The DFB women’s interim coach wants to go into the important Nations League game against Wales with relaxedness and ease. But it won’t be easy. Also because, of all people, the captain is missing.
“Hello!” As usual, Horst Hrubesch greets the assembled press casually at the final press conference in Sinsheim before the important Nations League game against Wales on Friday. “Oh no, we’re not in Hamburg,” he adds and already has the first laughs on his face Page.
Horst Hrubesch doesn’t want to know anything about any of this. He has other things on his mind. “We have to win the two games against Wales and Iceland,” said Hrubesch. “I want the girls to experience the Olympics. Words cannot describe what they experience there.” Hrubesch speaks from experience. After all, he won the silver medal with the male DFB juniors in Rio in 2016. The German women at that time even won gold. If that’s not a good omen.
Hrubesch wants to convey relaxedness
It is precisely this looseness, this lightness that the 72-year-old also wants to convey to his players. A looseness that the team has recently lost, according to the interim coach. Just like the joy of playing. DFB women’s football has recently been too cerebral and too complicated.
However, Horst Hrubesch will have to do without the head of the team against Wales. Alexandra Popp is plagued by muscular problems in the back of her thigh. “Alex is of course a real number in the team. She cannot be replaced one on one,” said Hrubesch, who hopes to compensate for the leading player from VfL Wolfsburg as a team. “Then others will have to sort it out.” Whoever the position is for He didn’t want to reveal what Popp was taking. “It’s not Schüller, she’s set anyway.” Maybe Laura Freigang, who recently impressed at Eintracht Frankfurt, will move into the starting line-up. Ann-Katrin Berger from Chelsea FC will replace the injured Merle Frohms in goal.
For Hrubesch, the second intermezzo is like déjá vu. In 2018, he took over the DFB women’s national team on an interim basis for eight months. Back then it was about the World Cup, now it was about Olympic qualification. Small difference: “Back then I had more time before the games, more training times.” But now he has the advantage of knowing and recognizing the players. “It wasn’t like that back then, I have to be honest.”
Hrubesch: “Be focused, but still have fun”
The messages that the HSV legend is giving his footballers and the public these days at the final press conference in Sinsheim before the game against Wales (5.45 p.m. live on Erste) are simple. Simple and understandable. “Be focused, but still have fun”. And they have it. There is also some joking around during the training sessions. “This is well received by the players,” reveals full-back Saraj Linder, who is celebrating her 24th birthday today and will receive a serenade from the team in the evening. The Sinsheim native is hoping to get plenty of minutes in the game tomorrow, because “Grandma and… are so often Grandpa not in the stadium.”
It is more than questionable whether Martina Voss-Tecklenburg will still be a trainer. After the two games there will be the long-awaited World Cup analysis. Then the vacation that the national coach took after weeks of illness will be over.
Hrubesch tries to keep the background noise surrounding the association’s dispute with the current coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg completely away from the team. “I’m not interested at the moment.” The full focus is on the games against Wales and Iceland. Only then will the team have the chance to get one of the two coveted Olympic tickets that are still available through the Nations League.
Recently there has been a lot above Voss-Tecklenburg with her. The media was shot hard. Anyone who takes the trouble to speak to Martina Voss-Tecklenburg personally will get a more nuanced picture of the current situation, which is as difficult as it is complex. There is probably no single person to blame for this communications disaster.