Despite the long journey and a bit of jetlag, the German soccer players feel ready for their international double in the USA against the world champions. “The trip is worth it, especially for an opponent like that. Of course, that’s the level at which we have to compete with a view to the World Cup,” said Linda Dallmann (Bayern Munich) at a digital media round the day after arriving in Florida .
On Monday, the runners-up European champions flew from Frankfurt to Miami and went to the beach to activate. Especially for young players like Jule Brand (20/VfL Wolfsburg) not only the duels on Friday (1.00 a.m./zdf.de) in Fort Lauderdale/Florida and on Sunday (11.00 p.m./sportschau.de) in Harrison/New Jersey are one whole new experience.
“It’s my first time in the USA,” reported Brand, who was generally on the plane for so long for the first time – good practice with a view to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Brand is now “very” looking forward to the upcoming showdown with US superstars Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, whom she described as “role models”.
When asked about the upcoming men’s World Cup, the DFB duo expressed their sympathy for their colleagues who will soon be traveling to Qatar for the controversial finals. For the players it was “the greatest thing to play a World Cup, a huge goal, a huge dream, and I think I’ll watch the games too,” said Brand.
The offensive player finds it “difficult” that the criticism is now “a bit on the backs of the players”. She thinks that future World Cup awards will “respect human rights and values so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”