Five wins from five in pre-season, one successful training camp and a newly assembled squad which is already looking like a cohesive unit on and off the pitch – Tommy Stroot’s start to life as VfL Women head coach could hardly have gone any better. Unsurprisingly, confidence is high ahead of Saturday’s FLYERALARM Women’s Bundesliga opener against 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam at the AOK Stadion (kick-off 13:00 CEST). With three days to go until the She-Wolves’ first league game of the campaign, Stroot has been speaking about…
…1. FFC Turbine Potsdam: “Since the fixture list was announced we’ve obviously watched a few games and got hold of some footage, so we’ll go into the game well prepared. Regardless of the opposition, we want to control the game ourselves, have more possession and set the tempo. We also need to cover well in defence and avoid counter-attacks, because Potsdam have qualities there.”
…VfL’s opening fixtures: “We can’t focus only on the game against Potsdam. We have some intense weeks ahead of us, with two Champions League games and league matches at Bremen and against Sand. We can prepare for those, though. It’s clear that we’re not as solid as we can be as a group and that we’re not yet where we’re capable of being, but I’m pleased to be getting going now. I’d rather have it this way than go through another week of pre-season.”
…goals this season: “We haven’t talked about specific targets yet, but we don’t have to. We obviously want to win our opening league games and qualify for the group stage of the Champions League.”
…UWCL ambitions: “Bordeaux are strong opponents – they’re the third-best team in France, after all. They’re a team with individual qualities, which we’ll prepare well for. It’s clear that this game isn’t a foregone conclusion at such an early stage of the season.”
