Women’s World Cup Preview: Germany vs Canada

June 23rd, 2011 | by: Anne | Comments Off

Today I’d like to welcome a guest blogger, Clarissa of the Dortmund Offside. She’ll be writing about the Women’s World Cup which begins this weekend. Give her a warm welcome!

On Sunday the Women’s World Cup kicks off with Nigeria against France. Later that day, at 18.00 CET, hosts Germany take on Canada. The game takes place in Berlin, in the sold- out Olympiastadion! That means a 70 000 plus strong crowd is expected, a record attendance for the female game. Several dignitaries, including German chancellor Angela Merkel and FIFA President Sepp Blatter will be there to watch the proceedings. Blatter will probably not receive a warm welcome, after the shenanigans that have been going on at FIFA lately. He didn’t help his cause by demanding that an extra box (at the cost of 10 000 Euro) be installed for him, though the German FA refused that request.

Anyways, on to the teams: Germany certainly is one of the best teams currently around, and has won the last two world cups, and has also won the Euros in 2009. Thus the expectations in Germany are sky- high, and a third title- especially with enthusiastic home crowd advantage- is expected. All the Germany games are going to be sell- outs, and 650 000 of the 800 000 tickets available have already been sold (for the rest of the games, Germany will probably take recourse to the tried and true method of bussing in schoolchildren). The two other big favorites for the tournament are the USA and Brazil, who boast Marta in their ranks, the player who has won world player of the year for a record five times straight now. Dark horses might be England and France, where the game has developed in leaps and bounds over the last few years (Olympique Lyon won the Champions League just this season, and they provide the backbone for the French team).

Fatmire Bajramaj

As to the players, one of the two most well-known players on the German team is certainly Birgit Prinz, the experienced goalscorer, who has netted 128 Goals in 212 appearances for her country and plays for the FFC Frankfurt. The other one is young Fatmire Bajramaj, sometimes referred to as the female Mesut Özil in Germany. However, it might actually be that those two players will not start, since a number of other young players such as Alexandra Popp and Celia Okoyino da Mbabi (phew) have really shone during the pre- tournament friendlies. Still, the team of manager Sylvia Neid is quite stable and a prediction for the line- up can be made.

At the back, Nadine Angerer is the definitive starter in goal. The back four is likely to be composed of Linda Bresonik, Babette Peters, Annike Krahn and Saskia Bartusiak. All of those players are very experienced on international level. Playing a 4-2-3-1 the two players in front of the defense are very likely to be Simone Laudehr and Kim Kulig, though the experienced Adriane Hingst could also play a role. The offensive mid- field is where it’s most interesting (the parallels to the men’s team are astounding, no?). Kerstin Garefrekes should be considered as a given, but for the other two positions there are currently four classy players in Lira Bajramaj, Birgit Prinz, Melanie Behringer and Celia Okoyino da Mbabi vying for those two spots. The role of lone striker will probably fall to Inka Grings, with Alexandra Popp having a decent chance for playing time after impressing in the friendlies.

Coming to our first opponent, Canada, I must admit that I don’t know too much about them. They are sixth in the current world rankings (Germany are second), so they certainly should present a stern test.

Anyways, onwards to the third star!