Let me say, just on Jürgen's point, when you were told to warm down or you'd only played a few minutes, they wanted you running up and down. That's when you just were like, no, that's... It was that same year with the Michael Owen thing. And I was on the bench. And I'd sat on the bench and I'd maybe got up twice during the games and, you know, just let everybody go and have a run.

49:05So I'd basically sat on the bench for 90 minutes. Middle of winter. and at the end of it I think it was that season that all the teams started doing a run, everybody who never played or who came home for like 10 minutes, they had to do like half pitch runs and you can see them now after games and so the final whistle's gone and one of the assistants goes right let's go Stevie come on we'll get the runs and I'm thinking is he talking to me and I stood up and as I stood up I had Craig's back he was sitting for 90 minutes and I was like and he's like right let's go and I'm going hold on a second actually it was Peter Shreves I went Shrevesy with all due respect I've been sat on my backside for 90 minutes I said my back's tight as it is I said how am I going to run up and down I do have bitches and he went in you go son I was like that he's old school remember they tried to drag me out of the showers at Derby County what were you doing in there?

50:08I was having a shower yeah yeah no we finished the game it was John Gregory so I was having problems right there was issues but that was the same thing the youngsters were going to go and do sprints after the game or length of the pitch and so the game finished I'm having none of it I'm already annoyed so I go in gets the kit off quickly gets in the shower and they wouldn't do it because they were all cowards so they sent the fitness coach in and I'm in the shower soaking wet and he's going the manager says you have to go back outside and do a lens of the pitch. And I said, tell him to get stuffed.

50:45And that's the Jürgen's point. When you stop listening, you don't want to know about it, then that's it. What was it in particular they were saying, Jürgen, that frustrated you or you didn't want to listen to?

50:56Jurgen Klinsmann:No, I think at the end of your career, you arrive at a point where, you know, You also think you kind of know it now, you know, after 18, 20 professional years. And then you hear them, you know, do this kind of movements, do this individual exercise, do that kind of a sprint or those kinds of runs. It's just basically not arriving anymore. And your brain is just kind of not receptive anymore. And I think there's, that comes probably a year or two years earlier already that moment where it just doesn't click yet with yourself. It doesn't click with yourself and and that's when you already need to say you know what guys I'm good now.

51:38I'm good I've done.

51:40Jurgen Klinsmann:So I stopped in 98 after the World Cup in France. Still played my games for Germany there but probably you know I should have stopped a year or two, two years earlier. I was thinking when Jürgen was talking about that, the one thing I couldn't listened to was some of the nonsense that people were coming out with. Right. Who were trying to convince us all they were coaches and I just couldn't imagine you now, Steven. It's all PowerPoints and... Oh dear, I dear. You'd love it now. I was sitting there biting me, telling me, well I've never heard so much rubbish in all my life. And you look around and all the young guys, God love them, they're all like that.

52:19Right. And I'm sitting going, they've no idea. How the hell... He's talking through your... How the hell the modern sports scientist is going to get you in the correct diet? I've no idea. Because, you know, it worked out. It worked out. Not too bad, didn't it? That is it. That brings us to the end of today's show. We will be back tomorrow. Shaka, with his power rankings, will be here. I had the sausage rolling beans last night. Oh, lovely. Oh, magnificent. Congratulations on the show.

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