National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is thinking about taking two additional players as “backup” because of the long distance to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The 55-year-old said this at an event organized by the German Football Association in Frankfurt/Main.
“If a player gets injured two days before a game and I then bring one to Australia, then I probably won’t be able to use her for the first two games,” said Voss-Tecklenburg, referring to the journey and the time difference in the event of a possible subsequent nomination.
Basically, the World Cup squads of the 32 participating teams include 23 footballers. At the same time, however, Voss-Tecklenburg also sees the role of two possible fellow travelers without a squad affiliation as “extremely difficult” because they have no guarantee that they will join the team.
Final World Cup squad on July 7th
The squad for the tournament from July 20th to August 20th, in which the runners-up European champions meet Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in the preliminary round, will only be announced by the DFB after the last international friendly on July 7th in Fürth against Zambia . Before the World Cup, the German selection will have two more training camps in Herzogenaurach and will also be testing against Vietnam in Offenbach on June 24th. The departure of the German team to Australia is scheduled for July 11th.
Germany could already meet Brazil or France in the round of 16. Voss-Tecklenburg sees these two teams as part of their large group of favourites. “Now I’ve already named ten nations. It’s amazing!” She said at the end of her list of various European teams, defending champions USA, Olympic champions Canada, Japan, hosts Australia, Brazil and Colombia – and an extra note: “South Africa has a lot made for women’s football in recent years.”
Voss-Tecklenburg himself is flying to Australia with a small delegation this week for a short trip to inspect the German base camp north of Sydney again. Even the DFB greenkeeper Sebastian Breuing will be there: “Because we need these framework conditions, that everything is right, in order to play perfect football.”
