Germany Need to Find a Killer Instinct to Strike Gold at Rio

And then there were four. The women’s Olympic football tournament has quickly gone from 12 teams down to four, and all but one of those sides are guaranteed a medal. On the face of it, Germany should start as favourites for a possible gold. However, Silvia Neid’s team has lacked a killer edge in front of goal. Without that, their opponents will smell blood.

Despite earning a place in the semi-finals, the FIFA World Cup semi-finalists from last year have not been great throughout the Olympics.

Kicking off with a 6-1 win over Zimbabwe glossed over any potential problems. They were the weakest team in Group F, but it did take the Germans 22 minutes to break down the disorganised Africans.

The last three goals came near the end of the game, with the Mighty Warriors feeling the effects of a tough opening fixture.

The cracks began to show against Australia in the second match. 2-0 down after goals from Samantha Kerr and Caitlin Foord, a late first-half strike from Sara Dabritz was the perfect tonic, and Germany came back into the game, earning a point through Saskia Bartusiak scoring with only a few minutes remaining.

That should have been the spark, the moment that saw the Germans pick up their performances and begin to show why they are regarded as one of the top teams in the world.

It didn’t happen though. They dominated against Canada early in the last group game, taking the lead through a Melanie Behringer penalty, but they couldn’t break Canada’s spirit. Melissa Tancredi scoring twice to beat the Germans for the very first time in their history.

Mandy Islacker made her first start of the tournament against the Canadians, but the Frankfurt forward was far from convinced by both her own and her team’s display against the North Americans.

“I can definitely do more. I’m always very self-critical, and I can definitely do better,” she told FIFA.com after the group stage. “I don’t think we had enough movement ahead of the ball. We’re in the quarter-finals and those games are irrelevant now. We’re in the knockout phase, and now it’s all about reaching the semis.”

The 28-year-old was right, the only thing that mattered was getting out of the group, and amazingly, finishing second behind Canada actually gave the Germans a better match-up in the quarter-finals. Neid’s side would avoid the unpredictable French and take on China for a place in the last …

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