DThe upcoming international matches will be more practice for Martina Voss-Tecklenburg than she would like. The national coach has to field a starting eleven this Friday in Sittard against the Netherlands (8 p.m. in the live stream on zdf.de) and next Tuesday in Nuremberg in a duel with Brazil (6 p.m. on ARD). say something important.
Next, Melanie Leupolz threatens to drop out. The 28-year-old had actually traveled from England at the beginning of the week to experience her comeback as a national player of the German Football Association (DFB) in a familiar circle after an absence of one and a half years. In the meantime, Leupolz has become the mother of a son – and is once again a permanent fixture in the plans for the upcoming World Cup, which begins in July in Australia and New Zealand.
Melanie Leupolz wanted to give her return with the 76th match in the DFB jersey with a message that should encourage other women in top-class sport and beyond: that with the right support from the environment, as she emphasized, “career and family unite”. Now, a few days after her return to the Champions League stage with Chelsea against Olympique Lyon, Leupolz has to take it easy: she broke her nose, which needs to be fixed, as the DFB doctors said after her arrival at the association campus in Frankfurt.
Use under emergency conditions?
The injury was surgically treated at a hospital on Wednesday. If Leupolz’s symptoms remain within reasonable limits after the procedure, she will have a carbon mask made to protect her face and with which she can take part in the upcoming training sessions.
In its bulletin, the DFB left open whether it would also be suitable for use under emergency conditions. Previously, Lena Lattwein from VfL Wolfsburg had to cancel her participation; the 22-year-old suffered a broken collarbone. Carolin Simon from FC Bayern Munich is also on the outside, making “muscular problems” to create, as it was said without further information.
With a view to the title fights in the summer, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg expects two form checks against opponents “that will stress us out”. The Dutch women preferred an offensive style based on early and aggressive pressing. The expected pressure situations are useful, announced the national coach, in order to internalize processes with which one can assert oneself in a confined space and come into switching actions.
“Our players need the experience,” said Voss-Tecklenburg. “We also want to enforce our playing principles against top nations.” And she added that, given the circumstances, she is willing to make her assessment not only dependent on the results, but also to include the assessment in the conclusions regarding the further preparation for the World Cup what the commitment of each individual looked like: “We are also willing to accept mistakes.”
