Under national coach Altenburg, Germany's hockey ladies not only play defensively well as rarely before. He has also awakened in them new self-confidence and a certain lightness, which the young team should now carry through the World Cup in Terrassa. It's the first medal in 24 years.
The zero stands! Germany's hockey women have not conceded a goal at the World Cup in Spain and the Netherlands for the third game in a row. "It's a very important development step to know that we can rely on the defensive," said national coach Valentin Altenburg after the 1-0 win over New Zealand in Amstelveen in the quarter-finals. Striker Charlotte Stapenhorst added: "Now we can also claim that you can defend with three fewer men without conceding a goal."
After all, on Tuesday, Germany were twice outnumbered by green cards against Anne Schröder and Pauline Heinz ten minutes before the end of the game, before the opponent also replaced the goalkeeper with an eleventh field player. "I've never seen us defend so blatantly and at the same time play offensively so freely," said Stapenhorst, who was also part of the team in the recent bitter quarter-final defeats at the 2018 World Cup and the 2021 Olympics.
Under the new coach, who took over from Belgian Xavier Reckinger at the beginning of the year, the players have gained new self-confidence. "I haven't been so relaxed on the hockey field in a long time. With 'Valli' it came back that I play hockey because I enjoy it so much," revealed the Berliner. Pia Maertens can only agree: "We are all mega happy to finally have played a knockout game so well and to have kept our heads to ourselves."
Now it's off to Terrassa for the European Championship runners-up, who is in the top four in the world for the first time in twelve years. Opponents on Saturday evening in Spain will be the winners of the quarter-finals Argentina against England (Wednesday/7 p.m.). "We're going towards Spain full of anticipation. It's good that we're flying on Wednesday and can still acclimatize," said the native of Cologne.
After the playfully convincing performances in the last preliminary round game against the World Cup runners-up Ireland (3-0) and the 1-0 successes in the round of 16 against South Africa and now against New Zealand, Altenburg's women still have to be more consistent in the end. And above all, work on the weak penalty corner quota - only one of 27 attempts has so far resulted in a goal in the knockout round.
"It's not so bad for us as a team when the games are close," said Altenburg. "We're playing on a completely different pitch now. We haven't lacked much so far, we'll continue to take our corners and there's still room for improvement." And it is precisely this that must be exploited in order to realize the dream of the first World Cup medal since 1998.
