Football DFB national coach
The undignified spectacle surrounding Voss-Tecklenburg
Status: 27.10.2023 | Reading time: 4 minutes
“We have the best coach” – Dallmann’s meaningful praise for Hrubesch
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s time out after the World Cup exit caused quite a stir. Now the national coach is “almost fit for action again”, but the national players seem to have already found the perfect coach in Horst Hrubesch.
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Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is officially still the national coach. But apparently nobody wants that anymore. She is on sick leave and is taking vacation. The association brings in replacements and the players distance themselves more and more. The driving force is likely to be money.
The tone becomes rougher. Warm words? The German national soccer players don’t have much time for Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, who is taking a break. Immediately before the next international matches, the players either evade clear questions about the national coach’s future or answer diplomatically.
Midfield ace Lena Oberdorf even clearly criticized Voss-Tecklenburg. “It gives me a few question marks, of course. I would definitely have wished for something different. The fact that they say: OK, let’s first clarify what happened at the World Cup,” complained Oberdorf when it became public that Voss-Tecklenburg was giving lectures again before the World Cup review was still open.
“We as a team have completely different things on our minds. This is the Olympics. We don’t have the right to interfere in many things,” said midfielder Linda Dallmann before the important Nations League game against Wales in Sinsheim on Friday (5.45 p.m./ARD). Victories in the Nations League should lead the selection to the 2024 Olympics in Paris – and to a quick turnaround under interim coach Horst Hrubesch. The fact that captain Alexandra Popp, the top player, is out due to muscular problems shouldn’t change anything.
However, this requires free minds, but there is currently only one topic surrounding the DFB team: the Voss-Tecklenburg case. The good mood that the team in particular spread during and after the 2022 European Championship is completely gone. This also applies to the harmony in the interaction between the association’s leadership and Voss-Tecklenburg. The 55-year-old and the DFB are “currently speaking primarily” through lawyers, the DFB said. Questions about the national coach were stopped in a media round on Wednesday.
Who speaks to whom and when? Not so clear right now
There has been a serious crisis in German women’s football recently. The completely botched World Cup with elimination in the preliminary round in the summer, the early failure of VfL Wolfsburg in the Champions League and the Voss-Tecklenburg issue, which has been bothering the DFB for almost two months now. The former player first reported sick in September, then she came back in October and initially took a vacation. At this she gave several lectures instead of pushing ahead with the World Cup.
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The dissonance between the association and the trainer became increasingly clear. Who speaks to whom and when? That’s not so clear right now. It has long been an unworthy spectacle that neither party seems to want to end on their own. Probably also because it’s probably about money, which is no longer as loose as it was a few years ago, especially for the cash-strapped association. Voss-Tecklenburg still has a valid contract until the 2025 European Championship. The severance payment could be expensive and is apparently one of the sticking points in the discussions, which are mainly taking place through lawyers.
Please discuss this with my lawyer – communication between the DFB and the national coach is currently rather formal
Source: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow
The team, officially still Voss-Tecklenburg’s selection, wants to keep these discordant sounds as quiet as possible. “There are important games coming up, so I think I can speak for the team and say that the topic doesn’t have much weight right now,” said central defender Sara Doorsoun in a Sky interview.
“We don’t let anything that happens in the media unsettle us. We will not lose our focus and that is on sports,” added Doorsoun. Things look different in public. The future of Voss-Tecklenburg has top priority, the games against Wales and Iceland (October 31) are just as irrelevant as the official World Cup bid for 2027, which was announced on Wednesday.
Hrubesch wants to go to Paris with the team
As a beacon of hope, the team’s good-mood veteran Hrubesch, who coached the DFB team on an interim basis in 2018, is just right. “I think you noticed that the team was extremely relaxed. I already have a feeling of a new start, also personally. “I’m glad that Horst and his coaching team are there for us in this situation,” said Dallmann. “We are very keen to implement Horst’s ideas.” Hrubesch even announced that he would run to France to see the team play in Paris if they didn’t take him to the Olympics. He has no contact with Voss-Tecklenburg.
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Hrubesch wants to give new impetus, ideally against Wales and Iceland. The remaining Nations League games are scheduled for December. A possible final round that Germany would have to reach for the Olympic ticket would not be until 2024. But only the first group winner advances – currently the DFB’s toughest rival Denmark, which won the direct duel 2-0 and therefore has three points more .
Like Rudi Völler, who managed to change the mood of the men in just one game, popular Hrubesch (72) is also said to have an old-school effect on the women. Doorsoun explained: “He is a very straightforward person. You know what you’re getting from him. He wants to have transparency and honesty with each other and with each other. Clear statements.” In other words, things that may no longer be available to the desired extent elsewhere.
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