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Women's World Cup - from dawn to toe break - sport
The DFB players take despite the early departure also positive, the Americans are wow - and a duel ends 7: 1. Episodes of the World Cup in France.
Without Olympia in the future
Probably Lena Goessling would have waited with her decision if the World Cup had gone differently. For the German team - and for them personally. However, the 33-year-old announced a few days after the end in the quarter-final against Sweden (1: 2) what had hinted during the tournament: her resignation after 106 international matches.
Goeßling had the most experience in the squad of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg - and yet did not come out on a reserve role, although it would have quite needed routine in moments of excessive demand for the German team. The Olympic champion of 2016 and European champion of 2013 was barely on the field in their third World Cup participation, 80 minutes against Spain - for more it was not enough.
Voss-Tecklenburg, 51, sees her job at the DFB as a long-term project. In France, too, she has turned to players of the future to whom she already has great confidence. Lena Oberdorf, for example, was allowed to show what she can do in four games - unlike Goeßling. With 17 years. And when it comes to deriving something positive from the disappointingly early end and the fatefully missed qualification for the Olympics 2020, then you quickly end up with the integration of the youngest.
For those who are once again to provide for more brilliant performances of the two-time World and eight-time European Champion - for whom footballing was not enough in recent years. Oberdorf acted with amazing maturity. But above all, Giulia Gwinn, 20, became the young German face of the World Cup. She attracted tactical flexibility. And with their winning goal for the start against China - im, one may say so, early fateful game of the DFB-Elf in this Tour de France.
After all, how would the tournament have gone if Dzsenifer Marozsán had not broken a toe in a nasty foul after just twelve World Cup minutes? If she could not play in the second half of the quarter-final (ineffective)? If she had been the director with her creativity and ball security? These questions have also occupied Voss-Tecklenburg. And maybe the coach has emphasized a bit too often how irreplaceable she holds her number 10. So maybe others in the team were taken a little bit of what was so necessary: a lot of self-confidence.
The footballing potential is there, the militant will too. After the missed Olympic opportunity, the opportunity for development must now be used if Germany is to soon again belong to the world's top.