Germans face tricky South Africans in Under-17 clash

The South Africans, though, have captured the heart of Tobagonian fans with their stylish, speedy and spirited play. Unfortunately for coach Solomon Luvhengo’s girls, they meet the German juggernaut next. Coach Ralf Peter’s description of his side’s 9-0 demolition of Mexico as “a perfect start,” sounds like something of an understatement.

“Scoring goals is not something you work on; you either take your chances or you don’t. We had plenty of chances against the Koreans and we failed to take them. Hopefully against Germany it will not be the same case,” South Africa boss Solomon Luvhengo to FIFA.com after his side spurned an early penalty and missed countless good chances in their opener.

Germany enters all women’s football competitions as clear favourites. That they finished third in the European qualifiers for Trinidad and Tobago 2010 was a shock to many.

But their first performance in stifling tropical conditions has their loss to the Irish in qualifying looking like an aberration. With one match behind them the Germans are already looking potential winners, hoping to join up with their senior and U-20 sides who both currently reign as world champions.

If they manage to win their first U-17 title here in the Caribbean it will be in large part down to their three-pronged attack. Kyra Malinowski, who scored eight goals in two qualifying games, hit the net three times against Mexico, equalling pre-tournament darling Lena Petermann’s tally for the day.

It looked as though Malinowski might have been in for a rough game at the outset, too, flubbing a simple header in the first minute. But she put the miss behind her with accurate strikes in the 42nd, 55th and 66th minutes.

“There’s a danger in a big win,” said Malinowski, who is called the “real goal-getter in the team” by the coaching staff. “You can feel like you already won something and that can be trouble; we’ll need to put the game behind us and move on.”

Lena Lotzen, small and timid with bright eyes, is the clever creator to poachers Malinowski and Petermann. Occupying a wide-left position in the three-woman attack, she bamboozled two defenders before cutting inside and thundering home the German opener from distance to get the rout rolling after only four minutes.

“We have to be realistic about the result; it’s not something you’ll have every day,” said Lotzen, scorer of two goals on the day and one away from completing a trio of hat-tricks. “It’s a great feeling to score, especially when it helps the team win, so I am thrilled with the way things have started for us.”