The DFB women want to put the World Cup fiasco behind them as quickly as possible. The Nations League is about reparations. Giulia Gwinn and Linda Dallmann from FC Bayern, who are celebrating their DFB comeback after a long injury break, should also help.
That’s a good six weeks historic World Cup debacle the women’s national team. Now the DFB team is meeting again for the first time since the World Cup exit in the preliminary round: the “Reparations” company is starting in the Nations League.
There are two players who only watched the poor World Cup performance on television: Giulia Gwinn and Linda Dallmann from FC Bayern. Both were missing from the finals in Australia and New Zealand.
After her second cruciate ligament tear almost a year ago, Gwinn no longer made it into the DFB squad despite working hard on her comeback “sad and disappointed” that national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg had not taken the defender into account. Dallmann was not fit in time for the World Cup after a syndesmotic ligament tear in February.
“Difficult road” for Dallmann
The two Bayern players are now in the squad for the upcoming Nations League games against Denmark and Iceland. At the European Championships last year, Gwinn was a regular player and one of the outstanding players in the team of the European runners-up. The 28-year-old Dallmann was used in all six tournament games, and the attacker was substituted on five times.
Gwinn and Dallmann were able to take part in almost all of FC Bayern’s preparation and were immediately among the top performers again. While Gwinn at the season opener of the Women’s Bundesliga – a 2-2 draw at SC Freiburg – played in the right-back position from the start, Dallmann came on as a substitute in the 74th minute and immediately revived Munich’s attacking game.
The long time of waiting for the first game was “a difficult journey for the 29-year-old, but also a very nice one, because I met a lot of people who supported me on the difficult journey,” said Dallmann in the BR24Sport interview. “It was a very, very long time, so it’s even nicer to be able to play again.”
Gwinn is “incredibly proud” to be back at the DFB
Gwinn is also looking forward to her DFB comeback. “It makes me really proud,” said the 24-year-old in the SID interview, “that I have the chance to be part of the national team again after a second major injury.” The nomination was probably easy for the DFB. Similar to the men’s national team, the position on the right side of defense was also a problem for the women due to Gwinn’s loss.
A post by Linda Dallmann on Instagram shows how much Gwinn and Dallmann were looking forward to this moment: she arm in arm with Gwinn, both with a beaming smile and the sentence: “There always will be again.”
The road back was hard for both players, but now, unencumbered by the historic preliminary round exit, they can help the vice-European champions make a new start despite the turbulence. “It’s good that something is going on again and the legitimate criticism can be made up for,” said Gwinn.
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Source: BR24Sport September 19, 2023 – 2:54 p.m
