One could gleefully say: Finally, women’s football in this country has reached the men’s level. The German women’s selection made a fool of themselves at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and were eliminated in the preliminary round. And that in a group where it was actually considered impossible.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s team had a brilliant start to the tournament with a 6-0 win over Morocco. A well-deserved defeat against vicious Colombians followed and now a 1-1 draw against South Korea. The funny thing is that the Asians were almost hopelessly eliminated after two defeats without their own goal (and with this draw they are too). Nevertheless, they threw themselves into every ball and even dominated large parts of the first half against a completely unimaginative and planless German team. As an observer, one wondered for a long time who was actually dealing with what.
Apart from goal scorer Alexandra Popp, hardly any player showed anything like normal form. Super talent Lena Oberdorf, normally the calming influence and heart of the German development game, seemed unusually nervous and played a lot of bad passes. An offside trap that went disastrously wrong put the actually harmless South Koreans in the lead for no reason after just six minutes. The only good thing: There was still enough time. But Germany didn’t know what to do with it. It was a thoroughly embarrassing performance.
Which brings us back to men. The comparisons are almost obvious. The men’s selection also failed in 2018, as world champions, in the preliminary round in the last game against South Korea. Even then, he had never thought it possible. Back then, too, people scratched their heads for 90 minutes in amazement at why real world-class players didn’t put their performance on the pitch.
The German women’s team is also one of the best in the world – actually. Historically anyway, but as a runner-up in the European Championship, they also started this tournament with such ambitions. The squad is stronger across the board than many others in the tournament, in any case than the three competitors in the group. On paper, this team cannot be eliminated in the preliminary round, like the men did back then.
But on paper it is not on the pitch.
And so the women fit seamlessly into the German football misery of recent years. After Olympic gold in 2016, there was no longer a title for women, and for men it was even two years longer. This is particularly bitter for women’s football. The sport has been getting more and more attention and TV time in recent years, sponsorship money has been transferred. And rightly so. The game has undergone enormous development and offers first-class entertainment. One can only hope that the embarrassing Aus der Frauen doesn’t take the wind out of their sails.
