Neid wants impressing
Thursday, 12 October, 2006
Germany Coach Silvia Neid has challenged her players to impress against England in Ahlen.
International Women's Friendly
5.15pm (Central European Time) Wednesday 25 October 2006
Waldstadion, VFR Aalen
Live on ARD
The qualification for the 2007 World Cup is over. Now the focus of the German team is on China, and in particular, the fight for places in the final squad of 21.
The first chance for the German side to impress Head Coach Silvia Neid will be against England on 25 October, and Neid has a high opinion of the Three Lions.
Neid said: "England are a very good opponent. They have qualified as one of the five European countries for the World Cup and topped their group against the generally accepted favourites, France.”
The English suggested at Euro 2005 that they are developing for the future and only just missed the semi-finals.
Neid went on to say recently at a German press conference: “The England team is very well balanced. They can play compactly and are tactically very sound but also have some very talented individual players.”
Despite possessing the only 100% record in Europe in the qualification stages, Neid is keen to eliminate the individual errors which saw a strong Russian side score twice in their final group game.
The Germany squad shows only one change from that game, with Babett Peter of FFC Turbine Potsdam replacing her club colleague Jennifer Zietz.
The 18 year old Peter missed the 3-2 victory in Moscow as she was in action with the German U20 side. Experienced central defender Steffi Jones will be missing with a thigh injury whilst Anja Noon has an interior cruciate ligament injury.
England will be aware of the goal threat posed by striker Birgit Prinz, and if she scores at the Waldstadion in Ahlen, she will have more than one reason to celebrate.
The game falls on her 29th birthday, and one goal will take her international goalscoring record to a phenomenal 100, from 154 appearances.
This number of caps will also see Prinz equal the all-time record number of caps earned by Bettina Wiegmann, who captained the German side when they captured the world crown four years ago in America.
Germany Squad:
Silke Rottenberg (FFC Frankfurt), Ulrike Schmetz (FC Bayern Munich)
Kerstin Stegemann (FFC Heike Rheine), Sandra Minnert (SC 07 Bad Neuenahr), Ariane Hingst (FFC Turbine Potsdam), Annike Krahn (FCR 2001 Duisburg), Bianca Rech (FC Bayern München), Babett Peter (FFC Turbine Potsdam)
Renate Lingor (FFC Frankfurt), Kerstin Garefrekes (FFC Frankfurt), Brita Carlson (FFC Turbine Potsdam), Isabell Bachor (SC 07 Bad Neuenahr), Célia Okoyino da Mbabi (SC 07 Bad Neuenahr)
Birgit Prinz (FFC Frankfurt), Sandra Smisek (FFC Frankfurt), Petra Wimbersky (FFC Frankfurt), Conny Pohlers (FFC Turbine Potsdam),
Martina Müller (VfL Wolfsburg)