Elvira Herzog has not always cut the happiest figure in goal for the national team. Now the 24-year-old from Zurich is set to lead Switzerland as number 1 at the home European Championships.
The life of a goalkeeper can be thankless at times. If she makes a mistake, it can not only have a decisive negative impact on a match, but it also burns itself into the collective memory of the fans in a matter of seconds. Every carefully initiated attack, every confidently intercepted cross, every successful save - all this is quickly forgotten in the shadow of a groundbreaking mishap.
Elvira Herzog knows this. Much better than the 24-year-old would sometimes wish. Because in her career as a goalkeeper, this has already happened to her several times. The Zurich native is sitting in her hotel in Pfäffikon on Tuesday afternoon, where she is preparing with the Swiss national team for the last two test matches of the year against Germany on Friday (20:00) in Zurich's Letzigrund and against European champions England on Tuesday (20:45) in Sheffield.
Herzog says she is full of anticipation to be able to compete against two top nations again after the game against Australia (1:1) and the coup against France (2:1). But of course at some point the conversation turns to the past.
Nielsen's misjudgement
Five and a half years have passed since her debut in the national team against Serbia, after which she usually has to line up behind the undisputed number one Gaëlle Thalmann and wait for her chance to prove herself. As was the case in December 2020, when Thalmann was ruled out for the decisive European Championship qualifier against Belgium due to a coronavirus infection and the national coach at the time, Nils Nielsen, somewhat surprisingly put his trust in Herzog. Because of her safety on the flanks, the Dane said at the time. And later had to explain why the young goalkeeper made two mistakes with such crosses, which led to goals being conceded and, after a desolate performance (0:4), earned Switzerland a detour via the play-offs.
At the time, not even the boldest optimists could have imagined that Herzog would one day follow in Thalmann's footsteps. She was not called up by Inka Grings and her staff for the 2023 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia and seemed to be written off. After that, she did appear on the pitch from time to time, but sometimes Seraina Friedli or Livia Peng, who had since retired, were also given the nod.
It was only when Pia Sundhage took over as national coach in January of this year that Herzog once again became an integral part of the goalkeeping trio - and she immediately scored points with the Swedish coach on her first outing against Poland (4:1) by saving a penalty. At the time, Sundhage and her team did not want to commit to a fixed regular in goal. Livia Peng should also get her chance to prove herself, and the competition should spur both goalies on to better performances.
Angerer's praise
Now, for about a month, Elvira Herzog knows that she has prevailed for the time being and has been entrusted with the role of regular goalkeeper by Sundhage and the duo of goalkeeping coaches Nadine Angerer and Patricia Gsell. "There's no measure of how happy I am about it," says Herzog, who started her career at Zurich neighborhood club FC Unterstrass and has been playing in the German Bundesliga for five years - in Leipzig since the summer of 2022. "This is the greatest honor for me," she says of her number 1 status.
At the end of their last meeting, the goalkeeping coaches spoke to her and told her the good news. A conversation which, as Angerer reveals, initially left Herzog speechless with joy and surprise. But for the former world-class goalkeeper, who has been with the SFA since March, Herzog's appointment as number one is not a surprise, but rather a logical consequence of her performances in recent months. "Elvira has made great progress recently, especially in terms of her leadership qualities," says Angerer, who has played 146 international matches for Germany, won the World Cup twice and the European Championship five times.
"Elvira has a great presence in the penalty area, and she coaches the team very well from the back," says Angerer. "That was a crucial point. The team feels comfortable with Elvira."
The 46-year-old is keen to emphasize that the atmosphere within the goalkeeping team of Herzog, Peng and Nadine Böhi is very good and that everyone supports and encourages each other. In view of the home European Championships in the summer, however, it was important to define the hierarchy so that everyone could get used to their role and grow in it. After all, the goalkeepers had only played 15 (Herzog), 7 (Peng) and 0 (Böhi) international matches.
Herzog's change of numbers
The German also realized that people like to talk about past mistakes in connection with Herzog, which irritated her somewhat. That is why she also wants to contribute to a cultural change in which the focus is more on the future and on the positive.
Like the Letzigrund Stadium, which will once again be very well attended on Friday after the record crowd against Australia in October and will provide a worthy setting for Elvira Herzog's baptism of fire as number 1. Herzog, who can count on the support of mental coaches both at Leipzig and in the national team, says: "I want to prove that I deserve this place."
She will still wear the number 21 on her back, but by the summer at the latest she will also have the number 1 on her jersey.
SDA
