Won 5-1, return was a success – but Horst Hrubesch didn’t want to paint his old and new football world quite so rosily. The 72-year-old was happy to admit that he enjoyed his comeback as interim national coach of the German footballers. “I really enjoyed it,” said the HSV idol after the Nations League home win over Wales, “I believe in this team, I believe in the quality.”
But despite the five goals, Hrubesch also saw one or two points of criticism. “I actually assumed that everything wasn’t going smoothly,” he said, looking at his team’s performance in front of over 20,000 fans in Sinsheim: “I think we just have to play more safely – calmer in the build-up game and make a lot fewer mistakes. “
“There is actually much, much more going on”
But just as Hrubesch believes in his team, the footballers also trust in their coach. This conveyed fun and joy, and “of course the relaxedness returned,” said double goal scorer Lea Schüller. After the anger surrounding national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, who was taking a break, Hrubesch suddenly raised the mood in German women’s football with his straightforward manner.
The 25-year-old Schüller in particular impressed with two header goals. “With Lea, we know that she can do it,” said the former header specialist Hrubesch, but: “There is actually much, much more that can be done. I told her that right after the game. She also knows that I am critical.” The FC Bayern striker has “more options”.
Meanwhile, the DFB team retained the opportunity to win the group on their own. However, their toughest rival Denmark also won in Iceland (1-0) and remains leader (nine points) ahead of Germany (six). Only the first one will advance to the Nations League final tournament, where two tickets for the Olympic Games in Paris will be awarded at the beginning of 2024.
“I should actually always be away from the ball and wait for the crosses, then just run into the ball at speed. Then he says, it’s easier,” Schüller explained the work of the 1980 European champion. She obviously benefits particularly from this. When Hrubesch made his debut in 2018 as women’s national coach, there were four upsets. “As a striker, he knows where to stand and wants to pass that on to Poppi and me. And today it just worked again,” explained Schüller.
Poppi, that is Alexandra Popp, who rarely played with Voss-Tecklenburg, but often instead of Schüller. The 32-year-old captain was missing against Wales due to muscular problems, Schüller was allowed to start from the start – which would have been the case anyway, as Hrubesch assured. He prefers more offensive power on the pitch, more players who can demonstrably score goals that combine speed and technique. “We’ve just done something a little different with Horst,” explained Schüller, who in Hrubesch’s initial 4-4-2 system was tasked with being at the forefront as far as possible in the opponent’s half in order to “spread up the space make”.
Marc Heinrich, Sinsheim Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 A comment from Marc Heinrich Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 16 Marc Heinrich Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 18 Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 2
The fact that this didn’t always work in the first half despite good opportunities was one of the problems mentioned by Hrubesch. Hrubesch explained that he would have liked his team to play away the 1-0 lead “more clearly”. Because: “If you don’t do it at the front, you’ll get it at the back.” His team took a similar approach to the poor 1-1 draw at the break. “We were annoyed ourselves,” said Schüller, “we just didn’t score the goals.” That was to change after the break – much to the delight of the old and new interim coach.
