After Vanessa Fudalla’s first goal in the 9th minute, the RB Leipzig players looked a little disbelieving at this ideal start. But hey, there was still a lot of time left in that game on a February night against SGS Essen; a lot could still happen. Shortly thereafter, Medina Desic scored, followed by Gianna Rackow in the 20th minute – whose artful long-range shot spoke of the concentrated, freshly collected self-confidence. 36 minutes, Johanna Kaiser, 4-0. Now there was pure joy in their eyes and the idea that this evening would end with a sensation. The goal in the second half didn’t change anything, Fudalla and Lea Mauly increased.
And then the second division team Leipzig had actually thrown the first division team Essen 6-1 out of the DFB Cup and reached the semi-finals, after Eintracht Frankfurt had already been defeated in the previous round. This Sunday (6.30 p.m., Sky) the RB soccer players will now meet SC Freiburg.
This competition has also been held for women since the 1980/81 season, with 1. FFC Frankfurt and VfL Wolfsburg each winning the trophy nine times. High-class teams have dominated the cup, but there have also been special stories. In 1991, for example, when Grün-Weiß Brauweiler defeated all the Bundesliga teams on their way to the final and then also the champions TSV Siegen. The Brauweiler team, which played in the regional league, which was even higher at the time, had qualified as the winners of the association cup and is still the only second division team among the title holders. In 1999 Hertha Zehlendorf made it into the top four, in 2020 Arminia Bielefeld – and now RB Leipzig.
“It became clear relatively quickly that we wouldn’t spend millions,” says manager Odebrecht
“With this special feature alone, I can hardly describe what that means for us. We will particularly enjoy this game, especially the players,” says Anja Mittag on the phone before the cup semifinals. The 37-year-old is one of the most successful soccer players in Germany, scoring 50 times in 158 international matches and also being the first player to reach this limit in the Champions League. She won the European Championship three times, the World Championship once and the Olympic tournament, as well as numerous successes with clubs. Mittag knows how to win, which is not least why she was brought in by RB Leipzig in 2019 as an individual and assistant trainer; especially since Mittag also kicked himself despite the end of his career having already been announced.
The club wants to develop into one of the best clubs in the long term and catch up with FC Bayern and VfL Wolfsburg, which have set the bar in Germany in recent years. The first and second in the Bundesliga meet on Saturday (2 p.m., ZDF) in the first semi-final. It will be a while before the gap to Bayern and Wolfsburg can be closed. But apart from the cup, the Leipzig project has really gotten a lot of boost.
Once one of the most dangerous strikers: Leipzig’s assistant coach, former German international Anja Mittag.
(Photo: Martin Stein/Imago)
The team that started in August 2016 with players from FFV Leipzig and their own talents in the Landesliga Sachsen should actually be promoted this season after three years in the second division. With six games left, RB leads with a clear lead of 18 points over SG 99 Andernach and 1. FC Nürnberg. Saban Uzun, 35, has only been the head coach since last summer. “The change of coach brought a different focus on stress management, we were able to reduce injuries significantly,” said Mittag. In addition, for them there is a further development of the team, failures could be better compensated, “and so you appear more like a top team”.
On the way there, RB had not only relied on Mittag’s sporting expertise, but had previously brought in Viola Odebrecht as head of women’s and girls’ football. The 40-year-old has also played very successfully, including winning the 2003 World Cup and the Champions League three times. “When I started, the statement was: We can’t play in the third division for women, that doesn’t suit us. We want to play in the first division,” says Odebrecht. The fact that she first came as a manager and then Mittag as a player-coach was “the first sign that RB was serious”.
At the time, Odebrecht was involved in developing the strategy on topics such as youth work and infrastructural requirements for professionalization, which is being adhered to and which, at least so far, seems to be working. “It wasn’t about oversized ideas, it was about developing step by step,” says Odebrecht. “It became clear relatively quickly that we didn’t want to take millions in our hands and march through, but wanted to grow organically and sustainably.” Seven of their own talents are currently playing in the second league, and their own offspring should continue to be integrated.
If Leipzig manages to get promoted, that would also symbolize the development of women’s football. In the Bundesliga, the number of teams that belong to financially and structurally strong licensed clubs has grown steadily. With the claim, the costs have also increased, anyway, the first division is still a subsidy business. According to the DFB, the clubs made an average loss of 1.5 million euros in 2020/21. You have to be able to afford it. SGS Essen and 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam are an exception and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to hold their own. “Which is a shame,” says Odebrecht, “because it was traditional clubs that did important work in the early years and made women’s football what it is today.” Turbine collected one title after the other for a long time, Anja Mittag and Viola Odebrecht once played there together. If they now go up with Leipzig, Potsdam is very likely to go down.
