In the 25th minute, Sara Däbritz got the ball with her strong left foot and her powerful shot just missed the goal. That’s how they wanted to play with the German women’s national soccer team on Tuesday evening: offensive, forward-looking and structured. Only, before that shot from Däbritz and long afterwards, the European Championship runners-up almost didn’t achieve anything in attack.
With the 0:0 in the friendly against Sweden in the Duisburg Arena, the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was well served. On the way to the next tournament, the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer, the mixed performance on the Rhine must be classified as a step backwards. The game of the DFB selection against defensively bulky, but offensively much more dangerous Northern Europeans, who were in the semi-finals at the European Championships last year, was too flawed, too half-baked, too unimaginative.
“We need these games against high-level opponents,” said Voss-Tecklenburg, who particularly appreciates tests against top teams, before the game. And in her hometown, where she laid the foundations for her career as a player and coach, the Duisburg native faced a tough opponent whose forechecking the German defense team had problems with.
No success in her 125th international match: Alexandra Popp
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Image: AP
Around the game in front of 20,169 fans, Chancellor Olaf Scholz first met the national coach and then DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. With regard to tournament bonuses, the Federal Chancellor wants to continue to campaign for equal pay in favor of the DFB women. “I’ll stay on the ball and I’ll keep doing that,” Scholz promised before kick-off on ZDF.
During the game, German goalkeeper Merle Frohms was far more in the spotlight than the Germans would have liked. While the DFB selection was only able to create real pressure in one phase at the beginning of the second half and managed a harmless goal with an attempt by Lina Magull (55th), the Swedes always remained dangerous. They still had top-class chances, especially in the final phase: Blackstenius failed in front of the goal at the strong parrying Frohms (79′), Kaneryd only hit the outer post of the empty goal (81′), Rolfö headed a little too unplaced (89′).
On the German side, Janina Minge from Freiburg made her debut in the national team in the second half.
