After enduring a first group-stage exit at a major tournament last summer, the 2016 gold medallists made a big statement after thrashing Australia
Less than 12 months ago, Germany was the laughing stock of the women’s international game. Favorite to win the 2023 Women’s World Cup, it instead crashed out in the group stages in what was certainly the biggest shock the competition has ever seen. Most embarrassing of all was how obvious the two-time world champion’s flaws were throughout a truly dreadful tournament, the worst in team history.
It's been an eventful year since that shock exit. First, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was dismissed from her role as head coach in rather unorthodox fashion, leaving the team in the interim charge of Horst Hrubesch for an unusually extensive period. Under the 73-year-old, there have been highs, such as the 2-0 win over the Netherlands that secured a spot at the 2024 Olympics, and lows, like the abysmal 3-0 loss to Iceland just two weeks before the Games got underway.
There have been positives in the team selection, with Giulia Gwinn returning from an ACL injury and Lea Schuller catching fire in front of goal, but enough negatives to balance that out, most notably in the poor form of goalkeeper Merle Frohms and a devastating knee injury that Lena Oberdorf suffered just before the Olympics.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, then, since the fatal 1-1 draw with South Korea in Brisbane last August – but at the end of it all, on Thursday, on the opening day of the 2024 Olympic women’s football tournament, no side put on a more impressive performance than the Germans, as they battered Australia 3-0.
Now, with the United States women’s national team up next, the 2016 gold medallist is out to show that last year was simply a blip and that when discussing the big contenders to stand on top of the podium at Paris, Germany should not be overlooked.
Getty ImagesAn historic disaster
It’s hard to overstate just how big a failure last year’s World Cup was for Germany. Runners-up at the European Championship in 2022, this was a team everyone was talking about and one that had a kind group-stage draw. It sat 15 FIFA world ranking places higher than South Korea, 23 above Colombia and 70 above Morocco.
However, after a 6-0 thrashing of the latter, Germany was stunned by a Linda Caicedo-inspired Colombia in Sydney and then thwarted by a South Korea side that knew any chance of qualification was a long shot. The mixture of sheer shock and uncontrollable tears on the faces of the Germany players after full-time, after their exit was confirmed, said it all.
Voss-Tecklenburg came in for significant criticism after this failure. She had to cope with some injuries, yes, but the solutions she opted for were questionable and did not work. Natural full-backs were left on the bench as the coach deployed experienced winger Svenja Huth at right-back and midfielder Chantal Hagel at left-back – and it was these players that Bell's Korean side targeted in the 1-1 draw. “They are not full-backs,” he stated plainly in his post-match press conference. “They are not learnt full-backs and don’t have the schooling of a full-back. We wanted to target those areas and it worked.”
This wasn't all Voss-Tecklenburg was slated for. A lack of creativity on the pitch made the limited use of players like Sydney Lohmann, Lina Magull and Laura Freigang baffling, while it was also questioned as to why the coach didn’t opt for a change of shape to cover for some of these issues.
AdvertisementGetty Images'A fresh start'
Complicating matters further was that Voss-Tecklenburg only signed a new contract shortly before the World Cup, to take her through to the end of Euro 2025. Would the federation keep faith in her, factoring in the run to the Euro 2022 final? Or was this too much to come back from?
In the end, a debrief was delayed because the 56-year-old fell ill and could not lead the team in the next international window. There was then a rather bizarre sequence of events in October where she appeared as a speaker at the Bavarian Dentists’ Day, while on what the German Football Association (DFB) confirmed as recovery leave. The DFB said a meeting would take place once her time off was over.
In the end, the two parties were able to come together in early November, some three months after the World Cup exit, and decided on the separation. “Following an in-depth analysis of the women's national team's disappointing performance at the last World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, it was agreed that the team needed a fresh start in terms of sporting leadership,” the DFB said.
President Bernd Neuendorf added: “During this time, important steps were taken in the area of women's soccer. The national team's appearance in the final of the 2022 European Championship in England gave women's and girls' soccer an enormous boost. This success is and remains associated with Martina Voss-Tecklenburg.”
Getty ImagesNot an ideal situation
It wasn’t a surprise that the two didn’t continue, but the delay to such a decision wasn’t ideal for a Germany team in the middle of trying to qualify for an Olympic Games. If successful in that quest, as it was, it wasn’t far away from the actual tournament, either.
Hrubesch, who has occupied several different coaching roles with the national team, was trusted to take over from Voss-Tecklenburg on a temporary basis and that has since developed into an 11-month stint, as it wasn’t until March that the DFB announced that Christian Wuck will be the next permanent coach. Given this was just four months before the Olympics, it made sense for Hrubesch to remain in charge and for Wuck to take the reins after the tournament. However, once again, such a situation wasn’t ideal.
Unsurprisingly, Germany has blown hot and cold under a coach that hasn’t quite known how long he will be in charge. It wasn’t until March that Hrubesch had clarity on how far he could look ahead with the team and how much forward-planning could be done.
Getty ImagesSome concerns
He deserves credit, then, for guiding Germany through an unbeaten UEFA Women's Nations League group stage campaign, to qualification for the tournament's finals and for overseeing a win against the Netherlands that booked a ticket to Paris 2024.
Despite following that success with six wins from seven games, things have not always looked convincing. Germany was 2-0 down after just 17 minutes in its first Euro 2025 qualifier, away at Austria, before completing an almighty comeback to win. In a double-header with Poland this summer, the team that has never been to a major tournament took an early lead in both games, with Germany not going ahead in either win until the latter stages of the second half.
Then there was the 3-0 thrashing in Reykjavik that left many doubting Germany's ability to compete for an Olympic gold medal. “The way we played just wasn’t good,” Hrubesch said afterwards. “We deserved to lose. We handed them all three goals on a plate.”