The Women’s national side’s plans for the final stage of the tournament have been set in stone following the group draws for the World Cup in Canada, which will take place from 6th June until 5th July 2015. National team coach Doris Fitschen was there for the draw in Ottawa and took time to closely examine the stadiums and pitches with a delegation from DFB.
In a DFB.de interview with Editor Annette Seitz, Fitschen spoke about group opponents‘ Ivory Coast, Norway and Thailand, her impressions of Canada, upcoming challenges and highlights from preparation.
Question: What impressions did you have of Canada?
Doris Fitschen: It was full of different impressions. One of those was the group draw, which took place in a pretty special atmosphere. Not just because the situation itself is exciting. It’s the first time that the Women’s World Cup will take place with 24 sides, there are some debutants amongst those teams. I found that a special moment. These milestones in Women’s footballing history became concrete in the exciting surroundings of Ottawa. Making ties and maintaining existing ones with other national teams there – that’s an important aspect apart from the obvious highlight of the group draw.
Question: What are your thoughts regarding the decision to increase the number of teams to 24?
Fitschen: I openly welcome it. The decision will only encourage the development of women’s football around the world again. The expansion of teams also means that in the best case scenario, you’ll have seven games and not six games to play. That means in a sense that the fitness and quick recovery between fixtures will play a decisive role. There’s now one more knockout stage courtesy of the last 16 and if you look at the make-ups of the groups, then you can see already at this stage that really strong opponents await us.
Question: The group phase takes place first though. What do you make of the opponents and the draw altogether?
Fitschen: There are some interesting groups there, especially if I have a look at Group D with USA, Sweden, Australia and Nigeria. We have an interesting mix of some familiar faces of Norway and two unknown sides for us. We’ll provide current video footage and also watch the opponents live if we have the chance to prepare the best we can.
Question: You inspected the venues after the draw – Ottawa and Winnipeg – what impressions did you have of those?
Fitschen: I can now say that we and the other nations have been welcomed with open arms. You can notice that the Canadians are proud to host the World Cup. However for us, eyes will be on us, that’s the special challenges that the World Cup brings.
Question: How?
Fitschen: One of the biggest challenges has to be transport as there’s an enormous distance between the venues in five different five zones. In contrast to us in Germany with the 2011 World Cup, most of the travelling has to be done by plane. This logistical challenge for the organisers is huge, finally the 24 teams have to transport their coaching and other staff, in addition to all of their equipment across this ginormous country. If you think that due to FIFA measures there’s no official team area at the Women’s World Cup, then the teams stay at the respective hotels of the respective venues due to equal treatment, is a big effort. We have to make do with this though and play to it.
Question: How exactly?
Fitschen: For example, we’ll send out complete documentation of the new venue to the whole of the team prior to departure so that everything goes smoothly. We’ll check at the time whether it makes sense to take chartered flights. The planning is already well underway with the branches of the organisation of our team administration of Patrizia Hell. There is an objective above all measures: Prepare everything to the extent that the team and coaching staff are not disturbed and can work as best as possible to achieve success.
Question: What will happen in the next few months?
Fitschen: We’re at the closing stages of planning for our marketing days, which take place on 14th and 15th January. We’ll do some advertising with our partners and a few photo shoots there. We’ll have the chance to train on artificial turf during our training camp in Spanish Marbella between 7th and 12th February. The elite Algarve Cup in Portugal will take place between 4th and 11th March. We’ll then gather to directly prepare for the World Cup from 18th May. We’ll play our last internationals before setting off at this time. We’ll then fly to Ottawa at the end of May.
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The Women’s national side’s plans for the final stage of the tournament have been set in stone following the group draws for the World Cup in Canada, which will take place from 6th June until 5th July 2015. National team coach Doris Fitschen was there for the draw in Ottawa and took time to closely examine the stadiums and pitches with a delegation from DFB.
In a DFB.de interview with Editor Annette Seitz, Fitschen spoke about group opponents‘ Ivory Coast, Norway and Thailand, her impressions of Canada, upcoming challenges and highlights from preparation.
Question: What impressions did you have of Canada?
Doris Fitschen: It was full of different impressions. One of those was the group draw, which took place in a pretty special atmosphere. Not just because the situation itself is exciting. It’s the first time that the Women’s World Cup will take place with 24 sides, there are some debutants amongst those teams. I found that a special moment. These milestones in Women’s footballing history became concrete in the exciting surroundings of Ottawa. Making ties and maintaining existing ones with other national teams there – that’s an important aspect apart from the obvious highlight of the group draw.
Question: What are your thoughts regarding the decision to increase the number of teams to 24?
Fitschen: I openly welcome it. The decision will only encourage the development of women’s football around the world again. The expansion of teams also means that in the best case scenario, you’ll have seven games and not six games to play. That means in a sense that the fitness and quick recovery between fixtures will play a decisive role. There’s now one more knockout stage courtesy of the last 16 and if you look at the make-ups of the groups, then you can see already at this stage that really strong opponents await us.
Question: The group phase takes place first though. What do you make of the opponents and the draw altogether?
Fitschen: There are some interesting groups there, especially if I have a look at Group D with USA, Sweden, Australia and Nigeria. We have an interesting mix of some familiar faces of Norway and two unknown sides for us. We’ll provide current video footage and also watch the opponents live if we have the chance to prepare the best we can.
Question: You inspected the venues after the draw – Ottawa and Winnipeg – what impressions did you have of those?
Fitschen: I can now say that we and the other nations have been welcomed with open arms. You can notice that the Canadians are proud to host the World Cup. However for us, eyes will be on us, that’s the special challenges that the World Cup brings.
Question: How?
Fitschen: One of the biggest challenges has to be transport as there’s an enormous distance between the venues in five different five zones. In contrast to us in Germany with the 2011 World Cup, most of the travelling has to be done by plane. This logistical challenge for the organisers is huge, finally the 24 teams have to transport their coaching and other staff, in addition to all of their equipment across this ginormous country. If you think that due to FIFA measures there’s no official team area at the Women’s World Cup, then the teams stay at the respective hotels of the respective venues due to equal treatment, is a big effort. We have to make do with this though and play to it.
Question: How exactly?
Fitschen: For example, we’ll send out complete documentation of the new venue to the whole of the team prior to departure so that everything goes smoothly. We’ll check at the time whether it makes sense to take chartered flights. The planning is already well underway with the branches of the organisation of our team administration of Patrizia Hell. There is an objective above all measures: Prepare everything to the extent that the team and coaching staff are not disturbed and can work as best as possible to achieve success.
Question: What will happen in the next few months?
Fitschen: We’re at the closing stages of planning for our marketing days, which take place on 14th and 15th January. We’ll do some advertising with our partners and a few photo shoots there. We’ll have the chance to train on artificial turf during our training camp in Spanish Marbella between 7th and 12th February. The elite Algarve Cup in Portugal will take place between 4th and 11th March. We’ll then gather to directly prepare for the World Cup from 18th May. We’ll play our last internationals before setting off at this time. We’ll then fly to Ottawa at the end of May.
