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Criticism mounts against Germany's Silvia Neid

July 2, 2015

Silvia Neid, head coach of the German women's soccer team, is feeling the heat after the 2-0 loss to the USA in the Women's World Cup semifinal. Other coaches have criticized her predictability on the field.

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deutsche Nationalmannschaft der Frauen Silvia Neid
Image: Getty Images/D. Grombkowski/Bongarts

After being beaten by the United States in Tuesday's semifinal at the Women's World Cup in Canada, Germany's long-standing head coach Silvia Neid came under fire Thursday for an apparent lack of flexibility and strong leadership.

Ralf Kellermann, the head coach of Wolfsburg's women, said that tactical deficiencies were responsible for the loss to the US, and he laid the blame for deficits at Neid's feet.

Colin Bell, who coaches Frankfurt's women's soccer team, had an even sharper critique: "After the opening goal almost nothing worked, and there was no plan B," he told German newspaper, "Frankfurter Rundschau".

"I saw no match plan. When a game like that starts to go in a negative direction, you have to change players or tactics. This simply didn't happen."

The 51-year-old Neid has been Germany's head coach since 2005, and has guided them to plenty of success. In 2007, they won the World Cup, before picking up bronze in the 2008 Summer Olympics. A year later, Germany were European Champions and Neid was awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or for the best coach of a women's team in 2010. Most recently, in 2013, she picked up the same European Championship title and Ballon d'Or double.

'It's always easy to judge'

Germany's goalkeeper Nadine Angerer publically jumped to Neid's defense, saying Bell's comments "really made me angry. It's always easy to judge from outside. But if you have no idea what you're talking about, you should look at the underlying factors first."

"We delivered a fantastic game and lost to a strong US team. And we know the greater part of the audience still sees our quality," she told a press conference on Thursday in the Canadian city of Edmonton. Other long-standing members of the team believe Neid has changed dramatically from when she first took over. At the end of 2015, Neid is set to step down and be replaced by former German national team defender Steffi Jones.

Germany will play England on Saturday in the third-place playoff while the US will face Japan in a rematch of the 2011 World Cup Final that the Japanese women won on penalties.

es/jr (SID, dpa)