Ahead of the World Cup in Australia: The German Football Association (DFB) women have big ambitions

Frankfurt / Main – After the exhilarating EM year, it’s time for the Germans soccer players Now finally just for the World Cup this summer. The German Football Association’s women begin training camp in Marbella this Tuesday, and a week later their international test match against Sweden is scheduled in Duisburg (February 21, 6:15pm / ZDF).

“The whole team is looking forward to this action. It’s a great start for us into 2023,” says national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “We are happy to see the players again, because things are finally getting underway.” At Monday’s media day in Frankfurt, there were new photos of Alexandra Pope & Co.

During the winter break, Voss-Tecklenburg met with her training squad for four days in the Black Forest to prepare for the coming months. There was also Kai Kreuger of the DFB’s sports department, team psychologist and national record player Birgit Prinz – and sometimes also team manager Maika Fischer.

Because the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20 will be difficult only in terms of organisation. “We know it will be difficult because we will have to travel very hard. But everything is very well planned,” says the 55-year-old.

“We are looking forward to the World Cup in two countries that are really interested. It will all be really good.”

The World Cup plan is in place. There, the German national team meets Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in the preliminary round and plays only in Australia on the tournament track.

At the start of preparations in Marbella, a behind closed doors training match against Ireland is scheduled. Then comes the home match against world-class Sweden, which the DFB women’s quarter-finalists at the 2019 World Cup in France failed to do – and which Voss-Tecklenburg would naturally prefer to suppress.

Another two-game training camp is scheduled for April – possibly one of them against Brazil. The South American champions will play European champions England in the ‘Finalissima Women’ premiere on April 6 at Wembley. Like last year, there will be two training camps in Herzogenaurach in June and July before the World Cup, each with one match.

“If we can take good, right steps in development in the coming weeks and months, then they’ll see us there,” Captain and Target Bob says.

Voss-Tecklenburg has recently visited several clubs in the Bundesliga. Above all, Wolfsburg and Champions League quarter-finalists Bayern Munich have other priorities in the coming months. And regular goalkeeper Merle Froms, Bob’s colleague at VfL Wolfsburg, confirms that they “still have very big goals” with the club.

She wanted “to have a good, successful finish to the season first. In fact, the World Cup is still a long way off in my mind because we still have a lot of tasks at the club”.

Fromm Almuth Schulte’s former rival is not at the World Cup: the mother of twins is pregnant again. Also absent are Julia Gwen (rehabilitation after cruciate ligament rupture) in Munich and Lena Oberdorf from Wolfsburg, who is a patient, in Marbella and Duisburg.

In April, the longtime Olympic champion and playmaker Dzsenifer Marozsan is expected to return to the selection: the 30-year-old missed the European Championship due to a cruciate ligament rupture, but now he plays again for Olympique Lyonnais.

“The fact is that we have a high-quality team. That makes it really exciting,” says Voss-Tecklenburg. The team currently consists of 27 players, and only 23 players are allowed to play in the World Cup. With star EM Popp, Voss-Tecklenburg can certainly plan for Australia. “If all goes well, I will go to the World Cup,” the 31-year-old said in an interview with hr-info.

Before that, she had made a rather conservative statement. In England, Pope took the DFB’s selection to the final with six goals in five matches, but then missed the final match against England (1-2) due to injury.