DFB Women in World Cup Qualifiers: Alarm bells are ringing

One of the teams erupted in cheers when referee Tess Olofsson finished the game at the stadium of the Serbian Football Union Sports Center. The players hug each other, laugh and don’t know what to do with their happiness. Nothing unusual, but others rejoiced. Those who had expected to show off such gestures ran across the lawn with shrugged shoulders and serious eyes. There was pure despair mixed with helplessness and despair at what had happened. This bitter concoction was not really meant for Stara Pazova as a post-work drink.

The German international actually lost 2:3 (0:1) against Serbia, instead of being able to plan a trip to the 2023 tournament in Australia and New Zealand thanks to his eighth victory in the eighth World Cup qualifier. The remaining qualifiers in Turkey and Bulgaria in September are more important than expected. In Group H, the lead over Serbia is three points, with only the first qualifying directly, the second going to the playoffs – hardly fit for the two-time world and eight-time European champions.

Tuesday afternoon’s performance was more worrying than the (yet not seriously dangerous) table conditions, as the qualification also represents preparation for the 2022 European Championships in England (6 July to 31 July). Before that the final competitive game should bolster confidence, reinforce the idea and automaticity of the game. Now a lot of doubters left from Serbia. Does everyone just have a stupid bad day at the same time? Or was it another answer to the question that has long occupied the DFB team: where do we stand?

“It was a really poor performance in many areas,” says national coach Martina Vos-Tecklenburg.

Soon after the game, national coach Martina Vos-Tecklenburg was stunned by how her players had allowed themselves to be surprised. Dominated by the Serbs, they appeared physically strong, attacked quickly and deftly, while the Germans seemed almost permanently overwhelmed and found little rest. “I don’t want to make excuses, it was a really poor performance in many areas,” the 54-year-old said.

She self-critically criticized, among other things, dueling behavior, passivity, a high error rate, lack of mindset and pass quality: “All the factors that would have been important weren’t there. It lasted 90 minutes in a shocking way.” Continuing from. . We have to chalk it up ourselves.” After the setback, Voss-Tecklenburg still has three courses in June, including a Test match, to draw the right conclusions from the most recent performance.

open wide view

His team showed commitment and dynamism when he finished last in the Arnold Clark Cup pre-season tournament against Spain, Canada and England to start this momentous year in February. Judging by the 14 cancellations, which included central players such as Dznifer Marozson and Alexandra Pope, the lack of dominance and lack of victory could be explained. But now almost everyone was there and looked to be in good form with a 3-0 win over Portugal on Saturday. Following the appearance against Serbia, however, should sound alarm bells three months before the European Championship.

In addition to a fundamental improvement in the performance of the highly talented squad, the Germans must hone their skills more consistently – otherwise the difficult group stages against Denmark, Spain and Finland in the summer could become a problem. Frustrations like EM 2017 and World Cup 2019 – which ended in the quarter-finals – and missed Olympic Games should be a thing of the past. “We have to learn from this and come back strong,” said captain Pope, who played again after nearly a year of injury. end.”