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We Made It to the Final! Match Reactions with Alexandra Popp & Lena Oberdorf

-Horst called me right after the match-

-I remember exactly what happened!-Me too! You were like “I’m being blocked! I’m being blocked!” And I was like “What?”-

-I thought the ball would go out of bounds-

-that sums up the team perfectly-

-dude, I’m exhausted, I'm done-

[0:18]

DFB: It’s currently matchday plus one, just after lunchtime. First question: How was your night?

Lena: Very short. I just couldn’t get to sleep, I think you are the same. So yeah, we have some sleep to catch up on.

Alex: We are thriving over here.

DFB: It's fine, you were thriving yesterday. As always, we are curious about the key moments before the game. As you get on the bus, how do you feel, how do you get into the zone, what goes on in the dressing room?

Alex: We were in a good mood, we felt optimistic and confident. I think every single player knew we would be able to win this game. We had sat amongst ourselves and thought about something nice we could do for the team. Sara Doorsoun and Feli came up with the idea that we would write little notes to everyone, just a sentence or a few words–in my case it was a lot of Kopfballungeheuer [header beast]–so that we could point out the strengths of our teammates, help them believe in themselves and take that onto the pitch. I thought the idea was amazing, just right for the moment, and you could feel the impact on the pitch. It’s so cool that such small things can make such a big difference.

DFB: Obi, what kind of notes did you get? “No yellow cards please”?

Alex: Bodyguard?

Lena: That is one I got a lot, that and Zweikampfmonster [duel/tackling monster]. I think that one was on every one of my notes.

DFB: You needed that strength last night.

Lena: Yeah.

DFB: Let’s have a look, maybe we can catch some of these moments.

Lena: Awesome, all those flags.

Alex: She [Martina Voss-Tecklenburg] looks a little tense.

[2:22]

Lena: What is our wall doing? Wait.

Alex: I swear I did not realize that this was happening at all when I took my shot. They ducked.

Lena: I thought I would clear the path towards your favourite corner.

Alex: That's hilarious! Sara asked me what they should do and she said “We are going to form a second wall,” and I was like “Yeah okay, go ahead.” That’s rad.

Lena: We did that for the first time ever. At least that’s what it looks like.

Alex: All three of them ducked! Looks like it’s on purpose.

Lena: Marina! She’s all the way down!

Alex: Sveni, the one with the shortest distance to the floor, is the one who's taking the longest.

DFB: Shame that the keeper did well.

Alex: Yeah.

Lena: If it had been a little higher you would have scored.

DFB: That was the first time when everyone in the stadium was like "Whoah! We can do this." Suddenly everyone was awake.

Lena: It only happened in the 20th minute!

Alex: It’s funny, Horst [Hrubesch] called me right after the game and he said “Poppi, I’m a little mad and disappointed in you,” and I thought “What did I do now?” and he said “Your free kick, if you swing your leg all the way and come at it a little further from the right, the shot would have been higher and longer and it would have hit the back of the net.”

Lena: Keep that one in your back pocket for the final.

Alex: That’s what I told him.

[4:10]

Alex: Jule had a great game.

Lena: Bam. I was wondering where you came from when you scored that. Every time you’re in the box, you just walk around, you have a look, you get in behind, and when the cross comes in you’re in exactly the right spot. See, she isn’t expecting you at all, and suddenly–

Alex: First thing I did is I wandered around some more.

Lena: You started celebrating as you took the shot, that’s awesome.

DFB: It’s all pre-planned.

Lena: Awesome. You finish, get on your knees, get up and bam! Awesome.

DFB: Spoiler alert: The second goal was the same. She can’t even see anything, and she goes wandering around. I think wandering around just before she strikes, that’s her signature move.

Lena: But you have to give credit for how well Poppi moves in the defender’s blind spot. She can’t even see you at first. Then she looks, and suddenly–but frankly, the cross was strong too.

Alex: It was perfect.

DFB: Not everyone can score like that, Poppi.

Lena: Did you hit it with your shin?

Alex: No, I hit it with my foot. Otherwise the shot wouldn’t have been as hard.

Lena: From the back it looked like it may have bounced off your shin.

