Life goes on. There was a huge feeling of disappointment amongst the Germany's Women's team after their 2-1 quarterfinal defeat to Denmark on Sunday. Midfielder Sara Däbritz rued the performance of the German women and we spoke to the 22-year-old about the mood in the camp, reasons for the early exit and why we should be optimistic looking ahead to the World Cup in 2019.
DFB.de: How deep is the disappointment?
Sara Däbritz: It's huge. We all wanted to become European champions. Unfortunately, it didn't work out this time.
DFB.de: Germany has been very successful in women's football How does the team deal with this type of setback?
Däbritz: Directly after the match the disappointment was very, very big. We were all sad. We also wondered why we were unable to give our best performance or one which we're capable of producing. It's a shame that we couldn't produce our best performance. But we won't hang our heads in shame. In two years' time there's the World Cup in France and that's the next big tournament for us. Between now and then we have time to analyse this experience and to develop. We need to move on.
DFB.de: How will you personally cope with this disappointment?
Däbritz: I remember the World Cup in Canada in 2015. We suffered a very bitter defeat in the semi-final there and then gave everything in the third place play-off. In the end we left empty-handed much like now. But we became stronger as a result of that tournament and won gold at the Olympics in Rio. Despite the disappointment, we're on the right path. Perhaps we all just need a little more time. Perhaps everything will come together at the World Cup in 2019.
DFB.de: Did the EUROs come too soon?
Life goes on. There was a huge feeling of disappointment amongst the Germany's Women's team after their 2-1 quarterfinal defeat to Denmark on Sunday. Midfielder Sara Däbritz rued the performance of the German women and we spoke to the 22-year-old about the mood in the camp, reasons for the early exit and why we should be optimistic looking ahead to the World Cup in 2019.
DFB.de: How deep is the disappointment?
Sara Däbritz: It's huge. We all wanted to become European champions. Unfortunately, it didn't work out this time.
DFB.de: Germany has been very successful in women's football How does the team deal with this type of setback?
Däbritz: Directly after the match the disappointment was very, very big. We were all sad. We also wondered why we were unable to give our best performance or one which we're capable of producing. It's a shame that we couldn't produce our best performance. But we won't hang our heads in shame. In two years' time there's the World Cup in France and that's the next big tournament for us. Between now and then we have time to analyse this experience and to develop. We need to move on.
DFB.de: How will you personally cope with this disappointment?
Däbritz: I remember the World Cup in Canada in 2015. We suffered a very bitter defeat in the semi-final there and then gave everything in the third place play-off. In the end we left empty-handed much like now. But we became stronger as a result of that tournament and won gold at the Olympics in Rio. Despite the disappointment, we're on the right path. Perhaps we all just need a little more time. Perhaps everything will come together at the World Cup in 2019.
DFB.de: Did the EUROs come too soon?
Däbritz: No, we were all ready. Of course we had something of a new beginning in September. But we got on well as a team and with the new coach and her support staff. Everything was in harmony and we had a lot of fun. It's a shame that we couldn't prove this. We need to carry on with this process, which will perhaps take a little while, but it's not all bad.
DFB.de: What's your opinion of the work of head coach Steffi Jones?
Däbritz: It's very good. She's a super coach and a top human being. She communicates with us a lot and gives a lot of feedback. That's important for the players as we feel her trust. The same can be said of the whole coaching team and we must praise them all. It's noticeable that everyone thinks a lot. We've developed well over the last year, but unfortunately we couldn't show that in the quarterfinal.
DFB.de: Why did the team find it so difficult to score goals at this tournament?
Däbritz: It's hard to explain. We had chances, but at times we were missing a little bit of luck.
DFB.de: For example, in the game against Russia, when you had that huge chance which just missed...
Däbritz: The pas from Lena (Goeßling) was amazing. It was quite hard so it wasn't easy to take, but I know that I had to score. A chance like that needs to go in. If it goes in, you carry on, but unfortunately it didn't. We waited and waited for it to come together, even against Denmark we had enough chances to score another goal. At times we lacked precision with the final ball or the final action.
DFB.de: What can you learn from this defeat?
Däbritz: We quickly realised that we need to be more confident and courageous when we go out there. We didn't do that. The first ten minutes were good, but then we lost our thread and our concentration. Through these mistakes Denmark became stronger and stronger and began to show their quality in attack. The Danes did that well and, therefore, deserve to be in the semi-final.
