Ann-Katrin Berger: Do the DFB women have a problem in the goal?

It was not due to Ann-Katrin Berger that the German women’s national team went down in the last EM group game. The DFB-Elf lost 1: 4 against Sweden, which was finally played in the favorite group of the tournament. The drop in performance after a strong first quarter of an hour, the red card for Carlotta Wamser, unfortunate goals – all the reasons for this defeat.

But Berger didn’t convince either, quite the contrary. The goalkeeper showed herself as an uncertainty factor in the game against Sweden. And she was counted in Zurich before the last group game.

In the first half, the keeper from the US club Gothan FC played three hair-raising bad passes with which she brought her front people and herself to the bredouille. Especially in a situation shortly before the break, she was lucky that the Swedes did not use her mistake for another goal. In the compensation, she was caught on the wrong foot by Sweden’s scorer Blackstenius and did not react at all.

So Berger joined seamlessly into an eleven in which hardly any player reached normal form instead of giving security – or maybe even saving the game through one or the other parade. Already after the game against Denmark, she had to listen to public criticism from national coach Christian Wück.

It was about Berger’s risky dribbling in front of his own goal. “I will of course sit at the table with her that we have to find other solutions – because otherwise I will not get old,” said Wück, a kind of public warning for his goalkeeper. The 34-year-old also defended her style of play to the media.

Wück played down the matter afterwards: “We never had a goalkeeper debate.” He discussed the scenes with Berger like other players. Nevertheless, Germany’s footballer of the year was against Sweden with special observation. The risky dribbling refrained from, this time the uncertainties in the building game were unmistakable. Even if the national coach repels all questions-among the fans the goalkeeper discussion is already in full swing.

“I am glad that it has happened now and not in the quarter -finals,” said Berger after the game with regard to the team’s performance. The DFB-Elf was already qualified for the KO round and is now second to the quarter-finals. The goalkeeper clarified her own performance with the criticism of Wück: “I play what is put in my foot.”

Despite the appearance against Sweden, Berger doesn’t have to worry about her post between the posts. Especially because the national coach has major problems before the quarter -finals. After the violation of Giulia Gwinn in the first and red card for Carlotta Wamser in the third group game, he has to rebuild again on the right. And maybe for Ann-Katrin Berger in the quarter-finals, the world looks very different again. After all, she also stated after the Sweden game: “Football depends on the daily performance.”