World Cup ‘94: 28 Days and Counting : Germany’s Big Dog : Vogts, Nicknamed Terrier, Was a Tough Player, and Now as Coach, He Sometimes Can Be a Terror
In 1958, a diminutive winger named Mario Zagalo, sometimes known as “the Little Ant” by his teammates and fans, helped Brazil win its first World Cup, in Sweden.
Hans-Hubert Vogts turned 12 that year. It was also the year his mother died.
In 1962, Zagalo and Brazil repeated their triumph by again winning the World Cup, this time in Chile.
Berti Vogts, who turned 16 that year, was beginning to show considerable promise as a player in the small West German town of Buettgen, near Duesseldorf on the lower Rhine. It was the year after his father died.
In 1966, West Germany, with Franz Beckenbauer, finished second to England in the World Cup.
That was the year after Vogts had been signed as a professional by Borussia Moenchengladbach, the only club he would play for.
In 1970, Zagalo, now known as “Lobo,” or “Wolf,” coached Brazil to its third and perhaps greatest World Cup triumph, in Mexico. Zagalo became the first man to have both played for and coached World Cup-winning teams.
Vogts was on the West German team that year, along with Beckenbauer, but the Germans lost to Italy in overtime in the semifinals.
In 1974, Vogts and Beckenbauer combined to lead West Germany to its second World Cup victory, exactly 20 years after the first.
In 1990, in Italy, West Germany won again, with Beckenbauer as coach and Vogts as his assistant. Beckenbauer joined Zagalo’s club, becoming the second man to have won the World Cup both as a player and as a coach.
And now, with the 1994 World Cup less than a month away, there is the chance that Vogts can join them.
He is Germany’s coach, having taken over from Beckenbauer immediately after the victory over Argentina in the final of Italia ’90. Zagalo is Brazil’s assistant coach, in line for an unprecedented fourth World Cup title. Both teams are strong favorites to reach the championship game at the Rose Bowl on July 17.
But neither honors nor statistics tell the real story of Berti Vogts, the shoemaker’s son who became one of the most successful players and respected coaches in the world.
Born in Buettgen on Dec. 30, 1946, Vogts went to live with his aunt after his father’s death. She managed a restaurant owned by the local soccer club. That was that. Vogts’ career was determined.
He completed his apprenticeship as a toolmaker, but soccer captured and held him.
At 18, he was signed by Moenchengladbach. He ended up playing 419 games for the club, scoring 33 goals and helping it win the German Bundesliga championship five times, the German Cup once and the UEFA Cup twice. Vogts was chosen as the league’s player of the year in 1975 and again in 1979.
His career with the West German national team was equally impressive. Nicknamed “the Terrier” because of his, well, dogged personality, Vogts was a relentless tackler. He would chase and harry opposing forwards nonstop for 90 minutes. Occasionally, like Beckenbauer, he would move into the attack himself, but more often than not he was back near his own penalty area, guarding the goal.
Such was his tenacity that Kevin Keegan, a former England captain and Europe’s player of the year in 1978 and 1979, once said, “A team of 11 Berti Vogtses would be unbeatable.”
Vogts played 96 matches for West Germany, including appearances in the 1970, ’74 and ’78 World Cup tournaments. He retired in 1979 to become coach of West Germany’s national youth team, a position he held until becoming national coach in 1990. Almost all of Germany’s players in World Cup ’94 were coached as youngsters by Vogts.
Since taking over from Beckenbauer, Vogts has kept Germany at the top of the world’s game, although losing the 1992 European Championship final to Denmark and other occasional setbacks have earned him intense criticism in the German press.
If the other 23 World Cup ’94 coaches think they are under pressure, they might consider this: Every one of Vogts’ predecessors--Sepp Herberger, Helmut Schoen, Jupp Derwall and Beckenbauer--won either the World Cup, the European Championship or both. Vogts is expected to win in 1994. Nothing less will do.
But pressure does not trouble him. He shrugs off the media criticism and goes about his job of building a German team capable of taking on the world. The thought of failure does not cross his mind.
“I know we will play positive, attacking, winning soccer,” he said on the eve of the European Championship in Sweden two years ago. “We have great potential among the players. Even if we lose some games, after giving our all, we will not be hurt by that. The public understands that a team cannot always win.
