The dream of a treble has burst for the footballers at VfL Wolfsburg. In the DFB Cup final against SC Freiburg, the defiant reaction should follow.
It’s a special story that connects Merle Frohms with the DFB Cup final in Cologne. The German national goalkeeper, who is now considered one of the best in her field worldwide, has experienced this final five times – but only from the substitutes’ bench. Even when she was still playing for SC Freiburg four years ago, she couldn’t savor the experience. She had previously dislocated her finger, which is why Lena Nuding played at the time, and the sports club is now worried about her use.
Nothing stands in the way of Frohms’ first appearance in the final between VfL Wolfsburg and their former club Freiburg (Thursday 4.45 p.m./live ARD), but there is no real joy. On Sunday, the 28-year-old stood in the mixed zone of the Frankfurt Arena to explain a dress rehearsal that had failed at all levels. The dismantling of the German champions and cup winners at Eintracht Frankfurt (0:4) had reached proportions that nobody had thought possible for the Bundesliga duel.
FC Bayern gets the championship served
Neither does Frohm’s. “Of course it hurts. The way it is very painful. You don’t need to sugarcoat it, that’s not what we aim for. It’s now about getting your head up again quickly: We still have two highlight games.” The successor to longtime goalkeeper Almuth Schult, who returned to VfL from Frankfurt at the start of the season, was honest enough to write off the championship title: “I don’t think Bayern can take it anymore.”
The FC Bayern players, who were humiliated in the Wolfsburg Cup and failed at Arsenal in the Champions League, can win their first national title with a win at Bayer Leverkusen (Saturday 1 p.m.) – VfL has to focus on its final options in the cup and in the Focus on Champions League. VfL trainer Tommy Stroot put it very clearly: “We didn’t show the willingness and greed needed for a top game. That’s unacceptable given the level of ambition we have.” The dream of a treble like ten years ago remains unfulfilled, explained the dismayed coach: “My realism tells me that Bayern will win the championship.”
Eintracht Frankfurt wants that championship fight make more balanced
So little was going on with his ensemble that national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg in particular should be asking a few questions on the way home. An exhausted Lena Oberdorf, an overplayed Svenja Huth or Alexandra Popp, who was wrongly positioned in midfield, absolutely have to get in better shape for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (20th to 20th August). The system failure of such success-spoiled protagonists as Popp and Co, who have been giving their employer titles on the assembly line for years, falls in the middle of the first “DFBWomen’s Week“.
But perhaps in the long run, if the competitive situation intensifies, that’s not a bad sign at all. Eintracht coach Niko Arnautis was not only happy about that from his point of view “best game of the last six years” and the first mandatory win against VfL since April 2013, when Kerstin Garefrekes and Saskia Bartusiak scored for the predecessor club 1. FFC Frankfurt, but also the shortened gap to the top teams from his point of view. “We’re even closer to Wolfsburg than we were a year and a half or two years ago.”said Arnautis.
Ralf Kellermann seems served
Third place and thus participation in the qualifying rounds for the Champions League can hardly be taken away from Eintracht, who only need one point from relegated Turbine Potsdam on the penultimate matchday. The Frankfurt exclamation mark could be a signal for the league that a multi-fight for the championship might soon develop. Wolfsburg has been so dominant in recent years that Frankfurt’s board spokesman, Axel Hellmann, who also leads the German Football League (DFL) as interim boss, has already had negative consequences “for the product Women’s Bundesliga” articulated – because of the superiority of Wolfsburg.
Just a reminder: the championship had gone to the Mittelland Canal six times in the past seven years, and even the cup eight times in a row. Now suddenly the ninth cup victory no longer seems a formality when it comes to a record crowd in Cologne with more than 35,000 tickets sold against SC Freiburg. Ralf Kellermann, who is responsible for the overall strategy as director of women’s football, seemed appropriately served.
The final touchstone is FC Barcelona
The Champions League final against FC Barcelona on June 3rd in Eindhoven will show whether something fundamental has to be put to the test during the long summer break. Against the nominally strongest club team in the world, Wolfsburg received a similar beating (1: 5) in the semi-final first leg last season in the full Camp Nou, from which the right lessons quickly followed at the time. Stroot is convinced that the defiant reaction will already follow on Ascension Day at the final in Cologne-Müngersdorf: “We’re not getting into a hectic rush now. I don’t need to motivate my squad for a cup final.”