BERLIN, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Four-times world champions Germany will be based in North Carolina's Winston-Salem during next year's soccer World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States, the team said on Friday.
The Germans, drawn in Group E with Ecuador, Curacao and Ivory Coast for the June 11-July 19 tournament, will be based at the Graylyn Estate Hotel in Winston-Salem and use the grounds of nearby Wake Forest University to train when not on match duty, cutting down on travel timeto and from training during the tournament.
"From the coach's and team's perspective, the most important thing is the proximity to the pitches," Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said in a statement. "We have three football pitches here in excellent condition that meet all our sporting requirements, and we can reach them on foot or by bike in less than ten minutes."
The Germans will fly from Frankfurt to Chicago on June 2 to prepare for their final pre-tournament friendly against the United States on June 6 before then flying on to Winston-Salem.
They play their opening World Cup match in Houston, Texas on June 14 against Curacao. The Germans then travel to Toronto on June 20 to take on Ivory Coast before their last group game against Ecuador in New York on June 25.
"Due to the vast distances in the USA, we already cover long distances, which we therefore try to avoid as much as possible in our daily training," Nagelsmann said. "We've succeeded in doing that with this base camp. We've found fantastic conditions here, both on and off the pitch.”
The Germans have openly set their goal of winning the World Cup following shock first-round exits in 2018 and 2022, to restore their dented reputation as a global football powerhouse.
They have not reached a final in any major international tournament since winning their fourth World Cup in 2014 in Brazil.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
