GERMAN EYES ON THE PRIZE
Team favoured to take World Cup
Celia Sasic introduced herself to Ottawa Wednesday.
In German. In English. In French. And if a Croatian, Spanish or Italian journalist also happened to be in the city, the engaging German forward would have gladly and easily transitioned to another of her favourite languages to discuss the hopes of the powerhouse German squad, which kicks off its women’s World Cup tournament Sunday at Lansdowne Park against Ivory Coast.
“I like to speak languages, so it’s a little bit easier for me maybe than somebody else,” Sasic said during an afternoon press conference after a morning workout at Algonquin College. “You watch movies in the original version, in English or in French, or whatever, and I just have a little bit of a flavour for languages. For me, it’s nothing special.”
Indeed, Sasic, 26, might well be the ideal poster woman to promote the global game in a bilingual city. Her father is from Cameroon, her mother from France and she’s married to Croatian soccer player Marko Sasic — she changed her name from Okoyino da Mbabi in 2013 — on the verge of becoming the first player with dual African/ Balkan heritage to ever play in a World Cup.
Of course, it’s not just about participation. As always for Germany, anything short of a World Cup title would be a disappointment. Germany, ranked No. 1 in the world, suffered a stinging quarter-final loss to Japan in Sasic’s first World Cup tournament on home soil in 2011. Germany captured gold in 2003 and 2007.
The Germans should have little trouble getting their feet wet in a positive way in Ottawa.
Think about the relatively weak pool the Canadian men’s hockey team normally faces at the world championships.
The Germans should advance through the group stage, in a pool which also includes Norway and Thailand and they accept the expectations which come from their lofty perch atop the soccer world.
“There’s no special pressure,” said Sasic, who won an Olympic bronze medal with Germany in 2008. “We know in the rankings that we are No. 1. We are the European champions. So, maybe it’s normal that people think we are the favourites. But for us, we know it’s a very difficult tournament and there are a lot of teams that have great quality and play at a high level, so it won’t be easy to cope with that.
“We have to play at our highest level in every game to advance (past the preliminary round) and then we see what’s coming.”
For all the controversy surrounding the artificial turf surfaces – FIFA abandoned its natural-grass only policy in order to allow Canada to host the tournament – Sasic says Germany has done its best to prepare, including a training camp in Switzerland before arriving in Canada.
“Every artificial turf is different, but we’ve known about this for a long time,” she said. “There’s no reason to complain.”
The Germans also won’t get much sympathy if they talk about any difficulties in re-setting their body clocks after coming from Europe.
While Sasic and fellow German forward Pauline Bremer say they were still dealing with “jet lag ” during Wednesday’s practice and had yet to take in many of the sights, they will have a distinct advantage over Ivory Coast, who were due to arrive in Ottawa late Wednesday afternoon.
The lightly regarded Ivory Coast, ranked 67th in the world, is a bit of a mystery to the heavily favoured Germans. Even now, in the wired world of 2015, video of the Ivory Coast team is hard to find.
“As players, we don’t know anything (about them),” said Sasic. “But our coaches, they know and they prepare us very well for the matches. We will be well-prepared, that’s for sure. For us, it’s not important who we are playing. We want to win every game, whether it’s the Ivory Coast or the United States. We don’t care. We want to give our best.”
Early on, the Germans are definitely talking a good game.