The German women's football team are hoping they can repeat their perfect winning streak to the gold medal in last year's World Cup but acknowledged there are a lot of difficulties.
Germany won 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China without conceding a goal. Silvia Neid, coach of the team, said they would be happy if they can do it again in the Olympics.
"We will try to do so, and you know, our defense is strong," Neid said.
Germany is in the "Group of Death" which includes Athens Olympic runners-up Brazil, Asian powerhouse the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and African champions Nigeria. Their opening game will be on August 6 against Brazil, who lost to them 2-0 in the World Cup final.
"That final match is the last game in a long tournament, and now it's a start of tournament," Neid said. "Of course we'd like to win again, but both teams are balanced and have their own strength and weakness."
Brazil's squad features attacking artist Marta and Cristiane. Linda Bresonik, defender of the German team, said both of them are fast and can handle the ball pretty well. "Our aim is to withstand them so that they can't score."
In regards of Nigeria and DPRK, coach Neid said both teams are tough opponents and will have chances for medal.
"Especially DPR Korea, they played in the quarterfinals last year and we still remember how difficult that game was," she recalled. "After we scored the first goal, DPR Korea had chance to level the game but they didn't score, when we saw the second goal that gave us some advantage. We have a lot of respect for this team."
"Nigeria is a team that is difficult to predict how they will play, and they have five players in defense and attack and this would be a tough game as well."
"This means our first aim is to withstand the group and reach the quarterfinals," she added.
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2008)