Germany's Oberdorf, and her coach, hope she will be fit for Euros
Germany's Oberdorf, and her coach, hope she will be fit for Euros
Germany's Lena Oberdorf in action during the UEFA European Championship Women's qualifier soccer match between Germany and Poland at Ostseestadion. Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Midfielder Lena Oberdorf and her coach Christian Wück have not given up hope that she will be fit to play for Germany at the women's Euros in July.
Oberdorf has returned to partial team training at her club Bayern Munich from a cruciate knee ligament tear she sustained ahead of last year's Paris Olympics where Germany won the bronze medal.
Advertisement
But the 23-year-old will also need some matches to be ready for the July 2-27 tournament in Switzerland where Germany play Denmark, Sweden and Poland in the group stage.
There are only four more matchdays in the women's Bundesliga, Bayern are also in the Cup final, and the national team has two more games in the run-up, on May 20 against the Netherlands and June 3 against Austria.
Oberdorf badly wants to make it to the Euros but also told Sky TV that "I must see how it is with the knee, and whether I can still have games with Bayern."
Wück told daily Wolfsburger Allgemeine that he knows from personal experience how difficult it is to come back from such a grave injury.
Advertisement
"In the end the deciding factor is how the knee reacts. It would be good if she could have two or three games for Bayern this season," Wück said.
Chelsea's Sjoeke Nüsken has played well lately in Oberdorf's holding six position, but she can't quite match Oberdorf's power.
Tuesday's Nations League reverse fixture against Scotland in Wolfsburg will give Wück further indications about his midfield - especially for a scenario with Obderdorf not fit for the Euros - and other areas.
Germany won the first meeting 4-0 in Dundee on Friday to remain top of Group A3, but Wück was not fully satisfied with the performance as he criticised too many mistakes, especially in the first half.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sports on TV for Tuesday, June 10
(All times Eastern) Schedule subject to change and/or blackouts Tuesday, June 10 MLB BASEBALL 7:30 p.m. TBS — N.Y. Yankees at Kansas City 10:30 p.m. MLBN — Regional Coverage: Seattle at Arizona (9:40 p.m.) OR L.A. Dodgers at San Diego (9:40 p.m.) SOCCER (MEN'S) 11:50 a.m. FS2 — International Friendly: Azerbaijan vs. Hungary, Mardakan, Azerbaijan 2:30 p.m. FS2 — UEFA World Cup Qualifier Group Stage: Netherlands vs. Malta, Group G, Groningen, Netherlands 8 p.m. TNT — International Friendly: U.S. vs. Switzerland, Nashville, Tenn. SOFTBALL 8 p.m. ESPN2 — Athletes Unlimited: Talons vs. Bandits, Rosemont, Ill. 5 a.m. 6 a.m. TENNIS — s-Hertogenbosch-ATP/WTA, London-WTA, Stuttgart-ATP Early Rounds 5 a.m. (Wednesday) 6 a.m. (Wednesday) TENNIS — s-Hertogenbosch-ATP/WTA, London-WTA, Stuttgart-ATP Early Rounds WNBA BASKETBALL 8 p.m. ESPN — Chicago at New York _____ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive TV listings provided by LiveSportsOnTV.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Club World Cup, explained: The real reason behind FIFA's push to ‘make football truly global'
Why does the Club World Cup exist? There are two common answers to that question, and although they come from opposite sides of a roiling debate, at their core, they are actually quite similar. One is money. Advertisement The other is that the Club World Cup, as FIFA likes to say, will help 'make football truly global.' One is cynical, the other noble. One despises the tournament, the other adores it. But they are both correct, because everything in modern soccer is about money; and money is the most powerful tool FIFA has in its effort to challenge a Eurocentric establishment that dominates the global game, and profits massively from it. FIFA is soccer's global governing body. It has 211 members, spanning every corner of Earth. It supports those members, the national soccer federations that govern the sport country by country. Part of its mission, then, is to generate revenue, which it can distribute to those 211 federations; or invest in programs that develop the sport. So it believes — or, at least, its president, Gianni Infantino, seems to believe — that it should be the richest soccer organization on the planet. Advertisement And yet, from 2019 to 2022, FIFA made $7.6 billion. UEFA, soccer's European governing body, made roughly $19 billion. The Club World Cup, which begins Saturday in Miami, is the brainchild of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. (Photo by Marco Bello - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) (Marco Bello - FIFA via Getty Images) The English Premier League, one national competition alone, also outearns FIFA. And it distributes money to its members, 20 private, professional clubs. UEFA redistributes its riches with European clubs and its 55 national federations. The clubs and federations use the money to buy and develop players; players attract fans; fans pay to consume UEFA's products, primarily the Champions League and the Euros; so sponsors pay to associate with them; media companies pay to broadcast them; UEFA's revenues soar, the cycle spins, and soccer's Eurocentrism solidifies. Asia, Africa and the Americas — which supply the Champions League with talent but don't benefit from it — get left behind. Advertisement 'We say football, soccer, is a global sport,' Infantino told Yahoo Sports this spring. 