Veterans Henrichs and Kruse promise better Olympic performance: "Absolutely not finished"
By Peter Weis @PeterVicey
After Germany's Olympic debut received widespread panning in the country's press, two of the team's veterans made clear that they had no intention of giving up hopes for a medal.
| Benjamin Henrichs. | Photo: Эдгар Брещанов/Soccer.ru/CC-by-SA 3.0 |
Much like Kuntz, Kruse didn't mince words after Thursday's defeat. He did nevertheless strike a much more optimistic tone when reflecting on the second half.
"We were always a tad late and not into the game as we wanted to be," the 33-year-old said afterwards, "What's positive is that we didn't give up in the second half and stepped it up significantly. We have to build on that and take what little positives we can from it."
Teammate Benjamin Henrichs was similarly dissatisfied with the team's performance.
"We ceded far too much space," the defender noted, "The Brazilians were all alone in front of [keeper Florian] Müller on every long ball. We can thank him [Florian Müller] for the fact that the scoreline wasn't much higher. The way we played in the first half was a joke."
Like Kruse, Henrichs emphasized that there were positives to build upon.
"We can build on the second half," the Leipzig man said, "We weren't well practiced, but can find ourselves. We played much better."
Kruse conceded that Sunday's match was "absolutely a final". When pressed about whether Germany's hopes for a medal were finished, Henrichs emphatically replied, "absolutely not!"