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Germany at the World Cup: An end with two fatal consequences - sports
Despite the World Cup failure distracted national coach Voss-Tecklenburg the DFB-Elf in the right direction. But by 2021, the big stage is now gone and the Bundesliga threatens to lose the connection.
Losing games is part of sports, but there are defeats that hurt more than others. Because the consequences will be felt longer. Not just one evening, but into the next year - and possibly beyond. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, the national coach, had to explain this kind of defeat on Saturday night.
The German women's national football team has missed the semi-finals at the World Cup against Sweden. This is doubly fatal because it also missed the qualification for the Olympic Games in 2020. Only the three best European teams of this World Cup qualify for Tokyo. These are now England, the Netherlands and Sweden. For the Germans, the gold medal winners of Rio 2016, the title defenders so, it was not enough. In any case, this is a setback for this young team, which brings with it a lot of potential from their investment - but this can not show in the next two years on a major international stage. And, above all, harder to develop.
In the short term, retirement is a missed opportunity as the Lyon World Cup semi-final, with prime-time television broadcasts, would certainly have helped attract public attention and further increase the popularity of women's football. That would have also helped the clubs from the highest to the lowest league - and at a time when the women's league in the international comparison threatens to lose the connection anyway. For example, compared to England, where an enormous amount of money is invested.
In the long term, the Aus is a problem, because now until the European Championship 2021 in England such an opportunity will not come back, without Olympia. The most important games in the near future will be the European Championship qualifiers against Montenegro, Ukraine, Greece and Ireland. So not at that level of competition that has proved in France for the Germans still too high. To compete at this level would have been even more important in order to return to where the German team feels as Olympic champion, twice world and eight-time European champion: the world's top.
In addition it lacked a playful class and also courage. Despite their four wins before the quarter-finals, the DFB-Elf could never fully convince. Against other teams, the Germans made up for the deficits with an impressive fighting performance - and also increased footballing. The Swedes were also superior to their experience. The fact that the national team does not yet have this trump, was clear even before the tournament. Only since this year Voss-Tecklenburg with their coaching team has the responsibility for players who form in this constellation not long ago a squad.
The fact that the impression was created, there is a closed team on the pitch, which gets a clear game idea and is prepared seriously, distinguishes the quarter-final from 2019 from the quarter-finals at the European Championship 2017 under Voss-Tecklenburg's pre-predecessor Steffi Jones, at that time against Denmark. Voss-Tecklenburg has managed to integrate even the youngest players and has shown a clear confidence in everyone. The 19-year-old Giulia Gwinn, reliably flexible, is the best example of this. But perhaps Voss-Tecklenburg has overestimated how far they can get away with it. The Axis of experienced performers such as captain Alexandra Popp, Sara Däbritz, Melanie Leupolz and Svenja Huth was ultimately not strong enough to carry the entire scaffolding in the next round. The defensive always seemed like a weak spot, even though they scored the first goals against Sweden. Only goalkeeper Almuth Schult really showed a consistent performance. That Germany had to rely on its standards to score goals; also shows that work is also waiting on the offensive.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg sees herself and the entire team in a long-term process, she emphasized early on. At the press conference on Saturday, she said, because a game was lost, certainly not everything would be questioned. It does not have to. The national team is basically on a good way. But back to the top of the world, it is still far.