Alex: Nah. It was well played by Sveni, she turns at just the right moment, the cross comes in and it goes exactly where it needed to go. It passed both of the centre backs, Lina is taking care of Mbock in the box. And I knew that Lina wouldn’t get to the ball (laughs).

DFB: You could tell.

Alex: Not because she’s too short, the ball just came in at a certain angle.

Lena: Her bun almost got to it.

[6:05]

Alex: Oh, that’s the equalizer. So unlucky.

Lena: Especially since it wasn’t even a clear-cut chance, just a long ball, and we are there–

Alex: The finish was amazing.

Lena: You have to admit that it was.

Alex: She did well. Two contacts, bam. Still, it was unlucky. I read that it counts as Merle’s own goal, so we haven’t conceded a goal yet.

DFB: Right on!

[6:45]

Lena: I would have been so happy for Sveni if she had scored.

Alex: Absolutely. She always works very hard.

Lena: And that Marina gets to it somehow, in that position, and then she takes one touch–it was a good finish.

Alex: Slipped off her foot a little bit.

[7:12]

Alex: Jesus! I remember this moment, crystal clear.

Lena: Me too. You were like “I’m getting blocked! I’m getting blocked!”, and I was like “What?!”, and that’s when the ball came in.

Alex: They were all looking at me being like “I’m getting blocked,” the ball came, and done. That’s what happens when Wendie Renard gets to the ball.

Lena: Merle did a good job with the save. Merle needs something to do from time to time.

DFB: The French had a lot of free kicks in the final third, and all of us know they’re always looking to find Renard. And she still gets to almost every ball, because she is just that great in the air.

Alex: It’s so hard to stop her. I know what she’s like, I’ve played against her a lot, you can only try to find the best way to stop her. When we play against Lyon, they always block me and we need to come up with a different strategy. Here, they didn’t block me for the first couple of times, so it was easier for me to intercept her runs. Something I always say is that it’s kind of an honour if someone tries that hard to defend against you. I can’t even track the movement of the ball anymore, I have no idea where it’s gone, I’m stuck standing with Wendie like “You’re staying in my arms!”. When they started blocking me, I couldn’t get to her anymore, and then it became super tough. She’s so tall, even if I jump, she jumps and she still reaches higher. It’s tricky. Nothing happened though, thank God.

Lena: There was one situation where you were clinging to her side, and she tried to reach over you, but then the ball just went out of bounds. Well done, Poppi.

DFB: We could relax again.

[9:17]

Alex: Obi, that was the one!

Lena: At first I thought she would pass it back. I’m running, then I pause, that was because I though she was passing it.

She stepped on my foot there. My ankle is still swollen. She landed on my ankle when she took the shot.

DFB: That tackle deserves some applause. Everyone, clap for Obi.

[Everyone applauds]

Lena: It's just my job.

Alex: Another incredible match from Obi. As we said earlier, she’s like a bodyguard. She takes care of so much before it even gets to the back four.

Lena: Tell me more, tell me more!

Alex: I’d rather not, you have to stay grounded. No, actually, she’s a beast. Especially considering how young she still is. She is vital for the team, everyone says so. Lina, Sara, the ones who play in the centre with her, they all say she is the one who allows them the freedom to go on the offense more. She makes everyone around her feel more secure.

[10:40]

Alex: Whoa, that was something else.

Lena: I was watching that from the back like “Dude, just get the ball in the back of the net!” And you’re like “This is over.”

Alex: I thought the ball would go out! Oh my God.

Lena: Then came Sveni with the back heel.

Alex: It’s about to happen.

Lena: Aaaaand bam!

Jule just stays on the ground! She was trying to get the penalty. I talked to her afterwards and she said “I thought I had been pushed, so I decided to stay down so they would check it.” She didn’t realize that it was Poppi who pushed her! Poppi pushed her out of the way so she could get her header in!

Alex: I jumped right into her.

Lena: And Jule stays down, and I come up to her like “Jule, awesome block!” and she hadn’t even realized that we scored. So she gets up, runs off, and leaves me standing in front of the goal all by myself. I was like “Thanks a lot, Jule.”

