This will be an incredible year for German football, a very special year. And of course, it will be the most important in my career as a coach.

It is very different being coach to being a player. As a player, you can always close the door behind you after a training session or a game and focus on your own thing. As a coach, however, the process is so much more intense and you have to work with your coaching staff for at least 11 hours a day.

We have been working towards this goal for over a year now and we can feel how the excitement is growing in the country. It is a proud moment for Germany and a very proud moment for me. Germany is hosting the World Cup and I have the chance to lead the team in that tournament. That is an honour I am very grateful for and I am determined to do my absolute best.

I think that we can go very far and that winning the tournament is a realistic goal. We have a good team, we have had a good preparation and we have the advantage of playing at home with all our fans behind us. That counts for a lot in these tournaments. It gives the players the energy to give that last few per cent that can be the difference between success and failure at this level.

Our first aim is obviously to get out of the group and then anything can happen. Then every game is a final. I am 100 per cent convinced that we will have a truly tremendous World Cup. The motto of the tournament is that everyone visiting the country will feel that they are “a guest among friends” and I am sure the fans will love every minute of it.

Ever since the draw I have felt the temperature rising in the country, and that goes for the players and the coaching staff as well.

Some people may say that we have got an easy group with Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador but although it is true that we could have been handed a more difficult group, this is not going to be easy.

Ecuador and Costa Rica are likely to defend deeply and try to hit us on the counter-attack. And if we go one down then it will become quite difficult. But we want to get the crowd in the wonderful stadia on our side straight away. We have a very young squad and they will need the support of the fans from the outset.