Doorsoun a confirmed out against South Korea
German women's national team assistant coach Britta Carlsson early on Monday morning that central defender Sara Doorsoun would be unavailable for the German women's final group stage match on Thursday against South Korea.
| Sara Doorsoun | DFB |
The Eintracht Frankfurt professional had been filling in for regular starter Marina Hegering along the back line. Hegering had been nursing a bruised heel. Doorsoun's stellar performance in the opening group stage match against Morocco led many to assume that she would maintain her starting place even if Hegering was once again passed fit.
Doorsoun was once again strong in the first half of yesterday's loss, winning all of her duels and completing 81 percent of her passes. Most all German press sources accorded the Köln native top marks. Bundestrainerin Martina Voss-Tecklenburg - already dealing with a raft of injuries in her defensive corps - turned to Sjoeke Nüsken off the bench.
Nüsken too has been nursing a thigh injury and showed signs of strain whilst playing with a bandage. Carlsson confirmed that Nüskens would be rested in Monday's training session. The ostensible solution seems to be focusing on getting Hegering fit to once again serve alongside Kathrin Hendrichs. The regular CB duo have enjoyed a great deal of success.
Despite suffering a historic loss (the first one in a World Cup group stage since 1995) yesterday, members of the DFB-XI remained largely positive about their prospects of attaining the knockouts in their post match interviews yesterday. Captain Alexandra Popp, keeper Merle Frohms, and talismanic midfielder Lena Oberdorf kept their comments optimistic.
"Colombia played a good game," Frohms told German public television broadcaster ARD, "It's difficult to describe the match as we don't have a lot to blame ourselves for."
"We're naturally disappointed," Popp added, "But we played a pretty good game and had things under control. We just lacked some courage in the final third. The late goal is naturally bitter."
"We expected a tough match," Oberdorf said, "You could see that the Colombians were spending a lot of time down on the turf. That speaks to us. We didn't shy away from any duels and threw ourselves into every challenge. That's the kind of morale we had."
Popp, Frohms, Oberdorf, and Voss-Tecklenburg all emphasized that the team deserved respect for trying a lot offensively. The quartet also all made clear that they had little doubt that they could book passage to the knockouts with a win against South Korea on Thursday.