Three legendary gamers turned managers on the World Cup

Thirty-two years in the past, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, Pia Sundhage and Hege Riise had been breaking new floor as they walked out onto the pitch as star gamers for his or her powerhouse European nations on the inaugural Ladies’s World Cup.

BBC Sport spoke to all three about these early World Cup steps and the panorama they face as we speak.

Endorsement from Pele

Present Germany boss and former aptitude ahead Voss-Tecklenburg seems again on the primary version of the competitors in 1991 as a “robust match” for the then European champions.

“To be trustworthy we weren’t actually so properly ready for it,” she says. “It felt like we had been taking part in each different day and we had been fairly knackered post-game.”

Even so, as an workplace clerk who had taken unpaid go away to play in that World Cup, she went on to expertise many memorable moments out in China.

Now aged 55, she seems again on coaching classes below the gaze of 6,000 Chinese language spectators that had been “one thing else”.

She additionally fondly remembers a “merry” breaking of conventional German bread, salami and beer with quarter-final rivals Denmark within the hall of their shared resort.

“One of many nicest [moments] is that Pele got here to look at just a few video games,” she provides. “And when he had performed that he mentioned to his buddies ‘that German quantity seven goes to be an ideal participant’.”

A speedy dribbler with a never-say-die perspective, she knew Germany’s historic journey had not gone unnoticed again house both, after her then associate’s brush with the legislation earlier than a televised match.

“He was caught on a radar entice by the German police and mentioned ‘sorry however I needed to rush as a result of I need to see that match’ they usually waved him on with out making an enormous fuss.”

Though they had been trounced 4-0 within the battle for bronze by Sweden, Germany completed a decent fourth in 1991 and had been runners-up 4 years later, Voss-Tecklenburg just about ever-present all through.

Now she is heading to a second World Cup as Germany head coach and says it will take “an hour” to discover what has modified since these early days.

“The highest factor is we at the moment are supremely ready, elite skilled footballers,” she says. “Large knowledge comes into it, pre-match preparations, post-match evaluation.

“We had a bunch of 30-31 folks [in 1991]. That has utterly modified, with 23 lively gamers and a few 70 to 80 individuals now, would you imagine, working in diverse features, doing their jobs to allow the crew to achieve success.

“And the diploma of consideration you get now could be unbelievable, I’ve learn someplace that the World Cup might be watched by a collective viewers of two billion folks and people are unthinkable dimensions for me.”

Sundhage’s singsongs

Sweden’s captain Pia Sundhage endured an uncomfortable journey to succeed in the World Cup in 1991 – fairly actually.

Cigarettes had been allowed on planes again then and the non-smoking Swede had been seated proper by the smoking space. “It was terrible,” she laughs.

After 16 years as a global, although, she knew the discomfort was price it.

“We had been preventing for the European Championship in 1984 and that was some type of assertion,” she explains. “However we needed to know who’s one of the best crew on the earth and when it occurred it was enormous.”

Then a 31-year-old cap centurion, Sundhage was a part of a Sweden set-up that boasted the one feminine coach within the match, Gunilla Paijkull, and one physician.

“Again then we hardly noticed ourselves on video,” she says. “Now you may have video from 4 completely different angles, GPS, knowledge, it’s very completely different.”

But as they cast new rivalries and fashioned unlikely friendships on their strategy to a bronze medal end, these historic two weeks in 1991 left an indelible impression.

China proved memorable foes, turning their third-ever assembly with Sweden right into a “battle” backed by 55,000 noisy followers and a barrage of snapping cameras.

“We had been sensible, organised and fortunate,” says Sundhage, who remembers not simply the “lifeless silence” that met her profitable objective, however China’s technical prowess too.

She provides: “I’m nonetheless fascinated by Asian groups, they hardly have a dominant foot.”

The phrases of Swedish FA official Lars-Ake Lagrell, delivered in a hallway earlier than their match for third place with Germany, proceed to resonate with Sundhage too.

“He mentioned, ‘Simply so you realize, it’s an enormous distinction to be third or fourth as a result of in case you get third you get a medal.’ That’s one thing I nonetheless maintain in my thoughts.”

There have been different memorable moments. Just like the bond cast with the USA over shared pasta rations and Sundhage’s singing tribute after the People had received the ultimate.

20 years later, the Swede was serenading the media and USA gamers, this time on the best way to claiming World Cup silver as America’s head coach.

Now, having additionally managed Sweden on this stage, the 63-year-old leads Brazil, hoping she will be able to mix Swedish organisation and Brazilian “nice method” right into a profitable mixture. However will all of us be handled to a tune?

“If it goes properly, sure,” she quips. “In Portuguese.”

A limousine and a police escort

Hege Riise was a 22-year-old sports activities store saleswoman incomes her sixteenth cap on the night time Norway kicked off the 1991 match in opposition to China in Guangzhou.

“I keep in mind driving in on the bus, numerous folks standing, waving, excited for the sport,” Riise says. “And coming to the stadium with 65,000 there, taking part in a gap sport in opposition to the house nation – that was an enormous, massive goosebump second.”

Reigning European silver medallists, Norway had ready for China with matches in opposition to male groups and coaching camps within the USA, Switzerland and Denmark.

Their backroom employees included a physician, physiotherapist and an administrator, whereas Riise remembers having a chef in tow, in addition to a provide of conventional “brown cheese”.

The cheese stays a nationwide crew staple in each camp to today, however as head coach of her nation, 53-year-old Riise faces a special panorama now.

“There’s the restricted time earlier than an enormous match with the gamers and every little thing on social media that may have an effect on the gamers,” she says. “And the velocity of the sport, the extent of the video games, are larger.”

Norway failed to succeed in their degree in that opener in opposition to China, struggling a thumping 4-0 defeat that Riise calls a “onerous begin” to their 1991 marketing campaign.

However there have been highlights to return and Norway’s rookie quantity 9 remembers being “impressed” by the Haka of the New Zealand gamers earlier than their first-ever encounter, and feeling “starstruck” strolling into Brazil legend Pele in her resort carry.

Most memorable for Riise, although, as she performed each minute of the primary of her 4 World Cups, was the 4-1 overcome Sundhage’s Sweden within the semis.

“We felt like we crushed Sweden to have the ability to play the ultimate,” she says.

A late solo effort from match prime scorer Michelle Akers denied Norway within the showpiece in opposition to the USA.

On Swedish soil 4 years later, it was Riise who set the ultimate alight with a jinking run and killer objective in opposition to Germany as Norway steamrollered their strategy to glory.

Promised a novel journey house from the airport by a club-mate if she received gold, Riise additionally set curtains twitching as she pulled up exterior her small city residence.

“She had a limousine [arranged] for me with a driver – and a police escort,” she laughs. “That was an ideal second to recollect.”