World Cup dress rehearsal botched
DFB women lose against 77th in the world in 102nd minute
7/7/2023 10:37 p.m
The German footballers want to travel to the World Cup with a good feeling – but the last game before the tournament starts goes pretty badly. World Cup debutant Zambia surprised the DFB team several times. In the long stoppage time, the equalizer succeeds, then there is the last-minute defeat.
Now the alarm bells are also ringing among the DFB women: The German soccer players have properly messed up their dress rehearsal for the World Cup title mission. 17 days before the start of the tournament, the defensively vulnerable and offensively sloppy vice European champions earned a deserved 2:3 (0:0) against Zambia.
Barbra Banda (48’/90’+12′) and Racheal Kundananji (54′) scored for the African World Cup newcomer and caused doubts about another summer fairy tale to grow considerably. Lea Schüller (90+1) and Alexandra Popp (90+10) initially turned a 0-2 lead into a 2-2 in a turbulent stoppage time. In the final squad casting, national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg primarily realized that flow and stability from the previous year had been lost.
“It’s clear that the criticism is coming. Of course we’d rather go to a World Cup with a win than with a result like that,” said national coach “MVT” on ARD. “The opponent punished our mistakes very effectively today. We still have a few issues, that’s clear. But morale was right.” Meanwhile, Popp criticized the offensive and defensive behavior. “We just conceded three goals, it was definitely too easy, it shouldn’t happen to us like this,” complained the striker on the ARD microphone. “And going forward we just leave too much behind.”
In front of 14,404 fans in the Ronhof Sporthof, Voss-Tecklenburg was able to rely on their regular team around captain Alexandra Popp in the 2-1 win against Vietnam two weeks earlier. Surprisingly, Svenja Huth played in a Wolfsburg defense as a right-back in her 80th international match – a total of eight (!) professionals started from the Champions League finalists and DFB Cup winners.
Despite fresh forces, the game slips away
The German selection started out enthusiastically at first. With a header from Klara Bühl (2nd), the hosts quickly created the first chance. In the case of fast counterattacks, however, maximum concentration was required. The lightning-fast striker Barbra Banda, star of the World Cup newcomer, put the counter-prone German defense to the test several times (7th/40th).
“We want to see a lot of what’s in our DNA – lots of ball possession, getting the opponent going, developing a goal threat and being careful defensively,” “MVT” had previously demanded on ARD. The commitment was right, Sara Däbritz set accents, but after the two-week preparation in Herzogenaurach the necessary punch was missing.
After the break, Voss-Tecklenburg brought on two fresh players in Melanie Leupolz and Sjoeke Nüsken, but then the game slipped away from the DFB team within a few minutes. After Jule Brand lost the ball in the center circle, Zambia switched immediately and Banda shot cleanly into the far corner. The 0:2 also fell after losing the ball, this time by Huth.
Voss-Tecklenburg deletes five more players
In front of goal, the courageous Africans showed the callousness that the German team lacked. Symptomatic: Substitute Sydney Lohmann (67th) also shot over the goal. Carolin Simon hit the crossbar (75′) before Schüller headed the goal. Substitute Simon had to leave the field shortly before the end with a knee injury. In the end it got wild.
Before the plane to Australia takes off on Tuesday, the day of the decision is still to come on Saturday. In the afternoon, the visibly shocked Voss-Tecklenburg announced the final squad of 23 for the World Cup (July 20th to August 20th), five players were deleted.
At the start of the title hunt Down Under, the two-time world and eight-time European champion Germany is the supposedly clear favorite in Group H. Other opponents in the preliminary round are Colombia (Sydney/July 30) and South Korea (August 3/Brisbane), right in the The top-class teams France and Brazil threaten to reach the round of 16.