National coach Horst Hrubesch has announced his squad for the Olympic Games. He is relying on experienced female footballers – and Wolfsburg’s attacker Vivien Endemann.
Captain Alexandra Popp is the only one who was at the Rio Games in 2016 and won gold with the team. With her 139 international matches, the Wolfsburg native is also the most experienced in the current Olympic squad and one of many veterans – even 23-year-old Klara Bühl and 22-year-old Lena Oberdorf have each played 50 times for Germany. The squad put together by Hrubesch raises few questions – but due to the given size, some players have had to accept great disappointment.
Hard decisions
According to the regulations, Hrubesch was only allowed to nominate 16 field players and two goalkeepers. The squad is usually larger for international matches, so the national coach had to make tough decisions. Left-back Felicitas Rauch, who has been under contract in the USA since the winter, did not make the team – she is only one of the players who can be nominated in the event of injury.
This is no big surprise, as Rauch has lost her place in the national team to Sarai Linder, a new Wolfsburg player. Due to the size of the squad, Hrubesch has to do without a second left-back and could move one of the central defenders out.
Hardship case Anyomi
Nicole Anyomi was one of the first substitutes at the last World Cup and also at the 2022 European Championships, but national coach Hrubesch has not relied much on the versatile Frankfurt player in recent months, and now she is only “on call” at the Olympics. Anyomi scored eleven goals in 19 games last Bundesliga season, which puts her in second place on the list of goalscorers. She really turned it on at the end of the season. Not using the attacker, who can also play as a full-back, offers the greatest potential for discussion and seems extremely harsh.
Endemann’s fairytale rise
Anyomi’s Frankfurt teammate Laura Freigang was considered a “shaky candidate” but made it into the squad, as did Wolfsburg’s Vivien Endemann, who Hrubesch prefers to Anyomi. A fairytale story – Endemann played for SGS Essen until a year ago and was actually considered a reserve player at the top club in Wolfsburg. She impressed at VfL with her strong performances and caught the attention of the national coach. At the end of February, Hrubesch substituted the 22-year-old for the first time, and now she is going to the Olympic Games. There, Germany will face Australia, Zambia and the USA in the group phase from July 25th.
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NDR 2 Sport | 03.07.2024 | 23:03
