For a while now, Dzsenifer Marozsan has had to keep craning his neck in his job. Because the balls often fly over them in the central midfield. American professional women's football: faster, more rigorous, more breathless, more athletic, more physical than on the old continent. But “not nicer,” says the 29-year-old. No German national player stands for the beautiful, elegant game as much as Dzsenifer Marozsan, who also maintains this claim. And so it was a significant change for the technician after years in the German Bundesliga and now five years at the French top club Olympique Lyon.
In the clubs and also in the German national team it is a familiar recipe that it is often called “Ball to Dzseni” or “Looking for Dzseni”. So that the exceptional talent in the middle of the field should do something special, but at least target-oriented with the ball. “In Europe, the game was played according to my style. Now is the time to do more fighting and defensive work. That's really good for me, ”says Dzsenifer Marozsan. This year she plays for OL Reign in the American professional league NWSL, alongside star player Megan Rapinoe. The franchise from Tacoma, Washington state is the Lyoner partner club, both have the same owner. “The first games were difficult for me. But I also wanted to go there to work on myself, ”she says.
Dzsenifer Marozsan has now been missing from the DFB selection for almost nine months - first it was due to a corona outbreak in the Lyon team, then to the travel restrictions between the United States and Europe.
She was back on board at the two home games at the start of the qualifying round for the 2023 World Championships.
In the 7-0 win against Bulgaria on Saturday she was 90 minutes in the national jersey in the 5-1 win against Serbia on Tuesday 75 minutes.
With a lot of ball contacts, but without spraying the great shine.
No more girls' soccer
It was another big change. "In America there are no low-ranking teams," says the German number ten. “There is no bus parked in the back.” Due to the large performance gap between the top nations and the weaker European national teams, this is exactly what the Germans often ask: to dribble around the bus that the defeated opponents put in front of their own goal in a figurative sense. Against the Bulgarians it was easier, against the Serbians after a weak first half (0: 1) only with a delay and the vehement cabin demand from national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, "not to play girls' football anymore", as Lea Schüller reported.
The attacker from FC Bayern Munich was particularly obedient with four goals alone (49th, 54th, 71st, 77th minute). Melanie Leupolz scored the goal to make it 5-1. The dreary backdrops - in Chemnitz and Cottbus only around 1600 spectators came each - clouded the picture somewhat. The national coach made no secret of her disappointment. “We are one nation, one football. It's also about a symbolism to the outside, ”said Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. The first competitive games in 2021/22 were unable to give the company any real tailwind. At the start of a game year that, after two tournaments (EM 2017, World Cup 2019) with poor results and the missed Olympic qualification, culminates in the European Championship in England, which is important for German women's football.
There it will undoubtedly also depend on Dzsenifer Marozsan, who as a top player in the Lyon selection of the world can feel she belongs to the crème de la crème of her sport. The American semester abroad “changed my game,” she says. If she could enrich her well-stocked football cutlery box with more resilience and flexibility, if she is taught to make more out of less ball contact, this is also good news for the national coach. In any case, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg has expressly welcomed her playmaker's step. The physical strain is also significantly higher in the NWSL. Due to the long journeys and playing in different time and climate zones, the players have to “go to the limit in every game,” says Dzsenifer Marozsan.Even if she just looks after many flying balls.