For andreas submeier, fubball is not just a game. For him, soccer is both a passion and a science. He bleeds, is absorbed in this sport, on the other hand he presents himself as a cool analyst, as someone who studies the game like a chess position, who can read it. At the moment, for andreas submeier, soccer is a little bit more: emotion, emotion, emotion, a little bit of everything. "An affair of the heart," he says himself.
At TSV sulzfeld, which submeier has been coaching for a short time, he has experienced his best and most intensive time. He has roamed the heights of the national league with this club – and in 2007 had to abruptly give up as an active soccer player: at 26, when many people are just starting out in their sporting careers. Health came first.
It was a difficult time at first to watch the former colleagues from auben leave, but the club, the people were always there. "The contact," he says, "has never been broken off."And andreas submeier is grateful that it was so. The club has enabled him to find his feet, to start a second career after his involuntary end as a player.
When he was in his mid-20s, submeier joined jochen seuling as co-coach. Later, he became jurgen stahl’s assistant, and when stahl left the team during the winter break in 2008, submeier took over the helm of the sinking ship for the remaining half of the year. He had nothing to lose at the time, the situation was so messed up that sulzfeld staying in the landesliga would have been a miracle. So the risk of being burned as a young coach in the industry was small.
A good year and a half later – during which time submeier had dedicated himself to his career as a teacher – joachim hupp recalled his former player in sulzfeld. In the meantime, hupp was not only a player, but also the sports director of the FG marktbreit/martinsheim, and it spoke for the course and courage of this club to put a young, dynamic team in front of just such a coach.
The choice fell on submeier, who in the summer of 2011 threw himself eagerly into his task of getting the prosperous newcomer through its first year in the district league. It was a success, even if there was no magic in the plan at first. Submeier remained steadfast, even after a 0:9 at post SV sieboldshohe and the fall to the last place in the table.
Marktbreit struggled until the end, finishing ninth, and submeier probably had an easier time of it this season – because the team has learned from its difficult first year, because it is more attuned to the game. But for submeier the temptation was stronger to start anew at his home club. "You feel called upon to help shape the reconstruction and contribute your expertise," he says in the style of a statesman who feels committed to his country.
He therefore did not have to think twice when the request came from sulzfeld – knowing that he was viewed differently and perceived in a more differentiated way than his predecessors who lived outside sulzfeld or the district. Of course, the pressure on him was also felt in marktbreit, he was the focus there as well – but it was a different pressure, a "more personal pressure," as submeier says, because he doesn’t just want to help TSV sulzfeld, which has always stood by him even in difficult times, to achieve short-term success, but to contribute to its long-term development.
In the long term, a club like TSV sulzfeld belongs in the national league, but submeier doesn’t want to think that far ahead. It would not be the right time to talk about such ambitions, because the team is currently in the district league with only one point after three games. For submeier, that’s no reason to panic. He and all those responsible were aware that it would take time for the upheaval in the team to be followed by a new beginning.
With the departure of albert fischer, jorg and sebastian otto, TSV has lost an entire axis almost overnight, which must now be remeasured. Christian hilpert and sebastian zobel as defensive components and newcomers peter zay and daniel hack as offensive figures are to become the new stabilizers in submeier’s preferred 4-2-3-1 system. But the wheels do not yet mesh.
Hack also describes the club’s new line: it is relying more on players with sulzfeld pedigree and has launched a major recall campaign before this season. Niklas pfarr, manuel sulz, marvin staudt or pascal hering, all players who have become rough at TSV. Submeier also belongs in this group – except that he is now on the other side of the line. Doubts, even doubts about his authority as a prophet in his own country are dispelled by the trainer who grew up in sulzfeld.
"Of course it’s different than when there’s a 20-year gap between you and the players. But there is a clear course as far as discipline is concerned: on and off the pitch," says the 31-year-old. He describes his contact with the players as "open" – and he is at least as unbiased in his dealings with the spectators and the people in the club. They know him, he knows them, the distances are much shorter, which has made it a lot easier for him to get started in a familiar environment.
All this helps submeier to be able to devote himself fully to his task. A "tough year" awaits him in the district league. Even the first three races showed him that "the class is really strong. It’s an exhausting task, and sometimes he felt like he was in one of his school classes in elsenfeld, 75 kilometers away. Here as there, it’s a matter of sticking to the basics for the time being in order to regain confidence in one’s own strengths.