 Germany seeks to repeat World Cup story
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-06 09:32 World champion Germany and runner-up Brazil start favorites for the women's soccer gold at the Beijing Olympics. Defending champion USA too is in with a chance. Germany has developed quickly into a world power in women's soccer. Like its men's team, it is supremely well-organized, as it showed in its 2-0 win over Brazil in the World Cup final last year. With the experience of players like defender Ariane Hingst, playmaker Renate Lingor and striker Birgit Prinz, Germany is more than hopeful of adding the Olympic gold to its World Cup success. Prinz, with over 100 goals for her country, will play a key role. The three-time World Player of the Year (2003-05) has great physical strength and defenders often have to foul her to stop her from progressing. Brazil has finished runner-up in its last two major international events, the 2004 Olympics (to USA) and the 2007 World Cup. It's Olympic squad is almost the same as the team which played in the World Cup, a side which humbled the US 4-0 in the semifinal before losing 2-0 to Germany in the final. Brazil's star player is Marta, regarded as the best women soccer player in the world. (See sidebar) Says Marta, who missed a penalty in the World Cup final against Germany, "This team has enough talent to win the gold medal. We just need a little bit of luck, which we haven't had up to now." But both Germany and Brazil will have to go through a tough qualifying group. They have been pooled together with DPR Korea and fast-improving Nigeria. DPR Korea, which regained its Asian Cup title it lost two years ago by beating China 2-1, is famous for its fighting spirit and is considered a dark horse at the Games. However, its performance may be limited by lack of international experience. The Americans have an easier qualifying group but their expectations are gold, no less. "If we don't get the gold medal, I don't know if I'll have a job," US head coach Pia Sundhage said. The US has been a finalist in each of the three Olympic women's soccer competitions so far, winning gold in 1996 and 2004, and losing to Norway in 2000. But it has failed to reach the final of the last two FIFA Women's World Cups. The US squad includes half of the players from the Athens gold medal-winning team and has shown good shape in preparation, defeating Sweden 1-0 and humiliating Olympic group rival Norway 4-0 in warm-ups in July. Host China is no longer the force it was in the 1990s but there has been a revival, sparked by the return of Shang Ruihua, 63, as coach in April. Known as the godfather of the women's soccer in China, Shang has injected fresh faces into the squad and has set the goal of a semifinal place. China's group rival Sweden too is seeking a new generation of players and its new icon is 23-year-old Lotta Schelin, Swedish player of the year for 2006. Xinhua (China Daily 08/06/2008 page5) |
