“The USA is a different beast.”

 An enthralling 3-0 victory over Australia in the opening group stage game of the 2024 Women’s Olympic football tournament could have easily concluded with the German women’s national team scoring several more goals. During their respective post-match interviews, German Bundestrainer Horst Hrubesch and DFB captain Alexandra Popp were quick to point that out in their respective post-match interviews. 

“You could see what quality we have,” Hrubesch aptly noted whilst speaking to the “Eurosport” cable channel, “We should have scored one or two goals earlier, then it would have been easier. In the end, we deserved to win.”

“We should perhaps have sealed the deal in the first half,” Popp correctly pointed out when speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF, “There were also one or two occasions in which we could have been calmer on the ball. We played a lot of deep balls ourselves. This was effective, but we could do with a little balance. Why don’t we let them run more?” 

Popp’s observations were fitting for a player responsible for directing most of the midfield traffic as a six. Germany’s captain – as expected – deputized for the injured Lena Oberdorf. The 33-year-old (rather modestly) rated her performance as “reasonably okay”, also pointing out that “it’s not as if I don’t know what it’s like to serve as the six.”

“To perform like that against the Australians – who did extremely well at last year’s World Cup – and to be so dominant is a good sign,” Popp continued in her interview, being sure to add: “[But] You only have to look at our group. Now’s not the time for celebrations and commotion. The next game is against the USA. That’s a different beast.”