The Germany women’s national team made the ten-hour flight back to Frankfurt from Maini without a trophy and with mixed feelings. “As a coaching team we have gained a great deal of insight into the squad and the players gained valuable experience too,” summarised Silvia Neid after the 2-1 loss to World Champions USA and finishing second in the SheBelieves Cup. Germany’s coach also made reference to the side’s desire to win a medal at the Olympics later this year: “We know that we still have a lot to do.”
The biggest area for improvement just five months shy of heading to Rio for the women’s side, who filled up on confidence with a 1-0 win over France and 2-1 against England, is the attacking play. “You could see that we were not quite at the same level as the USA. They create goal-scoring chances out of nothing, but we don’t,” judged Melanie Behringer. “But we are on the right path.”
Self-criticism from Schult: "Wrong decision"
Germany seemed to be on their way to winning the tournament when Anja Mittag put the side ahead in Boca Raton, but too much wasted possession on the much-maligned “sand trap” at the FAU Stadium invited the arch-rivals onto dangerous counter attacks. The USA’s star Alex Morgan and then Samantha Mewis clinically punished Germany later in the first half.
Goalkeeper Almuth Schult was caught out by a deflection for the second goal. “It does not look good on my part,” admitted the 25-year-old successor to Nadine Angerer. “I made the wrong decision – I wanted to trap the ball but I should have just pushed it to the side.”
So there was to be no first win over the Olympic Champions since 2003 and no revenge for the World Cup semi-final loss last summer. But Neid, who will hand over to current assistant Steffi Jones after the Olympics, commended the side on improving throughout the tournament and playing against the USA with the sort of passion and aggressiveness that you need against the top teams.
Neid: "I am very pleased"
The 51-year-old also used the opportunity to test some more inexperienced players. “When I think that we had seven players missing here, then I can be very pleased.” Amongst others, regulars Simone Laudehr and Melanie Leupolz were both missing. That means wingers Anna Blässe and Isabel Kerschowski (both Wolfsburg) got a lot of game time, Sara Däbritz (Bayern München) also made a lasting impression despite being suspended for the game against the USA.
Ahead of the Olympics this summer, Germany have two EURO qualifiers in Turkey and against Croatia. Preparations for Rio itself are set to begin on 20th June. There are a total of four training sessions and two friendlies planned before the flight to Brazil on 27th July.
The Germany women’s national team made the ten-hour flight back to Frankfurt from Maini without a trophy and with mixed feelings. “As a coaching team we have gained a great deal of insight into the squad and the players gained valuable experience too,” summarised Silvia Neid after the 2-1 loss to World Champions USA and finishing second in the SheBelieves Cup. Germany’s coach also made reference to the side’s desire to win a medal at the Olympics later this year: “We know that we still have a lot to do.”
The biggest area for improvement just five months shy of heading to Rio for the women’s side, who filled up on confidence with a 1-0 win over France and 2-1 against England, is the attacking play. “You could see that we were not quite at the same level as the USA. They create goal-scoring chances out of nothing, but we don’t,” judged Melanie Behringer. “But we are on the right path.”
Self-criticism from Schult: "Wrong decision"
Germany seemed to be on their way to winning the tournament when Anja Mittag put the side ahead in Boca Raton, but too much wasted possession on the much-maligned “sand trap” at the FAU Stadium invited the arch-rivals onto dangerous counter attacks. The USA’s star Alex Morgan and then Samantha Mewis clinically punished Germany later in the first half.
Goalkeeper Almuth Schult was caught out by a deflection for the second goal. “It does not look good on my part,” admitted the 25-year-old successor to Nadine Angerer. “I made the wrong decision – I wanted to trap the ball but I should have just pushed it to the side.”
So there was to be no first win over the Olympic Champions since 2003 and no revenge for the World Cup semi-final loss last summer. But Neid, who will hand over to current assistant Steffi Jones after the Olympics, commended the side on improving throughout the tournament and playing against the USA with the sort of passion and aggressiveness that you need against the top teams.
Neid: "I am very pleased"
The 51-year-old also used the opportunity to test some more inexperienced players. “When I think that we had seven players missing here, then I can be very pleased.” Amongst others, regulars Simone Laudehr and Melanie Leupolz were both missing. That means wingers Anna Blässe and Isabel Kerschowski (both Wolfsburg) got a lot of game time, Sara Däbritz (Bayern München) also made a lasting impression despite being suspended for the game against the USA.
Ahead of the Olympics this summer, Germany have two EURO qualifiers in Turkey and against Croatia. Preparations for Rio itself are set to begin on 20th June. There are a total of four training sessions and two friendlies planned before the flight to Brazil on 27th July.
