Alexandra Popp has never denied her roots. Before the international match against Sweden (Tuesday 6:15 p.m.), the best-known German soccer player has to smile a little at how many personal connections she still has to the Duisburg venue.
In this respect, there could not have been a more suitable setting for their 125th international match. “Duisburg is the club where I played for the first time in the Bundesliga. It was also the stadium where I played my first international match.”, the 31-year-old remembers. It’s been a long time since the DFB debut: in 2010 in a 3-0 win against North Korea. In this respect, the captain has come full circle. “I am very happy because family and joy have already announced themselves. It was a special time in Duisburg, very special.”
Family and company in the stands
Her trainer then, as now, was Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, who was born in Duisburg and spent most of her career first at KBC Duisburg and then at FCR 2001 Duisburg. She herself has played 125 international matches. The same applies to the 55-year-old as to Popp: more Duisburg is not possible.
“It’s a special game for me. All my family will be there”, revealed the national coach, who is now based in Straelen on the Lower Rhine. And her husband’s company, the building contractor Hermann Tecklenburg, will be well represented, she adds with a smile.
Popp and Voss-Tecklenburg inevitably have memories of a high point in the summer of 2009, when women’s football was only very rarely accepted. For the second leg of the Uefa Women’s Cup, FCR 2001 Duisburg moved to the MSV Arena, where more than 28,000 spectators witnessed a 1-1 draw against the Russian representative Swesda 2005 Perm. The team with Inka Grings, Simone Laudehr, Annike Krahn and Fatmire Bajramaj won the first leg 6-0. Two DFB Cup victories also fall into this successful period.
The close bond has a long history
This is the reason for the close connection between the coach and the goalscorer, which has endured to this day. Popp, who was born in Witten, still remembers that she had to help out as a full-back in the then very prominent Duisburg line-up, which later happened at VfL Wolfsburg, for example in the 2013 Champions League final against Olympique Lyon (1-0). .
In the endurance test against the third in the world rankings, the striker no longer has to fear such a transfer. The European Championship in England has impressively demonstrated that the all-purpose weapon Popp brings out her strengths, assertiveness, will and instinct best as a centre-forward. And if the goal scorer, who had scored six times up to then, had not suffered a muscle injury in the final training session before the final, the final against England (1-2 after extra time) might have gone differently.
The World Cup just a year after the European Championship – that should be an advantage
From this point of view, too, the spokeswoman considers it advantageous that the next major event is just a year later with the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20th to August 20th). “They found us, we as a team found each other during the European Championship”says Pop. “We want to build on that and take the flow and the hype with us in order to further develop our own strengths – and to do it a little better at the World Cup.”
It is no coincidence that Voss-Tecklenburg made a very similar statement about the tournament, in which the runner-up European champion meets Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in a group: “With our EM performance we have created a basis for the World Cup that we can use. We have pushed many things. We want to show that we can take the next steps.”
Secret test at training camp in Marbella
A first was the training camp in Marbella, from which the DFB women returned on Sunday. Especially in a secret training game against Ireland over three halves, Voss-Tecklenburg tried out a few things and used many players. But the result was not made public. Such hide-and-seek games don’t really fit a team that garnered a lot of sympathy at the European Championships in England because of its openness.
Popp in particular has become a face. The most noticeable change in her everyday life is that she is now recognized and often spoken to in almost every big city. Going on a shopping spree in Berlin or Hamburg is no longer an option, but the “National Player of the Year” takes it as a chance “Token of Appreciation” like to go.
The number of 17,675 tickets sold so far (as of Sunday February 19, 2023) for the first preparatory game on the way to the World Cup also shows how great the sympathy is. Further highlight international matches against Brazil and probably the Netherlands should follow in April.