The German women’s national soccer team had a hard time in a friendly against Zambia a good two weeks before the World Cup on Friday evening (07.07.23) and ended up losing unhappily. The match at the Ronhof sports park in Fürth ended 2:3 (0:0).
Barbra Banda gave the guests from southern Africa the lead with a well-placed low shot (49′). Racheal Kundananji raised just five minutes later (54′). Lea Schüller (90 +1.) scored the first goal, but it came too late. Captain Alexandra Popp equalized (90th +10), then the 77th in the world rankings went one better through Banda and won (90th +12).
“We would have liked to have won in front of a home crowd”said Sara Däbritz on the sports show microphone, “We’ll come back and then it looks like the third goal for us. But then we get the counterattack. We have to analyze it now and we’ll be ready for the World Cup.” “It was that precision issue again, the consistency in scoring goals”national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg relentlessly addressed the mistakes in her own team, “It’s clear that we have to deal with the criticism now, but we have to stay with ourselves.”
Zambia with a lot self-consciousness
Zambia started confidently and set the first exclamation point of the game with an attack by the lightning-fast Barbra Banda. Her shot from the left went just wide of the right post. The German women didn’t hide from the start, but repeatedly robbed themselves of a constructive play structure with inaccurate passes.
Only when captain Alexandra Popp dropped into midfield from the center of the attack did the DFB team’s attacking efforts become more powerful. A long ball from the right side of Svenja Huth reached Felicitas Rauch at the second post. But the defender couldn’t get the ball, which bounced up just before smoke, on goal (20′).
Five minutes later it was Klara Bühl, who made a good impact on the left, but didn’t get the ball in the middle to the well-positioned Lisa Magull. A powerful shot from Popp just before half-time swept across the box of the Zambian opponents.
Cold shower at the beginning of the second half
Better passing accuracy, more precision afterwards: what Germany planned for the second half of the game, Zambia implemented perfectly. With a double strike, twice as a result of ball losses by the German team in midfield, Zambia gave the hosts neck blows: First, the extremely strong Banda executed from the inside left position in the penalty area, then Kundananji used a “billiard” situation in the penalty area of the German team and pushed in an untenable way keeper Merle Frohms.
Bad luck with five big chances
It took Germany ten minutes to collect themselves. The coach switched to a back three in defense. And then: five top-class chances in quick succession: first Sjoeke Nüsken headed sharply at the Zambian goal, goalkeeper Catherine Musonda deflected the ball with a reflex to the left post (65th), then Sydney Lohmann, who had just come on as a substitute, failed with a side kick just wide Goal.
The next big chance came from Zambia’s Lushomo Mweemba with a deflected cross from Magull, but Musonda saved. And a free-kick due to the Zambian keeper’s time wasted by Carolin Simon on the crossbar. And then a sharp free-kick from Magull dropped too late and dripped onto the gate roof. Zambia was very lucky at this stage.
When the fourth official on the edge of the field held up the board with ten minutes of overtime, the goal came: Schüller converted a corner kick from the right with a powerful header. After that, the DFB-Elf pressed and came to the apparent equalizer. But then Zambia finished off a counterattack by fast Banda.
Zambia good touchstone
Zambia acted attentively and was more than a good touchstone for the Voss-Tecklenburg team in the duels. A good two weeks before the start of the World Cup (July 20th) in Australia and New Zealand, the Africans showed exactly where they had weak points in the German team: the running paths are not yet automated and there was a lack of understanding and precision in the structure of the game. In the end, given the great opportunities, there was also a lack of luck in the game.
On Saturday, Voss-Tecklenburg will nominate their 23-player squad for the trip to the other side of the globe. Departure to “down under” will then be on Tuesday. The group opponents at the World Cup come from Morocco (07/25), Colombia (07/30) and South Korea (08/03).