Sa tone sounded unusually sharp at last. “That was unacceptable,” Tommy Stroot said. The head coach of VfL Wolfsburg rarely has to be so clear to the outside world. But in preparation for the cup final on Thursday (4.45 p.m. on ARD and Sky) against SC Freiburg, the Wolfsburg women, who were used to success, made a painful slip.
After a 4-0 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL has to concede the great chance of winning the Bundesliga title to FC Bayern Munich. “It hurt and was a big dampener,” admitted Wolfsburg goalkeeper Merle Frohms. The expectations before the final against Freiburg are correspondingly high. Anything other than the ninth cup triumph for Wolfsburg in a row would not only be unacceptable, but also a moderate catastrophe.
Faux pas day for Wolfsburg
More than 40,000 tickets have been sold for the final. The ARD transmission gives hope for a long range. What sounds like a big day of joy from a neutral point of view and in the sense of women’s football is more of a faux pas day from VfL Wolfsburg’s point of view. The successful team, which is made up of various national players, starts the season with the aim of ideally winning three titles.
In the final of the Champions League on June 3 against FC Barcelona (4 p.m. on ZDF), which will be held in Eindhoven, that can still work out. In the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg remains under external control given the four-point lead over leaders Bayern Munich. Is someone here just getting bogged down in a jungle of targets and too many strenuous tasks? “We should be able to compensate as a team,” says Frohms.
“Anticipation instead of Fear”
Always having to win and always being the towering favorite – the SC Freiburg team is relieved of this burden. With the help of victories over SC Andernach, SV Meppen, Carl Zeiss Jena and RB Leipzig, the team has reached the cup final for the second time in the club’s history. “We want to be carried away by the fans and have more anticipation than fear,” promises Freiburg head coach Theresa Merk.
Realistically, a triumph in the DFB Cup is the only way for SC Freiburg to win a title in the near future. Not having a real chance and taking advantage of it surprisingly: With all due respect to the great quality of the Wolfsburg team, that would be a story that could bring helpful headlines to the burgeoning women’s football at national level.
Since the decoupling of the women’s and men’s cup finals, which until 2009 were played back-to-back and on the same day in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, the women’s competition has been progressing steadily. The German Football Association invites you to a free fan and family festival in front of the stadium in Cologne on Thursday.
First time with VAR
The fact that the video referee (VAR) will be used for the first time in a women’s cup final should be understood as a signal for more professionalism. The entire female referee team around Fabienne Michel is supported by modern technology. VfL in particular should be happy about this, because from the point of view of the favorite, the risk of making wrong decisions decreases.
What could seriously slow down Wolfsburg and bring it down is the self-imposed pressure. “We like top games and big arenas. And I don’t have to motivate my squad for a cup final,” says VfL coach Stroot. His main task is to lead the team through a confusing interplay as unscathed as possible.
It consists of national compulsory tasks against teams from Duisburg, Essen or Meppen and the European freestyle like the Champions League final against Barcelona. Stroot assures that one of the core qualities of VfL Wolfsburg is being able to focus precisely on the task at hand. As an outsider, SC Freiburg would like to counter this with everything it has.