She didn't say the word “finally”, but you could think of it. "Something big is coming up at the end of the season," emphasized Monika Voss-Tecklenburg. And you could clearly see how much fresh professional pleasure this perspective gives her. After two summers without tournaments, the 2022 European Championships in England are no longer a long-term goal, but are in sight. And the topics in the German women's national football team should shift. Away from experimental rotation and as much playing time as possible for everyone, away from the focus on stress control for busy players in the club.
Towards a selection that gives birth to a regular squad that can end the lean years of the German team in England. "The competition," says Voss-Tecklenburg, "is on." She doesn't think much of the term first team because we need more than eleven players in a tournament, but she is aiming for a block of seven to eight regulars at.
Before the tournament in England, the country where women's football is currently developing the fastest, the DFB selection schedule set the qualifying round for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The prelude to this are two home games, which should provide the national coach with more knowledge than the spectators. Because the international second-rate opponents Bulgaria on this Saturday (4:05 p.m., live on ARD) in Cottbus and Serbia on Tuesday (4:00 p.m.) in Chemnitz will in all likelihood be out to purely damage limitation with a destructive defensive tactic. Voss-Tecklenburg has already raised the two games to the rank of mandatory victories.
But that does not mean that the "how" gets out of focus.
“Our focus is to play persistently, precisely and at a great speed.
We recently had deficits, ”says the national coach.
She wants to “clearly shape” the World Cup qualification in view of the other group opponents Portugal, Israel and Turkey.
A tournament with three other top opponents should deliver more informative tests with a view to the European Championship in February.
The 53-year-old Voss-Tecklenburg will oppose the fact that, in addition to the Wolfsburg and Munich national players, the Hoffenheim players can now also gain international experience at club level in the reformed Champions League.
All three German clubs have reached the group stage.
Documentary on double exposure
The long-term loss of captain Alexandra Popp is a bit of a worry, as she draws attention to the fact that there are no other top-class players in the center of the storm besides the Wolfsburg attacker. Most likely Lea Schüller, who scores reliably in the Bundesliga for Bayern, but is also shown limits against strong opponents. Frankfurt's Laura Freilang has recently developed steeply, but has only made seven internationals. France legionnaire Lena Petermann has rejoined the team after a long period of downtime. This also applies to the still technically best German player Dzsenifer Marozsan. The 29-year-old from the multiple Champions League winner Olympique Lyon had missed the last courses,because she is still in a semester abroad with the Lyon partner club OL Reign in the American professional league until the end of the year.
Maroszan will also have registered the new faces in the DFB entourage. A film team has been accompanying the German team since April. A six-part documentary series is to be produced, which not only wants to stage the lives of the protagonists as soccer players, but also wants to show how players deal with the double burden of studying, school, work or being a mother (goalkeeper Almuth Schult). "We are happy about the great project and can show who we are with it," says Martina Voss-Tecklenburg.
Because the players and the association will have the last word in the pictures shown in the end, it remains to be seen where the documentary will be sorted. Whether authentic interior views will be shown or whether it will be another football film that primarily meets soft marketing requirements. In any case, making women's football more visible beyond the scene and better marketing it remains a major issue. “We have nothing to hide. We want to show that we are cool, ”says the national coach. A successful EM with cheers that have not been seen for a long time should also contribute to the success of the film project.