'But actually, if you scratch the surface, you see that the elite is very much concentrated in very few clubs in very few countries. 'I,' Infantino continued, 'want to bring it to the entire world.' And the way to do that, to slow or break the cycle, FIFA needs more money. The main way to generate it, at this stage of soccer's evolution, is to organize more games or, in this case, an entirely new competition involving the elite clubs and stars that already drive the global economy. Domestic leagues, like the Premier League, control (and monetize) most of the games that elite players play. UEFA controls most of the big ones. The Club World Cup is FIFA's attempt to commercialize those players and their clubs in the same way that the Prem and UEFA do weekly from August through May. Advertisement Soccer did not need a Club World Cup — its calendar was already overcrowded, and the Champions League winner is widely considered the best club team in the world. But FIFA and Infantino needed market share. FIFA, of course, controls World Cups, the biggest and most lucrative games of all. But World Cups only span a month every four years. FIFA, therefore, stared at the barren interim years and concocted plans to fill them. Infantino has championed those plans since the early years of his presidency. There were talks of a global nations league, akin to the one currently run by UEFA. There was a push to double the frequency of World Cups. Both met fierce resistance from the European establishment, and eventually perished. Advertisement But the Club World Cup weathered the resistance. It endured one false start, with the original plan to launch in China in 2021 scuppered by COVID. And now, four years later, it will soon have liftoff. Although sponsors were lukewarm, and broadcasters were wary — 'I think we were all skeptical during this entire process,' TelevisaUnivision executive Olek Loewenstein told Yahoo Sports — FIFA secured the necessary funding from DAZN, via a $1 billion global streaming deal. The funding allowed Infantino to promise tens of millions of dollars in prize money to top European clubs, the ones who'll attract an audience. And so, FIFA says, the 2025 tournament will break even. The hope is that this inaugural edition will pave the way to profits in 2029 and beyond. And those profits will help FIFA accomplish its mission. That, essentially, is why the Club World Cup is happening.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Germany's Tah ready for Club World Cup with new club Bayern
Germany's Jonathan Tah takes part in a training session at the Adi-Dassler-Stadion, ahead of the UEFA Nations League semifinal soccer match against Portugal. Federico Gambarini/dpa Jonathan Tah is ready for the Club World Cup with his new side Bayern Munich and not concerned that the tournament in the United States will be too much of a burden after a long season. Germany defender Tah joins Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on a free transfer from Bayer Leverkusen and will fly out with them on Tuesday after the two clubs reached a financial agreement that he can play from the start of the 32-event and not from July 1. Advertisement Bayern, who will have their base camp in Florida, open on Sunday against Auckland City, with Boca Juniors of Argentina and Lisbon side Benfica their other group stage opponents. "I am ready. I am looking forward to it. It is a new situation for me because I am joing a new team," Tah told broadcasters ARD after he played in Germany's 2-0 defeat against France in the Nations League match for third place on Sunday. Tah said he doesn't expect the tournament with a maximum seven matches to be an additional strain. "I started playing football as a small child. I played outside every day. I didn't even think about whether I was overworked. And I still have that mindset and enjoy playing football," he said. Advertisement The Bayern squad could also feature another newcomer from the start in Tom Bischof as Bayern reportedly have also reached an agreement with his former side Hoffenheim. The other German team, Borussia Dortmund, will leave for the US on Friday, with their first match on June 17 against Brazil's Fluminense.
