The captain needed half an hour before she could come to the pitchside media zone for the interview. In this half hour, Nike Lorenz not only had to deal with the acute disappointment of a 1-0 semi-final defeat against Belgium at the European Hockey Championships. But she also wept again for all the major defeats of the past four years. The 26-year-old was sad and close to despair, but when she was asked half an hour after the game what feeling she was feeling right now, she answered tearfully: “Anger!”
In August 2019 and June 2021, the German women’s hockey team lost the European Championship final against the Netherlands. In August 2021, they were eliminated by Argentina in the quarterfinals at the Olympics. In these games, the national coach was still called Xavier Reckinger. Then there was a change at the top, but even under Valentin Altenburg, the hockey players have not been lucky in the decisive games, nor have their nerves remained strong. In July 2022, the team lost the semifinals to Argentina and then the bronze medal match to Australia. The 0-1 draw against Belgium on Thursday evening was the sixth major defeat in a relevant knockout game in four years.
At the post or just past the empty goal – it was desperate
In this pent-up emotional situation, sadness and anger alternated. “A dream has been shattered,” said Germany’s top scorer Sonja Zimmermann bitterly, and reported about the minutes immediately after the game in the dressing room that it had been very quiet. “We were just there for each other – that’s the great thing about team sports.” The German women don’t see the game for bronze on Saturday afternoon against England (12.15 p.m., ARD) as a chance for consolation. They had already beaten England 5-0 in the group and bronze would not be an effective cure for all the tears and sadness of the past four years.
“Every time we were missing a bit of luck,” complained captain Lorenz about the ever-longer series of disappointments, “we just wish for a little bit of luck!” But fate can be inexorable. The highly dominant German women ran unsuccessfully after the early 0:1 deficit against Belgium from the second minute for 58 minutes. It was exasperating. At the end of the first quarter, Charlotte Stapenhorst poked the ball a few millimeters past the empty goal from a few centimeters away and at the beginning of the fourth quarter Stapenhorst only hit the post.
Once the sadness has passed, anger would be a fitting emotion to qualify for a now-mandatory January qualifier for next summer’s Olympics in Paris and try to force a happy ending on this desperate tale. “We’re still a developing team,” said coach Altenburg, deliberately looking to the future after all the disappointments.
“The players have to understand that there wasn’t much missing again,” said the 42-year-old from Hamburg and, with such an interpretation of the defeat, appealed to his team not to lose heart, but to keep believing that they could handle things can influence themselves. Against this background, it is comforting for the hockey women that in eleven months at the Olympics there could be a new opportunity to help their fortunes.