Voss-Tecklenburg: “Firm Will”
National coach remains in office despite the World Cup disaster
8/5/2023 4:56 am
The soccer World Cup ended worse than ever for the DFB team. The end of the group phase is a debacle, but national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg remains in office. But she rejects a “keep it up”.
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg wants to remain in office despite the debacle at the World Cup. “The easy thing in life is to run away when things get difficult. I’ve never run away when things get difficult, so I still have the determination to take the next steps in German women’s football together with everyone involved,” she said the final press conference of the German Football Association in Wyong. Immediately after the elimination in the group stage, in which a 1-1 draw against South Korea was not enough for a place in the round of 16, she did not want to comment specifically on it.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf had previously expressed his confidence in her. He said at a DFB event on Friday: “I’m convinced of her.” At the same time, he pointed out that Voss-Tecklenburg and the association had only extended the joint employment contract until 2025 a few months ago. Together with those responsible in the association, the historically poor result should be processed in the coming days and weeks.
It is therefore clear that she wants to lead the DFB team to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris via qualification in the Nations League, which is being held for the first time. The first game will take place in Denmark on September 22nd. “I’ll stay tenacious and strong,” said the 55-year-old two days after being eliminated from a World Cup group stage for the first time.
Olympic qualification the next goal
The sporting director of national teams, Joti Chatzialexiou, said: “After the first disappointment and emptiness, I recognized a good attitude in many conversations.” The players are “very self-critical”, but also “have the will to look ahead again and turn things around together”. This is gratifying, it shows “the spirit in this team, even after a defeat”. Voss-Tecklenburg denied “keep it up”: “We have emphasized several times that we work on it and always deal with things objectively.” The team management would have done the same if they were successful in England. “We’re far from saying ‘keep it up’, we never do that.”
But she also emphasized: “If you set yourself high goals, you can fall deeply.” She doesn’t know what would have happened if the team had gone to the World Cup as runners-up without saying that they wanted to play for the title.
The 55-year-old took office as national coach in 2018, taking it over from Horst Hrubesch. Their first tournament was the 2019 World Cup in France, when the DFB lost to Sweden in the quarter-finals and thus missed out on qualifying for the Olympic Games. Last year’s European Championships were much more successful, the team only had to admit defeat to the hosts from England in the final.