The Swiss women’s national team does not yet have a number 1 in goal. But with the dazzling world champion Nadine Angerer, a star as the new goalie coach. It is intended to bring the footballers to the top level until the home European Championships in 2025.
She should be nothing less than the soul of the game, the new number 1 in Swiss Goal. A support for the team who finds the right words, is solid and reliable in goal. And please don’t just say yes and amen. “I’m a fan of more difficult characters, of a personality that asks questions,” says Nadine Angerer before her first session as goalie coach for the Swiss women’s national soccer team.
The 45-year-old is such a personality herself: world footballer in 2013, world champion and European champion with Germany. Extroverted, entertaining, non-conformist.
This means that the Swiss Football Association (SFV) has landed its second coup after hiring head coach Pia Sundhage at the beginning of the year. 15 months before the European Championships in their own country and after a turbulent past year, the association is sending a strong signal that it is willing to offer the women’s team the best possible conditions in the short preparation period until July 2025.
The chance to be part of the home team at a big tournament was one of the reasons why Angerer agreed to join the SFV. The second was Angerer’s respect for Sundhage, who had texted her in mid-March and quickly convinced her to abandon her original plans. Angerer lived in the USA for ten years, first as a player and since 2015 as a goalie coach at Portland Thorns FC. At the end of last year she ended her engagement; She wanted to take a break until the summer. She moved with her wife to Fuerteventura, where she owns a house.
Thirdly, Angerer was attracted by the potential of the young goalies. Switzerland is still looking for its number 1 in goal. Gaëlle Thalmann resigned last summer after more than 100 international matches, and now a new generation is fighting for the place. Two regular goalkeepers from the German Bundesliga have the best chances: Livia Peng, 22 years old, from Werder Bremen, and Elvira Herzog, 24, from RB Leipzig.
From Friday it’s all about promotion back to League A
On Friday evening, Switzerland will face Turkey in Letzigrund in Zurich. The other group opponents in the first phase of the European Championship qualification are Azerbaijan and Hungary. Switzerland has already qualified as host, but something is also at stake for them: winning the group would mean promotion back to League A of the Nations League with the best 16 teams in Europe.
So far, the Swiss have tested twice under Sundhage and played 4-1 and 0-1 against Poland, with Peng once and Herzog in goal. In the six games until July, both should continue to get their chance so that a number 1 can be determined as soon as possible, that’s what Angerer has in mind. Sundhage also doesn’t want to delay the decision for too long, as it is important for the entire defense. Communication within a well-coordinated team brings trust and security when hitting high balls – an area in which Sundhage still sees problems.
To gain security, Angerer relies on technology. Their strategy: build impeccable technique in training and then expose the goalkeepers to many situations in which they have to make the right decisions. When you are stressed or hectic, good basic technique helps enormously in making fewer mistakes.
Sundhage is convinced that Angerer can give the young Swiss goalies a lot: “Nadine is a winner. It is contageous.”
Angerer missed appointments because she forgot to open the mail
However, it took a while for Angerer to really take football seriously. “I was a little sleazeball.” Former Swedish goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson, a good friend of hers, played a formative role in her career. “She had to work for everything, everything more or less fell into my lap. I learned from her that it is necessary to invest more and train more.”
The then German national coach Tina Theune also spoke to her conscience after Angerer had only been a substitute for years, had missed appointments because she had forgotten to open the mail, and had never missed a prank or a faux pas. Either she takes the sport seriously and becomes the best goalkeeper in the world – or she gets kicked out.
Angerer chose the first route. She still holds the record for the longest time without conceding a goal at a World Cup – 621 minutes of play across World Cups in 2007 and 2011; She logically became world champion in 2007. In 2013, she saved two foul penalties as captain in the European Championship final against Norway, thus securing Germany’s eighth European Championship title. That year she was named World Player of the Year. No other goalie has achieved this before or after her, neither for women nor for men.
A compilation of the best scenes from Nadine Angerer’s career.
Angerer also benefited from the fact that the position in goal has always been very important in Germany. It was not uncommon for other goalies to become laughing stock at major women’s tournaments in the past because they could not keep up with the level of the best field players. That has changed; the quality of women’s goalies has increased significantly in recent years.
Women goalies are better supported today than before
Peng and Herzog are good examples of this development. Peng talks about her goalkeeper coach Roman Cabalzar, who discovered her at the age of 12, supported her and continues to support her closely to this day. Herzog works at Leipzig with Michael Gurski, who adapts the traditional goalie training to the women’s physical requirements and develops it further – especially in positional play. On average, the women’s national goals are 20 centimeters smaller than the men’s, but the goal has the same mass.
Angerer believes that crosses and high balls are generally weak points in women’s football. “But if I have the right sequence of steps and let the goalie make quick decisions in training, I can improve it,” says the Bavarian.
With the Swiss, she now simply has to start the speed program because the time until the home European Championships is so short. The conditions for taking a big step forward during this time have never been better for the women’s national team.