Latest news with #GermanTeam
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Maertens hails German success after world 400m freestyle gold
Lukas Maertens said German swimming had taken a "big step forward" after he won a nail-biting 400m freestyle gold at the world championships on Sunday, to add to Florian Wellbrock's success in Singapore. Maertens, the Olympic champion and world record holder in the event, pipped Australia's Sam Short by 0.02sec. to become world champion for the first time. Countryman Wellbrock won four golds in the open water events at this year's world championships and Maertens said the German team were enjoying the fruits of their hard work. "I think we did a big step forward, the whole team," said Maertens. "All the girls and guys are a really young team and there are a lot to come. "Now I'm one of the old guys and I'm 23. That means a lot and I'm really proud to be in the German team." Maertens came home in 3min 42.35sec after a fierce battle with Short, the 2023 world champion. South Korea's Kim Woo-min, the reigning world champion, was third in 3:42.60. Maertens was the favourite for the title after breaking the world record in Stockholm in April, a mark that had stood since 2009. But Short fought him every stroke of the way, losing out after an incredible tussle to the finish. "There was a lot of pressure, also as the world record holder, it wasn't easy to fight these guys," said Maertens. "I tried my best, I gave everything, and I'm really happy and proud to be a world champion now. "Germany has a new world champion and that's not usual, I think." Australia's Elijah Winnington, the Paris Olympics silver medallist, surprisingly failed to qualify for the final. Short finished fastest in the morning heats ahead of Maertens. amk/pst
CNA
22-07-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Comeback win gives Germany game plan for semi-final with Spain
GENEVA :Germany's gritty win over France has given them a template for how they should play for the rest of the tournament, defender Rebecca Knaak told reporters on Tuesday ahead of her side's Women's Euro semi-final against Spain in Zurich. The Germans had a player sent off and conceded a penalty early on against the French, but recovered to draw 1-1 after extra time and win the quarter-final shootout, pitting the eight-times champions against Spain on Wednesday. "Really, it's the perfect example for passion, strength, mental strength, all these things that are characteristics that we possess," Knaak told a press conference. "Of course, on a tactical basis, we are prepared by the coach and the team, but the basic, fundamental characteristic has been built for the Spanish (game) in the French match." After two first-half red cards in their last two games, coach Christian Wueck is hoping to keep 11 players on the pitch for as long as possible so he can make the most of his attacking talent. "I think we will chase them (Spain) a lot. We won't have a lot of possession, and we will suffer, but we have to find the right moments and take advantage of the right moments to push our game ... we are strong in possession, and this is going to be the big difference, because we want to play on the ball," he told reporters. The Germans have also been disrupted by injuries during the tournament, but Knaak said the sense of togetherness in the squad lessened the impact of losing players. "I think it says a lot about the team that we accepted every situation as it came along. There's so many different, unusual situations, and we adapted, we accepted those situations, and we supported each other," she said. "And at the end, it doesn't really matter who plays next to whom. We are a team, and we have the squad exactly for those reasons, so that we can adapt."
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Ann-Katrin Berger follows up biblical miracle with penalty heroics for Germany
Ann-Katrin Berger is flying. The ball is flying. A few yards away, near the penalty spot, Clara Mateo of France already has her arms raised in celebration. A heroic German defensive rearguard is about to end in a misdirected defensive header, a looping own goal and a heartbreaking defeat. But a 34-year-old double cancer survivor, largely written off by her own country's media before this quarter-final, has other ideas. The mechanics of the save itself are easy enough to explain. Berger is about five yards out of her goal, and so has to back-pedal furiously while also keeping her eye on the flight. At the last moment, it looks like the ball is about to beat her. Which is the point at which Berger flings herself backwards and upwards, finding every last gram of strength, straining every last muscle, the sort of moment you spend a lifetime training for. She claws it away with her fingers. Falls heavily on her shoulders. Accepts the congratulations of her teammates, who look like they have just seen a biblical miracle. And, you know, perhaps they had. Was this the moment Germany wrote their destiny? It certainly didn't feel that way at the time. Twenty minutes still remained. France still had all the possession and an extra player. But maybe it was the moment when Germany's mission sharpened to the finest of points, when they determined above all that a save of such cosmic brilliance must not be for nothing. It had been an epic night, an excruciating night, and for the depleted, exhausted Germany a night of sheer refusal. Forced to play for almost two hours (including added time) with 10 players after the early dismissal of Kathrin Hendrich, boasting a passing accuracy of just 51%, they withstood one of the deadliest attacks in the tournament with their bodies and every last breath in them. By this point the game had long since ceased to take any recognisable form or shape: just two tired teams finding increasingly creative ways to collide with each other. At one point in extra time the sensational Jule Brand went on a dribble past halfway and, seeing three blue shirts congregating on her, basically changed her mind, let the ball go and decided to get back into position. As for France, it was a night for reverting to type. For confirming every pre-existing stereotype of them. For demonstrating why this team of such incredible individual talent have never been able to fulfil that talent as a collective. Forced to break down a team with no intention of giving them the space in behind they love to exploit, they were utterly devoid of ideas, of creativity, of passing guile, of any real strategy beyond giving it to the wingers and seeing if the next stepover might work any better than the last. Perhaps you could argue that Hendrich's red card for pulling the hair of Griedge Mbock actually simplified Germany's task. Even so, it would have taken a brave seer to predict anything but a French victory at that point, especially after an injury to Sarai Linder at right-back. But her replacement, Sophia Kleinherne, was immense, as were the two big pre-match selections by Christian Wück: Giovanna Hoffmann up front and Franziska Kett at left-back. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Kleinherne completed just two passes all night, Brand just eight. But of course these were not the key milestones. Try Rebecca Knaak's 13 clearances, Janina Minge's 11, the 16 tackles, Sjoeke Nüsken's first tournament goal. And of course there were nine saves from the hands of Berger, a goalkeeper who could have been cherry-picked for this assignment, one relying less on silky ball-work than on sheer, gravelly defiance. Berger had come in for considerable criticism after some misplaced passes in the 4-1 defeat by Sweden. And of course her old-school style sometimes feels at odds with the more progressive, possession-based kind of football the modern Germany want to play. But give her a goal and she will protect it with her life. She's beaten thyroid cancer twice. She can probably deal with your inswinging cross. As the minutes leaked away, as France had a goal disallowed, as Germany missed their own penalty, the German fans behind Berger's goal slowly began to warm to their task. Increasingly the French players were bearing forlorn expressions, negative body language, crushed by the burden of having to win this match several times over simply to win it once. Or perhaps not at all. Because after two hours and 13 penalties, Berger was flying again. Amel Majri had been the first to fail, then Berger had scored a penalty of her own, and now Alice Sombath had put her kick at a pleasant height, and once more Berger was the commander of angles and time. She palmed the ball away. Rose to her knees. And in the moments before her victorious teammates mobbed her, Berger was simply kneeling there: imploring us to adore her, a woman who through everything had never stopped believing in herself.
