Germany: Rottenberg (46. Angerer) Stegemann, Rech (46. Wunderlich), Omilade (46. Bresonik), Minnert Smisek (73. M. Müller), Lingor (46. Wimbersky), Wiegmann, Hingst Prinz, Grings (73. Pohlers) Russia: Petko Denchtchik, Kolomiets, Egorova, Karasseva Sedakova, Astapenko, Fomina, Komarova Letuchova, Barbachina (This is the starting eleven, I can't name the subs) Date: 11/14/02 Location: Lüdenscheid Attendance: 4500 Goals: 1:0 Prinz (8.) 2:0 Grings (31.) 3:0 Bresonik (88.) 4:0 Pohlers (90.) Referee: Martina Storch-Schäfer Two different halfs. Germany started with the formation that I believe is favored to play in China with some exceptions maybe in the defense. Two important defensive players Nia Künzer and Steffi Gottschlich are still injured but could return in 2003. They got an early goal by Birgit Prinz who simply broke through the russian defense. The second one came after a good run by Kerstin Stegemann on the right wing who passed the ball high to the left corner of the penalty area. Inka Grings took a direct shot and hit it right. Germany played strong the first ten, fifteen minutes with several chances, slowed down afterwards and had some good chances again at the end of the first half. Especially dangerous when coming over the wings. Russia was not really dangerous as I can only remember one chance in the second half and one in the first due to some sloppy defense by Ariane Hingst. So not a real test for the german defense. But the Russians might very well improve until the WC in China as they are a very young team. For example, their second half goalkeeper was only 16 years old. Germany changed its team in the second half to test some young players and they started with some good chances but overall the pace was lost. I believe maybe because there were too many native forwards on the field the midfield was sometimes unexisting. In the end there were Prinz, Pohlers, Müller, Wimbersky on the field and only two typical midfielders with Wiegmann and Wunderlich who is normally better coming over the wings in my opinion. Wimbersky seemed to play in the midfield but well.... So it was difficult for the young ones to make an impression. Linda Bresonik managed to impress playing on the left defensive side and sometimes joinig the attack. She scored a beautiful goal maybe with some help from the unexspirienced russian goalkeeper. She was also having problems controlling the ball after shots from the distance so Conny Pohlers took advantage of that and finished after the goalkeeper couldn’t hold onto the ball after a shot from Müller. On another note, the teams had to play on a „deep“ field as there was heavy rain the days before.