Martina Voss-Tecklenburg hopes that the men's and women's national teams will “move even closer together”.

Before leaving for the four-country tournament in England, pictures were taken in Frankfurt of the national coach having a lively table chat with her counterpart Hansi Flick and with Oliver Bierhoff.

As important as the DFB sent the photos through its channels, one can assume that in this constellation one hardly ever crosses paths.

Just as it is still predominantly the case in the Bundesliga clubs.

At FC Bayern, which is after all the current German women's soccer champion, the female players have virtually no contact with their male teammates.

At VfL Wolfsburg it is only slightly better.

At Eintracht Frankfurt, the women are extremely grateful when the team is allowed to practice on the men's training grounds.

There is still a long way to go towards gender equality in football, however defined.

Flick and national team director Bierhoff are said to have committed the women's team to their one-week stay in England.

"Other nations have caught up, maybe even overtaken us, but as a footballing country that we are, we want to be at the top of the world.

Our aim at every tournament is to finish in the top four,” said Bierhoff recently, referring to both senior teams.

The true capability

The women have to pass the first examination of this kind this year.

The European Championships in England in July will end a three-year tournament break for the team.

The newly launched Arnold Clark Cup is a test run for the organizers and an important position determination for the DFB team.

After this "hard test", according to Voss-Tecklenburg, you will "be a bit further".

Namely, in the question that is still unanswered after many victorious but sometimes tough qualification games against weaker opponents: Where is the real performance of the team, which is no longer brilliant internationally after the Olympic victory in 2016?

How does it fare against top teams, even if the defense is sometimes challenged?

And in quick succession, because the tournament confronted the Germans three times within seven days with concentrated international quality: Spain, Olympic champion Canada, England.

“Everything will be demanded of us.

And we also need that to start well into the last six months before the European Championships,” says Voss-Tecklenburg.

The game against Spain will kick off this Thursday in Middlesbrough (3:30 p.m. live stream on sportschau.de).

In the eyes of the national coach, the “most complete team in the world”.

The Spanish selection is almost identical in terms of personnel to Champions League winners FC Barcelona, ​​who are also dominating the scene this season, led by world footballer Alexia Putellas.

And the Iberians are also group opponents at the European Championships in summer, which should sharpen the senses and increase ambitions before the winter showdown.

The Arnold Clark Cup suffered a certain loss in value for the national coach even before the first kick-off.

14 candidates for the European Championship squad are absent due to injury or corona, which in turn will affect the meaningfulness of the performances.

An excerpt from the absentee list: Captain Alexandra Popp, Almuth Schult, Svenja Huth, Kathrin Hendrich, Tabea Waßmuth (all Wolfsburg), Martina Hegering (FC Bayern), Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon), Melanie Leupolz (Chelsea), Sjoeke Nüsken (Eintracht) .

The national coach was eager to nominate, so that there are now five possible national team debutants and seven players with ten or fewer international matches in the squad.

To put it bluntly: A real location assessment has become a better sighting course.

Voss-Tecklenburg will have been more annoyed than she publicly announced.

"We want to make it a chance for other players to get more playing time at a very, very high level," said the 54-year-old.

The German women will get the finishing touches for the European Championships in June at the so-called “Home Ground” of the DFB outfitter in Herzogenaurach.

Perhaps Hansi Flick will leave a letter on the pillow for the national coach.

The men's selection in the Nations League mission clears the quarters two days before the women arrive - the next meal together has to wait.