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 in Australia, the national coach is still looking for her team for the World Cup. The 55-year-old reacted to the tedious 2:1 of the German soccer players against the World Cup outsiders from Asia in Offenbach on Saturday evening. The bottom line is that there is a long list of defects, only one more test game to import – but the hope for the aces of VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern and the training sessions in Herzogenaurach:
“It was certainly a little mixed up,” Voss-Tecklenburg said of their starting line-up in front of 13,652 fans with numerous players from the second row. And on the state of preparation: “We have a different claim, that’s clear. But we also know that we are maybe at 40 percent or 50 percent at most. Nevertheless, we gained a lot of knowledge today.”
Only the game against Zambia remains
Above all, the fact that the vice European champions “still have a lot to do on the training ground” at the end of their first preparation and in the second block from July 1st to 7th. 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.
The fact that the nomination dispute between the Munich club and the German Football Association is still lingering is also shown by the fact that the DFB women now only have the game against Zambia on July 7th (8.30 p.m. / ARD) in Fürth, to sharpen automatisms. 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.
“Not everything went smoothly before the European Championships”
“After three pitch units it was the first game. We can classify that, but we also know what we have to do on many levels in the next three weeks,” said Voss-Tecklenburg – after she had attested her team numerous shortcomings. Fitness is still the easiest to solve, but she also spoke of the lack of “basics”, dealing with pressure and tactical understanding: “Do we understand the game the way we want to play it?”
Attacker Laura Freigang from Eintracht Frankfurt found the bad pass rate “conspicuous”. For substitute defender Marina Hegering, “the duel behavior was the all-important difference.” Midfielder Lena Lattwein conceded that there was still a lot to work on, but she also recalled: “Not everything was going smoothly before the European Championship.”
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.
