Women

A frantic year

Looking back and looking ahead: Tommy Stroot sends VfL Women into the winter break “with a good feeling”.

Thanks to Monday’s 1-0 win at home to Werder Bremen, VfL Women go into the winter break as league leaders. For head coach Tommy Stroot, it was a game that “to some extent reflected” their season so far. He looks back on 2023 with mixed emotions and looks forward to new sporting challenges in 2024. But before that, his focus is on a different season – the Christmas one, which he particularly enjoys for many reasons.

Emotional finals

“We’re going into the winter break with a really good feeling as a result of the 1-0 win,” said the VfL boss straight after the last match of 2023. “This year has been frantic. It’s had so much force and so many emotions, and I think that’s what makes any football career.”

The Champions League final against FC Barcelona in Eindhoven, where VfL suffered an agonising 3-2 defeat, was particularly emotional. “We reached the final and had a great Champions League campaign on the whole. We also got to lift the DFB Cup again,” Stroot added, reflecting on the highlights of the year. The cup success was the club’s ninth in a row.

“Champions League is our expectation”

Alongside major successes, the She-Wolves have also experienced some bitter losses, such as the defeat in the play-off second leg against Paris FC in October, which meant VfL missed out on qualification for the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage. “It’s our expectation to play in the Champions League, so we’re all finding it quite hard right now to watch the Champions League,” said Stroot.

VfL-Wolfsburg-Trainer Tommy Stroot bedankt sich nach dem Spiel bei Fans für die Unterstützung.

Clear aims

Just a few days after the Paris defeat, the team set out their stall and resolved to make the best out of the situation. “We have two competitions to play in. We have to invest in the things that will ensure we’re involved in the Champions League again next year,” emphasised Stroot. Wolfsburg end the year with one point more than FC Bayern Munich in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga, and five more than third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt. “We’re in a position that makes everything possible,” added the coach.

The players and coaching staff will take this knowledge with them when they travel to the training camp in Almancil, Portugal, on 6 January 2024. The Green-and-Whites will spend 10 days there preparing for the second half of the season.

A special time of year

Stroot will be spending the next couple of weeks with his family. For him, the Christmas period is particularly special. “My birthday is on Christmas Eve,” he explained. “Therefore, for me it’s a day that’s all about family and friends. We’ve always partied into the night in recent years. Because you see so many people again, it’s always the craziest birthday celebrations.”