Successfully mastered the first World Cup game, made the fans cheer. Will it now be a sure-fire success for the national soccer team? The team itself urges calm. The players are “on fire” anyway.
The good mood has to go. “This girl is on fire” by Alicia Keys, the DFB women sing so beautifully off-key and above all Jule Brand full of fervor in the team bus as they make their way from the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium to the hotel. It is not specified which player is sung about. It doesn’t matter either, because they were all “on fire” at the start of this World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The game against World Cup newcomers Morocco ends 6-0. “We are very happy that we made a statement,” says striker Laura Freigang.
The pressure on the team has been enormous since last year’s successful and euphoric European Championships in England. The highest victory on the first day of the World Cup group match does not exactly reduce it. As vice European champions and second in the world rankings, they are among the favorites in this tournament – and they themselves emphasize that they have nothing else in mind than the title.
This reveals a huge discrepancy. Those who only expect the best and the pessimists who doubt that women have been infected by the crisis in the German Football Association. About the crisis of the men’s teams, in which both the A team at the World Cup in Qatar and the U21 juniors as defending champions at the European Championships were eliminated in the group phase. The meager games of this year would show that, especially the 2-3 defeat against Zambia in the last game before the World Cup. That the team starts the long journey to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and has to go home early. And now? “We” will be world champions. At least.
“Don’t freak out now”
The Germans didn’t know exactly where they were before the first kick-off. They were all optimistic, self-confident, not weighing the results of the previous months on the gold scales. But in comparison? Morocco, the first Arab country to qualify for a women’s World Cup, had to do the job. It was 6-0 at the final whistle, the debutantes experienced a very bitter evening. Captain Alexandra Popp is the one who initiates the scoring in the eleventh minute, she hits a second irresistible header, Klara Bühl and Lea Schüller are also successful and there are also two Moroccan own goals. It’s a game that vindicates those who have defied the prophecies of doom. And that those who were skeptical raise expectations immensely.
“Of course we hope that Germany will notice what’s going on here. We always want to play good football so that people enjoy what we do,” says Freigang. “So I hope that has arrived, but we also want to continue in the same way.” She strikes exactly the tone that national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is striking: “Great start today, very satisfied, first step taken.” At the same time, she dampens any emerging euphoria: “It hasn’t all worked out the way we wanted it to.”
Those who previously spread optimism are now the ones who warn: namely the DFB women themselves. How is the overwhelming victory to be assessed? “We know that another opponent will come,” says Voss-Tecklenburg, looking forward to the upcoming game against Colombia (Sunday, 11 a.m./ARD and in the ntv.de live ticker) in advance. With all due respect to Morocco, the Arabs were probably more of a welcome opponent than a real indicator. “They should classify and evaluate whether this is a statement to the others,” says the national coach. “It was important for us to get in. That’s good, but we can understand it. We’re not going crazy now, neither in one direction nor in the other, but we didn’t do that before either.”
The intoxication comes all by itself
For the Germans, however, it is the desired start, like last year at the European Championships, when they won 4-0 against Denmark after tough preparation. And this time they get some of the problems from the previous months under control: the weakness in the closing gives way to great efficiency, they show that the quality of the bank can also compensate for injury worries.
However, a small phase of weakness after around 15 minutes is what doesn’t satisfy the team. When the score was 1-0, the players allowed more bad passes and lack of concentration, the doomsayers could have felt confirmed that DFB teams were weakening if they conceded a goal. But the Moroccans can’t take advantage of the phase, also because Sara Doorsoun is fast enough and goalkeeper Merle Frohms can easily catch a long-range shot. “We know that not everything was tip-toppi,” said Voss-Tecklenburg, who also emphasized: “It was good to go out 6-0 today, that might give us something very positive in a certain constellation.”
The DFB team wants to win the group, the further course of the tournament depends on him, in which a real top-class player can already wait in the round of 16. In Group F, which form the opposition, Brazil won a well-deserved and convincing win against World Cup newcomers Panama in the evening, while France only drew 0-0 against Jamaica. The Germans want to avoid the supposedly stronger team.
And at the same time ensure that the enthusiasm at home picks up speed again. The players themselves keep emphasizing their team spirit, which is also illustrated by small gestures: After her goal, Bühl sprints straight to the substitute players just 21 seconds after the restart and celebrates with them. The team greets the injured players Giulia Gwinn, Linda Dallmann and Carolin Simon, who did not make it to the World Cup, with jerseys. And team mascot Waru, a koala crocheted by Bühl, is also lovingly cared for. He is only allowed to wear a warm jacket when Lena Oberdorf is injured and after the game he can enjoy the music from the boom box he brought with him.
Is that the intoxication the team got into at the European Championship? Freigang doesn’t want to overrate the start: “Such a frenzy comes, if at all, all by itself, so it’s better not to talk about it too much. But I’m not worried, the way we played at the European Championships is based on what we have in the team, how we are with each other. The mood that prevails then shows up sooner or later and that was the same today.” But she doesn’t want to measure her goal – the title – by that: “If there’s no intoxication and we win in the end, I’ll sign that too.”