Three and a half weeks before the start of the World Cup, one key thing remains for the DFB women after the friendly against Vietnam: there is still a lot of work to do.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg repeatedly yelled in vain against the noise of the numerous Vietnam fans on the Bieberer Berg and later tight-lipped her players. Four weeks before the start of the preliminary round of the World Cup in Australia, the national coach is still looking for her team for the World Cup.
The 55-year-old reacted angrily to the arduous 2-1 draw of the German soccer team against the World Cup outsiders from Asia in Offenbach on Saturday evening. The bottom line is a long list of defects, only one more test game to play in – but hope for the aces of VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern and the training sessions in Herzogenaurach.
Voss-Tecklenburg: Have a different claim”
“It was certainly a bit thrown together,” said Voss-Tecklenburg about their starting line-up in front of 13,652 fans with numerous players from the second row. And about the state of preparation: “We have a different claim, that’s clear. But we also know that we’re maybe at 40 percent or 50 percent at most. Nevertheless, we gained a lot of knowledge today.” Especially the one that the Vice European Champions at the end of their first preparation and in the second block from July 1st to 7th “still have a lot to do on the training ground”.
Against the poisonous Vietnam team, Frankfurt’s Nicole Anyomi and Hoffenheim’s Paulina Krumbiegel, who scored alongside Janina Minge, were the most likely to recommend. In the end, the strong goalkeeper Merle Frohms prevented the equalizer. Most of the aces from Champions League finalists VfL Wolfsburg around captain Alexandra Popp and the sick Lena Oberdorf were rested by Voss-Tecklenburg, as were the five FC Bayern players who arrived later.
Missing basics
The fact that the DFB women now only have the game against Zambia on July 7 (8:30 p.m.) in Fürth shows that the nomination dispute between the Munich club and the German Football Association is still reverberating to sharpen. After that, Voss-Tecklenburg will name their 23-man squad. Five players from the provisional squad have to stay at home. After arriving in Australia, where the group matches are against Morocco, Colombia and South Korea and where World Cup favorites France and Brazil are already threatening in the round of 16, the national coach wants to test internally against a young male team.
“After three pitches, it was the first game. We can classify it, but we also know what we have to do on many levels over the next three weeks,” said Voss-Tecklenburg – after she had attested to her team’s numerous shortcomings. The fitness is still the easiest to solve, but she also spoke of missing “basics“, dealing with pressure and tactical understanding: “Do we understand the game the way we want to play it?”
“Not everything went smoothly before the European Championships”
Attacker Laura Freigang from Eintracht Frankfurt found the bad pass rate “conspicuous”. Substitute defender Marina Hegering was there “the duel behavior the all-important difference”. There is still a lot to work on, admitted midfielder Lena Lattwein, but also reminded: “Before the European Championship everything was not going smoothly.”
In England, the DFB women found each other quickly last year and inspired before they were thwarted by the host team in the final. On the other hand: Voss-Tecklenburg recently needed almost all fingers to list their World Cup favorites. And this year their selection in the games against Sweden (0-0), the Netherlands (1-0) and Brazil (1-2) was only convincing in phases. Nevertheless, the third world title after 2003 and 2007 is the big goal.