Germany women’s national team will want to show their true colours as they take to an artificial pitch only four days after their 2-0 loss to France. They will be wanting to prove, in their tough friendly against Sweden tonight (18:00 CEST), that the poor performance in Offenbach was a one-off.
“We were all shocked when we saw the videos,” said captain Nadine Angerer. The critical video analysis on Monday before they travelled from Frankfurt to Örebro should bear fruit: “We spoke about a lot of our mistakes. But at the same time, it’s good that we have the chance to do better against a tough opponent.”
And it won’t be any easier against a team that finished third at the last World Cup and who are ranked fifth in the world, who also boast star striker Lotta Schelin. “Sweden are one of the best teams in the world and therefore it’ll be another good test for us,” said manager Silvia Neid, who will celebrate a year in charge of the team on 23rd November in their game against England at Wembley.
Practice on an artificial pitch
As well as the game being a tough test, the game at the Behrn Arena will allow the players to practice playing on an artificial pitch with only 220 days to go before the start of the hotly discussed World Cup in Canada (6th June- 5th July 2015.) “It’s a lovely stadium and the pitch is decent,” said midfielder Melanie Leupolz.
The 400th game in the history of the women’s national team will be something special for Anja Mittag: “I know a lot of the players, and some of them are my teammates. It’ll be a good game,” said the 29-year-old striker, who has called Malmo her home since 2011 and as well as being top scorer last season, she had the most assists as her team FC Rosengard successfully defended their Damallsvenskan title.
Memories of European Championship triumph in Sweden
So that Mittag’s teammates can’t claim the bragging rights, the European Champions have to “improve in every department”, said women’s world footballer of the year Angerer. But against one of the favourites for the World Cup, France, as well as lacking in performance and tactics, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be easy to replace Wolfsburg’s injured defensive midfield pairing of Nadine Keßler and Lena Goeßling.
Perhaps the return to Sweden will bring back memories of their European Championship triumph there last summer. Germany were the party poopers as they knocked the hosts out in the semi-finals thanks to a 1-0 win. It won’t only be the Germans who will be looking for redemption.
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Germany women’s national team will want to show their true colours as they take to an artificial pitch only four days after their 2-0 loss to France. They will be wanting to prove, in their tough friendly against Sweden tonight (18:00 CEST), that the poor performance in Offenbach was a one-off.
“We were all shocked when we saw the videos,” said captain Nadine Angerer. The critical video analysis on Monday before they travelled from Frankfurt to Örebro should bear fruit: “We spoke about a lot of our mistakes. But at the same time, it’s good that we have the chance to do better against a tough opponent.”
And it won’t be any easier against a team that finished third at the last World Cup and who are ranked fifth in the world, who also boast star striker Lotta Schelin. “Sweden are one of the best teams in the world and therefore it’ll be another good test for us,” said manager Silvia Neid, who will celebrate a year in charge of the team on 23rd November in their game against England at Wembley.
Practice on an artificial pitch
As well as the game being a tough test, the game at the Behrn Arena will allow the players to practice playing on an artificial pitch with only 220 days to go before the start of the hotly discussed World Cup in Canada (6th June- 5th July 2015.) “It’s a lovely stadium and the pitch is decent,” said midfielder Melanie Leupolz.
The 400th game in the history of the women’s national team will be something special for Anja Mittag: “I know a lot of the players, and some of them are my teammates. It’ll be a good game,” said the 29-year-old striker, who has called Malmo her home since 2011 and as well as being top scorer last season, she had the most assists as her team FC Rosengard successfully defended their Damallsvenskan title.
Memories of European Championship triumph in Sweden
So that Mittag’s teammates can’t claim the bragging rights, the European Champions have to “improve in every department”, said women’s world footballer of the year Angerer. But against one of the favourites for the World Cup, France, as well as lacking in performance and tactics, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be easy to replace Wolfsburg’s injured defensive midfield pairing of Nadine Keßler and Lena Goeßling.
Perhaps the return to Sweden will bring back memories of their European Championship triumph there last summer. Germany were the party poopers as they knocked the hosts out in the semi-finals thanks to a 1-0 win. It won’t only be the Germans who will be looking for redemption.
