A quick (yet most certainly delayed) question for you regarding your women's national football team and their recent match vs. the Netherlands: What happened?! A draw?! UEFA.com reports that the Germans dominated throughout, but I wanted to hear a fan's point of view on this match. Let me rap this up by saying I'm greatly looking forward to the return of both Gottschlich and Kuenzer.
Instead of testing new/young players, TTM fielded her "A-Team". And everyone in the starting 11 is a key player for their clubs. For example: Potsdam had to play the then top-flight team (Duisburg) three days later, and having already lost to Frankfurt that game was crucial. That's no excuse, but rather normal. If you play an unnecessary match against a not too attractive opponent in front of a poor crowd of 4000,... no-one did play really "bad", but the last few percents simply were not there. Kuenzer has started training with the team, so she's expected to get short appearences with Frankfurt in the next weeks. NT is still a bit far away. When Gottschlich is back for her club (don't know when), she might face some problems on the left side: Wunderlich, Bachor and Pohlers had good outings in left midfield; and Guenther, Fuss and Wunderlich(!) have played left defender - the latter two with some success, and Guenther seems to be the coaches favourite, meaning she's an intended key defender for the not so far future.
Wunderlich on defense? Wow. She's an amazing player, so it's no too, too surprising that she's also so versatile. From the handful of times I've seen her play, Fuss seems like a strong player, but she's a bit smaller than the rest of the defensive line, no? It seems like the Germans like to build a strong, TALL wall around the goal (Minnert, Jones, Hingst, Steggeman, etc.) Now, I've only seen Guenther play 2 or 3 times and she has yet to strike me as a real key player, let alone someone who could give Gottschlich a real challenge for her starting position. But I guess when you're a coaching staff favorite, things come easier. What club does she play for?
Okay. Guenther is with Hamburger SV. Another question: why is Bresonik no longer with the national team? I know that she was hurt during the World Cup, but she's currently playing with Duisburg, right?
Fuss: Not so tall, ok, 1,67m. But compared to Minnert's 1,73 or Stegemann's 1,71 or Hingst's 1,70 there's not too much difference. In fact, only Jones is a bit taller. What makes Sonja Fuss valuable is her connecting on the left side, especially with Bachor - that looked very fine. Wunderlich: Maybe she's not the most brilliant player, but IMO the most versatile in German NT. She can play both sides in MF - had to play central MF for Frankfurt, and now gets "converted" to being a defender It's a bit hard for her to find a spot on the team, since her original position (right MF) is firmly occupied by Garefrekes. Guenther: So I, too, am not at all convinced of her. Maybe she's great for HSV, but I have not yet seen one single decent match of hers for the NT. We cannot look inside the head of coaches... There are so many good defenders in the Bundesliga (just take Zerbe or Becher or more recently Carlson as an example). (EDIT: Becher and Carlson had a rock-solid outing today for Potsdam against Voronezh! Potsdam play a backline of three, and both of them very clearly much better than Hingst.) Bresonik: Hmmmm, hard to tell. After WWC, there has been a statement like she wanted to re-establish her attitude playing for Duisburg (or so, don't remember exactly), and therefore she wanted a break of NT. Seems like the break is going to be a bit longer :\
Fuss looked great during the Olympics, especially in the games vs. Nigeria. She seems as solid as they get, despite her (not so small afterall) size. Getting back to Wunderlich again for just a moment...one of the worst things about the WUSA collapsing right before WWC 2003 was getting to see tons of amazing, international talent play right before you and constantly thinking, "Oh, she would have been perfect for this team" (in my case, "this team" was the Boston Breakers). We could have used someone like Wunderlich (or...ahem...LINGOR) to fill the midfield in Boston. Damn. But back to reality... It's so awesome to see Potsdam doing well in the UEFA cup. They're my favorites to win it all. Rumor has it that an international news channel showed clips of their 4-1 win over Voronezh. I'm still hoping I can get a copy of it somewhere!
Well, both Wunderlich's and our playmaker are fixtures of the FFC And, Frankfurt is merely two hours away from where I live, so you may understand that I'm not too sorry about them not playing in Boston. Check your PM.
Idgie, off subject, if you are in DE, did you read anything about player reaction to Jones' 2003 unwise tirade in FAZ? I noticed that Minnert did not look to happy to high five her during the OLYs.
*g* Calm down... your opinion doesn't rock my world In fact of course Britta and Inken did an excellent job, as they do since many games w/out bigger mistakes... nevertheless the defense has become much more stronger and secure since Ari has taken the command in the back... and that's just my opinion. Actually I was just interested, if your opinion based on watching the game at the stadium or on watching the 3-minutes-spot in TV... greets, nadine