With a declaration of love for the German footballers and the confidence of an extremely experienced 72-year-old, Horst Hrubesch took up his position as interim national coach.
His calmness visibly radiates to his neighbors Bernd Neuendorf and Andreas Rettig. The situation in the German women’s selection after the World Cup debacle and the ongoing illness of head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg remains difficult enough.
For Hrubesch it was “a given” to step in. “I know most of the players. I know what quality there is in them. I simply learned to love the team. What I got there, what I was able to take with me, was sensationally good. Also for my life,” he says.
Support from the Chancellor
The Hamburg native had already helped out in this position for eight months in 2018 and is now expected to lead the German women out of the crisis and to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Hrubesch had kept in touch with some of the players over the years: “Some of them even wrote me a card at Christmas and I congratulated them on their birthday.”
Hrubesch and the footballers around captain Alexandra Popp even receive moral support from the Chancellor: Olaf Scholz visits the German selection on Tuesday on the DFB campus. The European vice-champions will play in the Nations League next Friday (5:45 p.m.) in Sinsheim against Wales and on October 31st (8:00 p.m.) in Reykjavik against Iceland.
In the fight for the Olympic tickets, they cannot afford any further slip-ups after the 2-0 opening defeat in Denmark, even if they recently beat Iceland 4-0.
Different pace and fewer contacts
“Now it’s about taking responsibility – every single one,” Hrubesch appeals to the players. He will have to do without regular goalkeeper Merle Frohms, who is currently missing from VfL Wolfsburg due to a concussion.
“I believe in this squad, I believe in these players,” said Hrubesch and, with a view to the increased international competition, explains: “I think that we will show a different pace with less contact.”
The DFB announced on September 28th that Hrubesch would replace Voss-Tecklenburg for an indefinite period. The 55-year-old failed in the preliminary round with the German team at the World Cup in Australia; their return is considered unlikely.
“You won’t seriously expect me to comment on rumors. We are Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s employers, we’ll wait and see. There’s no pressure being exerted here in any way. We have to and want her to recover well. That’s the most important thing “, says DFB President Neuendorf about the much-discussed personnel.
Future without Voss-Tecklenburg
Sports director Rettig suggests that there could be a future without Voss-Tecklenburg: “We have to be prepared in the event that there is no bridge.” Hrubesch has initially only committed to qualifying for Paris 2024: “I’m not committed to that now, in the form that I say, I’ll definitely go to the Olympics.”
For the 1980 European champion, who lost the Olympic final against Brazil in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 with the male U21 team, the Summer Games are the big goal. The German women won gold back then.
“There are some who have already achieved this, who have also won medals,” says Hrubesch. “For women’s football in Germany alone, this is an incentive that you simply have to perceive so that you simply have to be there.”
The position of the newly created sports director for women is also still vacant. They will still speak to “less than five people,” said Rettig, who admitted, however, that the women’s sector is not exactly one of his core competencies. “We’re working hard.”
