Documentary about DFB women reveals breakdown before World Cup exit

When the German soccer players were eliminated from the World Cup in Australia, there were obvious communication breakdowns in the decisive game against South Korea. This emerges from the fourth part of the documentary series “Born for this”. Accordingly, players from Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s coaching team were not informed about the status of the parallel match between Morocco and Colombia during the last group game.

Substitute player Laura Freigang from Eintracht Frankfurt said in the film, which can be seen in the ZDF media library, that they didn’t know what the situation was on the substitutes’ bench: “I turned around and asked two fans how things were going.” Morocco At the break, the score was already 1-0 against Colombia, and the score between the DFB team and South Korea was – as it was at the end – 1-1. That’s why captain Alexandra Popp’s team absolutely needed another goal in the second half to avoid elimination.

Freigang’s club colleague Sara Doorsoun reported that from the 70th minute onwards she was talking to Felicitas Rauch next to her on the bench: “What are we doing? Do you tell them the result? Don’t they say it?” Striker Lea Schüller later came to the sidelines to drink. “I told her: You get a chance and you do it! Then she looked at me and said: Do we have to? I just said ‘yes’. I think it was the 86th, 87th minute.”

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The documentary by directors Martina Hänsel and Björn Tanneberger also shows the scene after the final whistle, when the German women’s exit from a World Cup preliminary round was certain for the first time: “When the final whistle blew, I didn’t know at first what was going on,” said the Wolfsburg player later . The national coach at the time, Voss-Tecklenburg, then said to her goalscorer on the pitch: “We’re out. Morocco won 1-0.”