Won 5:1, the return match was a success – but Horst Hrubesch did not want to paint such a rosy picture of his old and new football world. The 72-year-old was happy to admit that he enjoyed his return as Germany’s interim coach. “I really enjoyed it,” said the HSV idol after the home win over Wales in the Nations League. “I believe in this team, I believe in quality.”
But despite the five goals, Grubes also saw one or two moments of criticism. “I actually assumed that not everything was going smoothly,” he said as he watched his team perform in front of more than 20,000 fans in Sinsheim. far fewer mistakes.”
“There’s actually a lot more going on.”
But just as Grubesch believes in his team, the players trust their coach. It brought fun and joy, and “of course the relaxation came back,” said the take’s author, Leah Schuller. After the anger surrounding national team coach Martine Voss-Tecklenburg taking a break, Hrubesch has suddenly lifted the mood in German women’s football with his outspokenness.
The 25-year-old Schuller was especially impressive with two headed goals. “For Leia, we know she can do it,” said former headline specialist Hrubesch, but: “There’s actually a lot more that can be done. I told her this right after the game. She also knows that I am critical.” The Bayern striker has “more options.”
Meanwhile, the DFB team retained the opportunity to win the group on their own. However, their biggest rival Denmark also won in Iceland (1-0) and remains top (nine points) ahead of Germany (six). Only the first of them will qualify for the final tournament of the League of Nations, where two tickets to the Olympic Games in Paris will be played at the beginning of 2024.
“Actually I should always be away from the ball and wait for crosses and then just run towards the ball at speed. Then he says it’s easier,” Schuller explained the work of the 1980 European champion. This is clearly especially beneficial for her. When Grubesch made his debut in 2018 as coach of the women’s team, there were four setbacks. “As a striker, he knows where he stands and he wants to pass that on to me and Poppy. And today it worked again,” Schuller explained.
Poppy, that is, Alexandra Popp, who rarely played for Voss-Tecklenburg, but often instead of Schuller. The 32-year-old captain missed the match with Wales due to muscle problems, Schuller was allowed to start from the start – which would have happened in any case, as Hrubesch assured. He prefers more attacking power on the field, more players capable of scoring goals, combining speed and technique. “We just did something a little different with Horst,” explained Schuller, who in Hrubesch’s original 4-4-2 system was tasked with being as far forward as possible in the opposition half to “expand the space” . do”.
The fact that this did not always work in the first half, despite good opportunities, was one of the problems mentioned by Grubesch. Hrubesch explained that he would have liked his team to have played the 1-0 away game “more clearly”. Because: “If you don’t do it from the front, you’ll get it from the back.” His side took a similar approach to a disappointing 1-1 draw at half-time. “We were annoyed ourselves,” Schuller said, “we just didn’t score goals.” After the break, the situation changed – to the great joy of the old and new interim coach.
Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine
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