With two goals, captain Alexandra Popp put the DFB team on the winning track at the start of the World Cup. There is a lot to celebrate against Morocco – and yet the 32-year-old also shows her sad side. This is revealed in her goal celebration.
“Poppi is just a brutal force. She’s ice cold.” DFB goalkeeper Merle Frohms does not want to swap places with her goalkeeper competitors. “Who wouldn’t be happy to have Poppi on their team?!” Laura Freigang puts it more simply: “It’s Poppi.” There is no need for superlatives when it comes to her captain, the 129-time national player has long set them herself. And immediately tied in with the 6-0 thrashing of the opening game of the World Cup against Morocco. It is Alexandra Popp who heads in the first two goals (11th/39th) with her incomparable power.
“That was a solid performance by Ms. Popp,” says Lena Oberdorf, who is injured, sober and amusing. “She did what we expected of her.” Freigang is happier: “If you had to guess beforehand who would score the first goal and how, you could have written it down in the same way.” She follows admiringly: “It’s just awesome, it’s always nice to see it live, too. The power she gets behind it is unbelievable.”
Shortly after these words, the Frankfurt native posted a meme on Instagram in which former DFB striker Miroslav Klose was compared to Popp – and the 32-year-old got off even better than the best German goalscorer of all time. Klose scored 71 goals in his DFB career, 64 now with Popp – making her the third-best German goalscorer in history together with legend Inka Grings, who is training Switzerland at this World Cup. Only the seemingly uncatchable Birgit Prinz (128), who has been the team’s psychologist for several years, and Heidi Mohr (83) are better.
But Popp can still do more, already in the upcoming group games against Colombia (July 30, 11 a.m./ARD) and South Korea (August 3, 12 p.m./ZDF and all in the ntv.de live ticker). Her team-mates are also counting on how Freigang instills fear in their opponents: “It’s tournament time, Alex Popp is there.”
Like ET “phone home”
Although she seems very far away in the moments after her goals. It’s because of her goal celebration, which is also discussed at the subsequent press conference. She holds her hand to her ear like a telephone and looks at the sky at the same time. “My goal celebration is derived from the film ET, where he also puts his finger up and says ‘call home’,” explains Popp. “In that sense, I also call home, mainly because we are far away from home. But not only for the people who are sitting in front of the television at home, but especially for the people who can no longer be with us and are still important people to me.” Clearly depressed and visibly close to tears, she explains: “The one who lost weight is my father.” National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg comfortingly strokes her back.
The moment of the shot on goal is when the full contrasts of emotions collide. The joy of the goal – and the sadness. But it seems as if her team would catch her again and again. After the game, she radiantly hugs her colleagues, whom she can watch for a few more minutes after being substituted in the 83rd minute to great applause from the 27,256 fans in the stadium. The Player of the Game award goes to her, and she deserves it.
She uses everything she has for this. Your power, your will, your head – and other body parts to score? Your second goal is a mystery, was it the shoulder, the back, the ear that put the ball in the goal? “I hit the back of my head,” explains the double goalscorer. “I just jumped in with the hope that somehow I’d hit him and he would fly in the right direction.”
ZDF expert Kathrin Lehmann demonstrates the flight again in the studio to the amusement of the viewers and her colleague Tabea Kemme, who had to end her career as a defender three years ago because of a long-term knee injury, describes it as a curse to defend high balls against the 1.74 meter tall and powerful striker: “You just don’t want to do it.” And many cannot.
“A captain you couldn’t ask for better”
This was shown at last year’s European Championships, where she scored six goals and just wasn’t top scorer because England’s Beth Mead had more assists to her credit and she was injured in the final and therefore couldn’t go further. She also showed her nose for goals in the past season, in which she became Bundesliga top scorer with 16 goals.
It is not so important to the Wolfsburg player that she scores the goals. “The main thing is that we do it. And that in the end we have at least one more than the opponent.” The final score of 6:0 was convincing, even if World Cup newcomers Morocco are not the strongest opponents. The German team already expects a lot more headwind in the game against Colombia. Voss-Tecklenburg warns in advance: “We’re not going crazy now, we’ve stayed true to ourselves, but we know what we’re capable of.”
She has known that for a long time from her captain, with whom she has been working for years, who helped her to the first Bundesliga game in 2008, back then as her coach at FCR Duisburg: “Alexandra Popp is a leader, is a captain that you couldn’t wish for better,” she praises, while Popp is sitting next to her on the stage. “I’m glad she’s there, I’m glad she scores, that helps put the mood together.” After Popp’s Klara Bühl (46th) and Lea Schüller (90th) as well as Hanane Aït El Haj (54th) and Zineb Redouani (79th) scored two own goals in favor of the DFB team, the national coach warned anyway: “We know that not everything was tip-toppi.”
For the easier start to the tournament, however, it is easily enough – also thanks to Popp. She is already thinking about their common goal and subordinates her own performance: “I haven’t set myself a number for how many goals I want or will score. I want to get to the final and win it if possible.”