Alex: She really did well. Jule is covering Wendie, she stops her from taking that one step back–

Lena: She didn’t have time to jump.

Alex: Jule took the shot, the ball gets blocked, it goes flying over my head, I thought “Alright, that one’s out.” I have my back turned to the ball and Sveni, thinking “This can’t be real,” I turn around and I see “Oh, we’re still going!”. Then I saw the ball circling in, and I knew “That one’s mine.” And I had the space to run at it full speed.

DFB: Must have been almost impossible for the keeper, such a powerful shot coming right at her.

Lena: She was moving in the opposite direction, she would have had to turn around again. It’s like you always tell me, you simply just have to run into the ball. Simply.

DFB: Simply.

Alex: Simple as that. And keep your eyes open.

Lena: Keep your eyes open during headers, yeah. Since you told me I've been doing them like O.O

Alex: Jule was already on the ground here.

Lena: There! She just stays down.

Alex: What was I even doing here?

[13:20]

Alex: Another good finish.

Lena: She is so good at those.

That was in that short phase where we lost control of the game.

Alex: Merle would have saved it.

Was this offside?

Lena: No. I don’t think so, I have looked into it. It was deflected though!

Alex: Obviously! But the ref said it was a goal kick.

Lena: That’s what we got. But it wasn’t offside at all. She does well with the dribble.

Alex: She does well. I thought “How could it have been more obvious that it was a deflection?” The keeper is blocking the other side. It would have gone in. I was over there, see, and I knew it would have gone in. But then she said goal kick.

DFB: We were irritated as well.

Alex: I though it couldn’t be true. As she put down the ball she lifted her arm up, so I thought it must have been called offside.

Lena: I looked at it again. It wasn’t offside.

DFB: That's not a situation where Linda misses. We thought it was odd that she would have had such a weak finish. That’s not what she normally does.

Alex: Not normally, no. Hit it over the goal, maybe. Not like this though.

[14:55]

Alex: I was dead on my feet.

Lena: Breathe through your stomach.

Alex: I tried but it didn’t work. Even though I’m on my back.

Lena: I was down there at the bottom of that. Linda was lying next to me. I swear, as everyone jumped on us, I looked at Linda and Linda was like “Oh, fuck,” and I was like “Yeah.”

Alex: This sums up the team perfectly.

Lena: True.

Alex: Everyone is happy for everyone else.

Lena: How quickly the bench players got to us!

Alex: I think the first person that came up to me was Lea.

DFB: They were waiting on the sidelines the entire time.

Lena: The energy they give us, it's amazing. You look at them after a tackle–I don’t score many goals here–and the whole bench is out there cheering for you. It’s a special feeling.

DFB: What were your first thoughts after the final whistle?

Alex: "Dude, I’m exhausted, I'm so done."

Lena: Yes.

I think we all fell to the ground. I lay there on my stomach and thought “What just happened here?”

Alex: First I was like “Damn. I’m so glad this is over.” But at the same time it was like “We did it.”

DFB: Do you understand what you’ve achieved yet? Or are you just focused on recovery for now?

Lena: Right now I feel exhausted, I’m in recovery mode. Tomorrow it might start to sink in, when you get back on the pitch and it’s onto the next one. Today is to enjoy and to regain our strength.

Alex: You can tell that the whole team is exhausted. Emotionally, mentally, but that’s normal too. Whether you play or not, you’re exposed to all these emotional moments. That’s why it’s so hard to get to sleep after games. Today is to sort ourselves out. You get a lot of messages and attention on social media, it’s great. We get so many messages like “You don’t even know what you have started over here.” But you cannot conceptualize it.

Lena: They’re organizing public viewing parties everywhere.

Alex: In Gevelsberg too, by the way.

Lena: Awesome.

Alex: It’s so nice to hear that we have accomplished that much. It’s so important for women’s football.

Lena: We deserve it, because of the way we showed up here. From the first group stage match up until now, every game has gotten more and more exciting. We have earned the attention. I hope it stays that way once the tournament is over.

Alex: It has to be sustainable. That's our biggest hope.

#dfb frauen #lena oberdorf #alex popp #euros 2022 #Youtube

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