“Lift one in with your left hand,” commentator Bernd Schmelzer stated shortly before the half-time whistle. The German team is on the attack, rolling forward on the left wing, Alexandra Popp is in position in the middle, now “lift one in”, then it could ring.
Second game of the German team at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, premiere for ARD, which after the opening win against Morocco on ZDF now had the pleasure of presenting “Tippi-Toppi-Poppi” and their team, and it’s not too overhear: Pub dialectics, “thighs that last” and “worst worst cases”, also in terms of language, women’s football has finally arrived in mainstream society.
Seriously (and without the irony of the previous sentence): what the football men easily need the group phase and one or two knockout games for even in successful tournaments, it seems to succeed in the women’s World Cup, even if the game against Colombia could hardly have ended more dramatically and tragically: entertaining football on the pitch, passionate and competent commentary from the announcer’s booth – and a solid back three in the ARD World Cup studio.
The semicircular seating may look a bit like the customer foyer of a large bank from the late 1980s, but the cast is up to date. Almuth Schult as “Lady in Black”, Nia Künzer in a summer leisure look and Claus Lufen without socks for a suit, in terms of fashion as diverse as it gets.
In the stadium in Sydney, you’re already up to speed before the kick-off. It’s already so loud in the stands that interviewer Lea Wagner and national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg have to raise their voices, as if Motörhead were doing a soundcheck in the background. Or as Claus Lufen called it: “Even before the game in coaching mode”.
The double Schult/Künzler acts in solid expert mode, who pass the balls without being suspicious of the nice gimmick: “The quality is there” (Künzer) vs. “Colombia can annoy the Germans” (Schult), a phrase -Short passing game between effective and conservative, in short: a solid draw. On the other hand, it is questionable whether a single-player about the Colombians under the motto “So young, so strong, so soulful” has to be announced … well, yes.
The analysis after the happy-ending game is pointed out, in which Almuth Schult denounced the referee’s inconsistency in terms of yellow cards, and Nia Künzer simply explained the winning formula with “Header, goal!” brought to the point. After the unfortunate defeat, Alexandra Popp, who had just put in the supposed draw penalty with her left hand, analyzed self-critically that “the last pressure, the last courage” was missing. One was disappointed, but it was “a pretty good game”.
Speaking of “missing”: Sometimes the quality results from what is missing, from the things that don’t happen: Not a umpteenth anecdote about Klara Bühl’s crocheted koala, a good decision. And another standard is hardly missing at this World Cup: The traditional expert discussion on the sidelines, something like Basti Schweinsteiger and Jessy Wellmer in the before and after banter, there is no this time. The art of omission seems to have been mastered on ARD this year.
“Bolder, clearer, calmer” was the route taken by the seemingly composed national coach for the all-or-nothing game against South Korea. Commentator Bernd Schmelzer, whose gurgling factor in the last-minute drama is almost reminiscent of ZDF colleague Neumann, summed it up with painful clarity: “The soil of German reality today is Colombian.” Schult finally had the final word: “No matter who comes, the main thing is that we reach the round of 16.” Thursday’s high noon in Brisbane is about it all.
