With calculated risk and a lot of courage: How Christian Wück changed the way the German women's football team played

Tagesspiegel With calculated risk and a lot of courage: How Christian Wück changed the way the German women's football team played Article by Charlotte Bruch • 13 hours • 3 minutes reading time The DFB team dominated at Wembley for the most part. The victory against England was due to a very offensive approach and intensive pressing. When Klara Bühl turned away in celebration after just under half an hour, Christian Wück finally let his emotions run free. The new national coach of the German women's football team had just seen a perfectly executed attack and he celebrated it loudly. Before that he had held back a little, but when the third goal again showed the advantages of his game idea and at the same time gave the German team a temporary 3-0 lead against England, he celebrated with lots of gestures. In the 4-3 victory on Friday evening, Wück was able to celebrate the perfect debut at London's Wembley Stadium thanks to his team's strong performance over long periods. "What was going through my head was actually quite simple: It's going well," said Wück about his team's strong first half hour. "It was crazy," said Linda Dallmann. "You could feel that we went into the game with real fire." Giulia Gwinn, who scored the 1-0 goal after just four minutes with a penalty and added another seven minutes later after an assist from Klara Bühl, also said that the players were eager to finally play under Christian Wück, "and you could also tell that he was excited when the day finally arrived when it finally started." The 51-year-old had only had three training sessions with the German team beforehand and had still managed to implement a clear game idea. Under his predecessor Horst Hrubesch, many long balls to Alexandra Popp had been the method, but after the former captain's retirement, the DFB team was now supposed to play with flat, mostly short, passes from the back. What was going through my head was actually quite simple: It's working. Christian Wück on the 3-0 lead after half an hour Wück wants his central defenders, on Friday it was Janina Minge and Sara Doorsoun, to stand very wide, push the full-backs up and one of the sixes, Sjoeke Nüsken or Elisa Senß, to come towards them to get involved in the build-up of the game. Only in exceptional cases should goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger pass a long ball to Linda Dallmann in the number ten position, the aim is more a quick lateral shift via the center. "We don't want to play this safe football and always feel like we have five players behind the ball," explained Gwinn. Against England, Germany was able to repeatedly outplay the high pressing of Alessia Russo, Beth Mead and Lauren Hemp in this way. This was followed by lateral shifts, which also led to Germany's second and third goals. In the second half, Germany's pressing is the key to success But if the German players made a passing error or the distribution was not right, this risky approach quickly became dangerous given the high quality on the other side. After Georgia Stanway's penalty goal in the 33rd minute, Germany was too disorganized when Stanway scored her second goal three minutes later. Shortly afterwards, Doorsoun made a bad pass in the build-up, but Ella Toone then missed the equalizer from 14 meters while completely unmarked. Christian Wück is therefore taking a certain risk with his game idea, but it is calculated. In the future, it will therefore be important to continue to consolidate this approach and not to become too cocky in certain phases. After Stanway's double strike, Germany lost control of the game and initially failed to regain it with simple passes. After the break, Wück's team dominated again. One means of doing this was the situational high pressing and the fast-paced transition play after winning the ball. Jule Brand missed after about an hour, and a few seconds later Klara Bühl also failed to capitalize on a promising counterattack to score the fourth goal. "The game had almost everything we wanted today," said Dallmann. Substitute Sara Däbritz finally made it 4:2 with a penalty. But England also struck back ten minutes before the end of regular time when Lucy Bronze took advantage of a mistake by Ann-Kathrin Berger after a free kick from the half-field, letting the ball slip through her fingers. Ultimately, the result was closer than the game warranted. The German team hardly conceded anything, especially in the second half, and seemed visibly comfortable with Wück's style of play. No wonder, she fits in with this rejuvenated and eager-to-learn team.