National soccer team
Horst Hrubesch, a stroke of luck for German football
As of: 2:30 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Hrubesch doesn’t just want to play in Paris: “I want to get to the final”
The German soccer women have qualified for the Olympic Games. With a 2-0 win against the Netherlands in the game for third place in the Nations League, interim national coach Horst Hrubesch’s team got their ticket to Paris. And Hrubesch immediately set the ambitious goal.
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The women’s national team qualified for the Olympics at the last minute. Meanwhile, interim coach Horst Hrubesch is already setting big goals. He can do that, his record is impressive.
“Paris, Paris – we’re going to Paris!” That’s how it sounded from the small German fan crowd and later from the DFB women’s dressing room. With a show of strength, interim national coach Horst Hrubesch’s German footballers got their ticket to the Olympics. After the 2-0 win against the Netherlands in Heerenveen, the 72-year-old immediately announced his goal for the summer games: “I won’t go to Paris to play, I want to get to the final.
After the goals of the two Bayern attackers Klara Bühl (66th minute) and Lea Schüller (78th), the players can hope for the second German Olympic gold for women after Rio de Janeiro 2016. “I am very, very happy and proud of my team,” said captain Alexandra Popp, who was completely exhausted and hugging her teammates after the final whistle. “We really put in a lot of kilometers. But it was worth it in the end and we deserved to get to the Olympics.”
Relieved: captain Alexandra Popp (front)
Source: dpa
Six months after the World Cup debacle in Australia with the elimination in the preliminary round, missing out on participation in the Olympics – like in Tokyo 2021 – would have been very bitter for the national team and the DFB. “Pure joy, pure emotion,” Bühl described her feelings with shining eyes. “It’s hard to grasp at the moment. Everyone knows what a difficult phase we are coming from.”
Olympic draw on March 20th
Hrubesch has always emphasized that he would like to experience the atmosphere in the Olympic Village again with athletes from all over the world. The HSV idol has been in an Olympic final once so far: in 2016, he coached the men’s U21 team to the final, but lost on penalties to hosts Brazil and Neymar.
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After the group draw on March 20th, the DFB women also know who they will play against in the Olympic tournament spread across several cities. The world champions from Spain as well as France, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Colombia are taking part. After his successful mission to lead the footballers to Paris, Hrubesch immediately announced: “The benchmark will be when you play against Spain.”
Impressive record as women’s national coach: Horst Hrubesch
Source: dpa
This is also why the 2-1 defeat in France in the semi-finals of the Nations League in Lyon last week annoyed him. With a win, the Olympic ticket would have been secured – and his selection would have competed against Spain in the final. “We are really on the right track. But we just have to be more consistent,” demanded the 72-year-old before the celebration began.
Hrubesch and the DFB – they obviously fit together perfectly. While his coaching career after the end of his active career was rather modest and, unlike on the field, did not offer any major triumphs, the record for the HSV hero in the association looks much better.
Before winning Olympic silver in 2016, he won the European Championship title with the German U19 in 2008 and a year later with the U21. That team included later stars like Manuel Neuer and Mesut Özil. Hrubesch speaks the language of young players, former DFB sports manager Matthias Sammer once said about the Hammer native’s secret to success. And he also won eleven out of 14 games as the women’s national coach, the defeat in the semi-finals of the Nations League against France (1:2) last Friday being his only one.
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Now Hrubesch is once again helping the association with his expertise. He had already coached the German women’s team on an interim basis from March to November 2018, and now he wants to culminate in the summer by winning an Olympic medal. Because after that, the striker, who was once called a “header monster” in the Bundesliga because of his aerial ability, has already made it clear that he wants to devote himself fully to his “HSV” as a youth director again.
Good TV ratings
By the way, the German footballers have also performed successfully on television. An average of 5.596 million people saw the win against the Netherlands on TV on Wednesday evening, giving ZDF the top ratings of the day. According to AGF Videoforschung, the market share was 23.1 percent.
The last game of the Nations League was also significantly more successful in terms of quota than the semi-final against France, in which coach Horst Hrubesch’s selection missed their first chance of qualifying for the Olympics. An average of 3.19 million people (13.1 percent) saw the 2-1 defeat on ARD last Friday.
