They know exactly what they want, but not yet in detail with whom and how they will go about it. Germany’s women’s soccer team has elevated themselves to the ranks of co-favourites at the upcoming World Cups, which begin on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand, and want to see them through to the conclusion and the final in Sydney. In order to test how their (early) form is during the preparations that have just started, the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg measured their strength in the first of two dress rehearsals with the Vietnamese selection, which was just traveling through Europe from Rüsselsheim tours to get in the mood for the championship with test matches.
“Not the idea of how we want to play football”
On Saturday evening there was a narrow 2-1 victory for the ensemble of the German Football Association (DFB) in Offenbach, which is now mainly gathering at the headquarters of the shirt sponsor in Herzogenaurach for team building until the flight to Oceania and doing a lot do gets. The national coaches were not satisfied with what was on offer. “That’s not how we want to play football,” said Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “Only at forty percent,” she saw her team, who had not managed to get “access” convincingly. “There is still a lot to do in all areas.”
Only after another test run against Zambia on July 7 in Fürth will the association name its final World Cup squad at Fifa, which may have a maximum of 23 members. There are currently 28 candidates that Voss-Tecklenburg has shortlisted – so a handful of players will inevitably have to be sorted out in the near future. Against Vietnam, Voss-Tecklenburg did without the five Munich players Lina Magull, Sydney Lohmann, Lea Schüller, Carolin Simon and Klara Bühl, who only joined Franconian on Friday after they had previously not been released by FC Bayern because they were not required to be released had; Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger from Chelsea, who also moved up with a delay, was still on the bench.
Also not called up were the Wolfsburg midfielder Lena Oberdorf, who stayed at the camp with a cold, and her teammate and captain Alexandra Popp, who was rested. According to Voss-Tecklenburg, it would have made “little sense” to deploy the Munich master quintet so shortly after their arrival. She didn’t want to take any risks and it goes without saying that the latecomers will soon “get more playing time”.
Attunement to South Korea
The meeting with the Asians was deliberately agreed by the DFB because the sporting leadership had come to the conclusion in their analysis that they were pursuing a similar defensive-oriented style of play as the South Koreans, against whom it was on August 3rd in Brisbane in the final preliminary round game could possibly go for first place in World Cup Group H. Before that, the Germans will meet Morocco at the start in Melbourne (July 24) and Colombia in Sydney (July 30).
In the stadium on Bieberer Berg, four players each from Eintracht Frankfurt and TSG Hoffmann were in the starting line-up, with Merle Frohms from Wolfsburg standing between the posts as expected and Sara Däbritz from Olympique Lyon having been called up to distribute the ball in midfield. The early 1-0, scored by Paulina Krumbiegel from Hoffenheim with a heel on a pass from Nicole Anyomi from Frankfurt, set the tone (3rd minute). From then on the Germans succeeded in letting the enemy run a lot and pushing back deep into his half; at times the Vietnamese defended their penalty area with ten players.
The degrees just didn’t want to succeed
But Voss-Tecklenburg’s people often lacked the consistency to generate income from their optical superiority; in the last few meters, a foot kept getting in the way, deflecting the ball, or passes ended up in no man’s land due to lack of accuracy. Just before the break, she demonstrated that Frohms can be relied on when she deflected a long-range shot from Van Duong Thi, which would otherwise have hit the corner, around the post.
With the change of sides, Voss-Tecklenburg made three changes. Marina Hegering, Janina Minge and Melanie Leupolz replaced Däbritz, Sara Doorsoun and Lena Lattwein – little changed what happened, it was the Germans who pushed for the next goal, but who did it in a very complicated way. “It must be our aim to play that better,” Krumbiegel said afterwards, self-critical.
The Eintracht department wants to use the game against Vietnam to recommend itself for the World Cup – and to get used to it better.
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The 2-0 came in the 80th minute when Minge, falling from close range, pushed the ball over the line and thus made the last significant contribution from the Germans. The final point on this summer evening was the 32nd in the FIFA world rankings, who used a counterattack by Nha Nguyen Thi Thanh in injury time – and finally gave the DFB women the certainty that there was still a lot of work waiting for them when they got their want to reconcile your desire with the reality “Down Under” in the near future.
