International Recap: Marozsán and Cruz Earn Assists For Germany and Costa Rica
Germany vs. Bulgaria
The No. 3 ranked Germany Women’s National team played their first World Cup qualifier at the Stadion der Freundschaft in Cottbus, Germany against No. 79 ranked Bulgaria. Germany dominated the match and came away with a comfortable 7-0 win. OL Reign midfielder Dzsenifer Marozsán started the game and played all 90 minutes. She earned one assist in Germany’s solid victory.
Though Germany dominated the game, Bulgaria came out on the front foot and tested Germany early. It looked like Bulgarian Yuliana Aleksandrova was in on goal in the second minute of the match, but Germany recovered on that play and gained their footing in the match.
Germany began to connect quality passes, but the final ball in on goal was not there. It looked like the German side had broken through and gotten the first goal of the match in the 17th minute, but Lea Schüller was called offside, and the goal was disallowed.
Just three minutes later, in the 20th minute, Schüller found the back of the net again and opened the scoring of the match. Däbritz hit a ball past the Bulgarian defense and found Hendrich. She played a ball into Schüller in the middle, who found the back of the net.
In the 24th minute, Germany struck again. Marozsán played Magull, who made easy work of the Bulgarian defense, displaying her footwork before striking the ball into the corner of the goal to double Germany’s lead.
Before the end of the first half, Germany found one more goal. In the 33rd minute, Magull found her second goal of the match. Lohmann chipped a ball into the box and found the head of Magull. She directed the header past Roksana Shahanska in goal to secure the 3-0 lead going into the halftime break.
Following halftime, Germany did not find the back of the net again until the 67th minute, when substitute Linda Dallmann finished a cross put in by Hendrich on the right. In the 72nd minute, Dallmann earned as assist, when she crossed a ball into Schüller, who easily converted.
Germany scored their last two goals in the 76th and 82nd minutes. For the sixth goal, Nüsken played Waßmut, who found the back of the net. The last goal of the night was scored by Dallmann, who found free space near the six-yard box to get a shot off and bag Germany’s seventh goal.
Germany takes on Serbia on Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00 a.m. PT in their next World Cup qualifying match.
Costa Rica vs. Panama
No. 36 ranked Costa Rica and No. 59 ranked Panama faced off at Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San José, Costa Rica. Panama came away with a narrow 2-1 win. OL Reign midfielder Shirley Cruz started for Costa Rica and was subbed out in the second half. Cruz served as the captain of the Costa Rica squad and earned an assist.
The two sides tested the waters for the first quarter hour of the match, looking to find the weakness of one another. Panama found the opening goal in the 15th minute, when Gabrielle Villagrand found space to get on the end of a ball in the box and head home the breakthrough goal.
Costa Rica responded, searching for an equalizing goal immediately. Both sides came close to finding the back of the net in the rest of the first half, but neither team was successful. Cruz and Costa Rica went into halftime down one goal.
At the start of the second half, Costa Rica came out energized, determined to find an equalizer. It took just under ten minutes for Costa Rica to find the opportunity, but in the 54th minute, Cruz found Cristel Sandi, who found the back of the net.
With the game all tied up, the teams both worked hard to search for the winning goal and made a slew of substitutions to attempt to bring up the tempo of the game. It looked like the two sides were going to split the points, but in the 94th minute of the match, well into stoppage time, Marta Cox found a second goal for Panama, to bring the score to 2-1.
The two teams meet again on Tuesday, September 21 at 6:00 p.m. PT.