It is not uncommon, even if one is knows quite a bit about international soccer, to know very little about the women’s national teams of Ivory Coast and Thailand. So Germany Coach Silvia Neid admits freely that she was in the dark when they were put in her first-round group for this summer’s Women’s World Cup.
“To be honest, we knew very little about both teams at the draw,” she said in an interview before the tournament.
It didn’t matter much — Germany thrashed Ivory Coast, 10-0, on Sunday and most likely will do something similar to Thailand next Monday — but Neid acknowledged that there remained a professional obligation to at least have an idea what might be coming from every opponent.