The Germans have achieved their greatest output in the final group stage, with a leading show in Montpellier aside from South Africa. The match was made and stained in half time with the calamitous South African defense and the two-time champions ‘ finish as a formality in the second half. For Germans who will carry some blows during the knockout phase, the parts set was an important weapon. In the meantime, after an eventful debut at the World Cup for women, South Africa is heading back, leaving plenty to be thinking.
“The players performed very well. They showed that football can really be very simple sometimes. But there were also things I didn’t like so much – coaches are never 100 per cent satisfied – and there were moments within the match when we tried to go for the more difficult solution. That’s something we can work on. But if I didn’t have the confidence my players have the capacity to improve in that respect, I wouldn’t be so demanding of them.”
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, Germany coach
Tonight in Montpellier, we saw an enjoyable game that could end with even more objectives. After losing Marozsan, Germany seemed to be able to come up with a compromise that is playing without a specified playmaker and that has been opting for 4-4-2 for both games since the Chinese PR opener.
“This was always going to be a difficult group but we felt that if we played well we could get some positive results. I felt we deserved more against Spain, but we didn’t play as well as we could have against China – and that turned this match into a final. Unfortunately we started poorly, conceded two poor goals and were always on the back foot after that. I felt we panicked a bit in that first half. We told the players to calm down and play our brand of football, and they did that in the second half. I think our style of football has attracted a lot of fans and I’m very grateful for the response my players were given in the stadium.”
Desiree Ellis, South Africa coach
Image: Kane Oosty/FIFA
