The Our Futbol Podcast is proud to be collaborating with FUTBO13RA® to bring readers coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games – Women’s Soccer Tournament. You can download the FUTBO13RA® Guide: Paris 2024 PDF here.
The German team enters its sixth Olympic Games with a clear objective: to be reborn from the ashes.
The last few years have been shaky for the Germans: between missing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, losing to England in the final of the Women’s Euro 2022 and not advancing beyond the group stage at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023, the Parisian stage could be the perfect setting to shine again.
They qualified for Paris by beating the Netherlands and placing third in the 2023 UEFA Nations League. Although only the finalist teams qualified for the Olympic Games, Germany were fortunate in that France had already secured their place, so earning third place in the tournament was enough for them to punch their ticket.
“He [Hrubesch] has brought back the joy that we had been missing in the last few games. Now we want to show the football we know how to play.” German midfielder Lena Oberdorf told DW.com.
Horst Hrubesch arrived as interim coach and later established himself in the position by qualifying for the Olympic Games. After the disastrous result in the 2023 World Cup, he needed to shake things up a bit and change the mentality of a talented group who had a lot of pressure on their shoulders.
Since 1999, Hrubesch has dedicated himself to coaching the men’s youth team in Germany, where he had a good eye for identifying and developing talent. He won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games as technical director of the men’s team and this will be his second time leading the women’s team, giving him the historic distinction of being the first person to coach both categories at the Olympic Games.
Although it has already been confirmed that he will leave his position at the end of the competition, Hrubesch is taking it step by step and has made sure that his players trust in his potential.
Captain: Alex Popp
If there is one player to trust to make Germany shine again, it is Alex Popp. It is not easy to earn the captain’s armband in such a disciplined and demanding team, but consistency and the courage to say what she thinks have been key to the evolution of her leadership skills.
She is astute, plays with great intelligence and is constantly looking for gaps in the defense to use to her advantage. These qualities have also helped her establish herself at the club level, winning seven trophies in the Women’s Bundesliga and three UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
Her first match with the German national team was a friendly against North Korea in 2010. Her physical presence, aerial game and finishing ability gave her the possibility of continuing to be called up until she became irreplaceable.
With four World Cups under her belt and the determination to show why the German national team is back, Popp will do everything in her power to bring back Gold just like she did in 2016.
Player to Watch: Giulia Gwinn
“With a squad of this quality, it would be a shame to lose… [Horst Hrubesch] must have said that phrase hundreds of times, but every time he says it, we all feel that he truly believes in us and our potential,” stated Giulia Gwinn for FIFA.com.
With the career she has at the club and national team level, it is difficult to believe that Gwinn is only 25 years old.
She debuted at 16 in the German league with SC Freiburg and in 2019 she signed with Bayern Munich, with whom she has already won two German league titles. Her first appearance for the German senior team was at 18, after channeling up all the youth categories, and just two years later she was included in the roster for the 2019 World Cup in France, where she debuted with a goal.
Gwinn is a player who can serve as a full-back or midfielder. Performing in both positions makes her work hard off the pitch as well. She not only cares about training with the ball but she is also always aware of technological innovations that help her improve her performance, whether optimizing her sleep cycles, improving the quality of rest and doing neuro athletics, a type of training that helps you be more precise in your movements. On top of all that, she also receives special mental training to handle high-pressure situations, such as taking a penalty. The training has proven effective given Gwinn has a perfect record of 18 goals scored from the penalty spot.
Nationalelf or National Eleven, as the women’s soccer team is affectionately nicknamed in Germany, wants to transcend with a talented generation that is ready to shake off the mistakes of the past and start from scratch and reignite the excitement that German soccer can bring.
What time does Germany play at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games?
Germany’s Match Schedule in Group B
Thursday July 25
Germany vs. Australia | 10:00 AM PST | 11:00 AM CDMX | 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST | Stade de Marseille
Sunday July 28
United States vs. Germany | 12:00 PM PST | 1:00 PM CDMX | 2:00 PM CST | 3:00 PM EST | Stade de Marseille
Wednesday, July 31
Zambia vs. Germany | 10:00 AM PST | 11:00 AM CDMX | 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST | Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
This has been edited from its original version which can be found on the Futbo13ra website here.
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