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German women’s volleyball team eye Olympics after beating USA

Germany’s women volleyball team celebrated a sensational victory in Japan on Wednesday, beating the world cup favourites USA 3-0 and getting into a good position to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

Published: 10 November 2011 08:24 CET

German women's volleyball team eye Olympics after beating USA

The German team celebrates its victory. Photo: FIVB

“We managed to do something really extraordinary and win against what is currently the best team in the world; I thank my women for that,” said coach Giovanni Guidetti after the match in Toyama which was settled 32:30, 25:19 and 26:24.

The German team is on a roll, with this its fourth victory in five world cup games. The Germans have 11 points and now stand fourth, just one point from third position which would mean an Olympic qualification.

They travel to Okoyama on Thursday where they are clear favourites in matches against Algeria, the Dominican Republic and Argentina. Guidetti said he was positive. “I think we can draw confidence from this match,” he said.

During the third set in the match the Germans were five points behind, yet managed to recover, keeping their heads and concentrating on the game. “I am really proud of our match. Even when we were four or five points behind, we still managed to turn the game around,” said game-maker Margareta Kozuch.

The Americans had only conceded one set in the entire tournament until they came up against the Germans. “I was impressed how concentrated my players remained,” said Guidetti. “It is an honour for me to be the trainer of this team. We never lost faith in ourselves, not for a second.”

American coach Hugh McCutcheon said, “I thought we were good, but today we were not good enough.”

Defending world cup champions Italy are back at the top of the rankings after the USA’s defeat. USA and China are joint second, one point ahead of Germany.

DPA/The Local/hc

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FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or.

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich — Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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