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Ann-Katrin Berger follows up biblical miracle with penalty heroics for Germany
Ann-Katrin Berger is flying. The ball is flying. A few yards away, near the penalty spot, Clara Mateo of France already has her arms raised in celebration. A heroic German defensive rearguard is about to end in a misdirected defensive header, a looping own goal and a heartbreaking defeat. But a 34-year-old double cancer survivor, largely written off by her own country's media before this quarter-final, has other ideas. The mechanics of the save itself are easy enough to explain. Berger is about five yards out of her goal, and so has to back-pedal furiously while also keeping her eye on the flight. At the last moment, it looks like the ball is about to beat her. Which is the point at which Berger flings herself backwards and upwards, finding every last gram of strength, straining every last muscle, the sort of moment you spend a lifetime training for. She claws it away with her fingers. Falls heavily on her shoulders. Accepts the congratulations of her teammates, who look like they have just seen a biblical miracle. And, you know, perhaps they had. Was this the moment Germany wrote their destiny? It certainly didn't feel that way at the time. Twenty minutes still remained. France still had all the possession and an extra player. But maybe it was the moment when Germany's mission sharpened to the finest of points, when they determined above all that a save of such cosmic brilliance must not be for nothing. It had been an epic night, an excruciating night, and for the depleted, exhausted Germany a night of sheer refusal. Forced to play for almost two hours (including added time) with 10 players after the early dismissal of Kathrin Hendrich, boasting a passing accuracy of just 51%, they withstood one of the deadliest attacks in the tournament with their bodies and every last breath in them. By this point the game had long since ceased to take any recognisable form or shape: just two tired teams finding increasingly creative ways to collide with each other. At one point in extra time the sensational Jule Brand went on a dribble past halfway and, seeing three blue shirts congregating on her, basically changed her mind, let the ball go and decided to get back into position. As for France, it was a night for reverting to type. For confirming every pre-existing stereotype of them. For demonstrating why this team of such incredible individual talent have never been able to fulfil that talent as a collective. Forced to break down a team with no intention of giving them the space in behind they love to exploit, they were utterly devoid of ideas, of creativity, of passing guile, of any real strategy beyond giving it to the wingers and seeing if the next stepover might work any better than the last. Perhaps you could argue that Hendrich's red card for pulling the hair of Griedge Mbock actually simplified Germany's task. Even so, it would have taken a brave seer to predict anything but a French victory at that point, especially after an injury to Sarai Linder at right-back. But her replacement, Sophia Kleinherne was immense, as were the two big pre-match selections by Christian Wück: Giovanna Hoffmann up front and Franziska Kett at left-back. Kleinherne completed just two passes all night, Brand just eight. But of course these were not the key milestones. Try Rebecca Knaak's 13 clearances, Janina Minge's 11, the 16 tackles, Sjoeke Nüsken's first tournament goal. And of course there were nine saves from the hands of Berger, a goalkeeper who could have been cherry-picked for this assignment, one relying less on silky ball-work than on sheer, gravelly defiance. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Berger had come in for considerable criticism after some misplaced passes in the 4-1 defeat by Sweden. And of course her old-school style sometimes feels at odds with the more progressive, possession-based kind of football the modern Germany want to play. But give her a goal and she will protect it with her life. She's beaten thyroid cancer twice. She can probably deal with your inswinging cross. As the minutes leaked away, as France had a goal disallowed, as Germany missed their own penalty, the German fans behind Berger's goal slowly began to warm to their task. Increasingly the French players were bearing forlorn expressions, negative body language, crushed by the burden of having to win this match several times over simply to win it once. Or perhaps not at all. Because after two hours and 13 penalties, Berger was flying again. Amel Majri had been the first to fail, then Berger had scored a penalty of her own, and now Alice Sombath had put her kick at a pleasant height, and once more Berger was the commander of angles and time. She palmed the ball away. Rose to her knees. And in the moments before her victorious teammates mobbed her, Berger was simply kneeling there: imploring us to adore her, a woman who through everything had never stopped believing in herself.
New York Times
19-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What was Hendrich thinking?
Or indeed, success full stop. The two-time World Cup winners and eight-time Euros champions know how to get the job done on the international stage. They have not won a major trophy since their 2013 Euro triumph however, despite coming close in defeat to England in the 2022 final. This is a new age of German player who have not tasted success of the like that became normal in decades of the past — they will be hungry to go one better than their last Euros showing and pick up the trophy.