“As long as my family life is good, I can take a lot of pressure.”
Now, with only weeks to go before Germany plays Bolivia, Spain and South Korea in the first round of World Cup ‘94, Vogts is saying much the same thing.
“We shall be very difficult to beat if we all concentrate fully on playing football,” he recently told London’s World Soccer magazine. “I am not that arrogant to claim that we are the world’s best. For me, the Brazilians are the top dogs and World Cup favorites. We remain among the leading five, but we know we must improve.”
At 47, Vogts is speaking out more often on matters that affect not only the German team but the sport as a whole. He surprised many soccer followers not long ago by coming out in favor of what would seem to be drastic rule changes.
For instance, he favors each team having one timeout per half to give coaches the chance to talk to their players.
“I think they would be good for the game,” Vogts said. “It would give the coach more chance to have an influence on the game and, in my opinion, it would make the game much better.”
Similarly, when England earlier this year canceled a game against Germany in Berlin, citing fears of violence from English hooligans and German neo-Nazis, Vogts angrily blasted the decision.
“This isn’t a question for sport,” he said. “The politicians have clearly failed here. I’m very disappointed. If you (politicians) can’t guarantee the safety of the German team and its foreign guests, then you have no right to get annoyed about Germany’s bad image abroad.”
Vogts is an unabashed admirer of the United States. His success has caused some in Germany to call him “Berti Rockefeller,” but Vogts dismisses the intended insult.
“I am not a multimillionaire,” he said three years ago. “But one thing that I do have in common with Rockefeller is that we are both hard-working people.”
In the same interview, Vogts explained his feeling for America.
“I love it,” he said. “It is the only country besides Germany where I would want to live. America is where one is awarded success in return for hard work. It is a country of possibilities.”
He also believes World Cup ’94 will be a success on and off the field.
“I have to pay a great compliment to the Americans as far as the structure and organization of the tournament is concerned and as far as the atmosphere in the stadia is concerned,” he said in an April interview with Reuters.
“People who think it will not run smoothly are being unfair to the Americans. I have been in five different venues recently and looked at problems like training pitches and security. We have everything there. They are offering us everything.
“There is certainly going to be a real World Cup atmosphere. We should maybe have some of it ourselves (in Europe). Sometimes the atmosphere in our stadia is great, but sometimes it is too aggressive.
“The American support is more friendly. You don’t play in a cage. There are only all-seated stadia without a fence. This good atmosphere comes over (to the players) and that is great.”
Since those remarks, three of the nine World Cup ’94 venues--Dallas, where Germany plays once, Washington and Palo Alto--have decided to install fencing to separate the fans from the field.
Sometimes seen as cold and aloof, Vogts has a good sense of humor but is equally capable of anger. Last year, for example, he lashed out at his players after a couple of less-than-satisfactory performances.
“I made a big mistake in the past by assuming that every player would show their own initiative, and I didn’t put any pressure on them,” he said. “It must be the biggest thing in your career to put on a German shirt.”
And on Thursday as the team arrived in training camp in Malente in northern Germany, he lashed out at three players--defender Thomas Berthold, rising midfield star Mario Basler and forward Ulf Kirsten--for their conduct in league play.
“I’m going to have to talk to all three of them privately,” Vogts said. “I can’t accept such behavior.”
He also brought in World Cup referee Hellmut Krug to reinforce his message.
He will accept nothing but the best. That is the way it was for Vogts, and in World Cup ’94 he is not about to allow his players to believe or act any differently.
After all, a World Cup is at stake and “Terrier Vogts” is not about to let it escape.
Coach Profile
* Name: Hans-Hubert (Berti) Vogts.
* Born: Dec. 30, 1946, Buettgen, Germany.
* Nationality: German.
* Date named national coach: July 9, 1990.
* Cumulative record: 23-7-8.
* Little-known fact: Vogts is an avid hiker and backpacker with a fondness for tramping across the European countryside.
* Honors: As a player, Vogts won the World Cup with West Germany in 1974. He also won five German Bundesliga championships (1970, 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1977), one German Cup (1973) and two UEFA Cups (1975, 1979) with Borussia Moenchengladbach. He twice was voted West German player of the year (1975 and 1979).
