“The quality there is on another level”: Alexandra Popp on her BVB start | OneFootball

Thursday is the day: the Regionalliga West kicks off its new season. Borussia Dortmund face Arminia Bielefeld at 7 p.m. in the opening match. “I’m happy that it’s finally getting started,” says BVB star Alexandra Popp (35), eagerly anticipating the top clash.

She is one of Germany’s best-known female footballers. Popp played 144 international matches, scoring 67 goals. At the 2016 Olympic Games, she won the gold medal with the Germany team, and eight years later bronze. In 2022, she reached the Women’s European Championship final with the national team, but lost there in extra time to the host nation, England. Alongside two Champions League titles, the Witten native’s résumé also includes seven German championships and 13 DFB Cup victories.

The Black and Yellows’ goal is promotion to the 2. Bundesliga. Last season, they fell short by two points. 1. FC Köln’s second team came out on top. Although BVB are considered the favorites, Popp warned in an interview with kicker against complacency: “Every single player has to be aware that the season will not be a walk in the park. You can have great players on the pitch, but if the team doesn’t function, you won’t be successful.”

“A lot of things have already worked well”

After 336 appearances and 162 goals in Germany’s top flight for Duisburg and Wolfsburg, the veteran is opening a new chapter. “It was an adjustment for me because I’m coming from the Bundesliga, and the quality there is different,” the striker says of her first weeks at the new club. “First I had to get to know everything, my teammates, the routines here, and the overall circumstances. That was pretty exhausting.” But she adds that she is “very positive because the difference isn’t all that big either.”

Photo: IMAGO

In pre-season, Dortmund impressed with a 1–0 win over AS Roma. As part of BVB’s season-opening event, Lara Schmidt (26) headed a free kick from Rita Schumacher (26) into the net. “A lot of things have already worked well,” says Popp, who also wears the captain’s armband.

But the results from the test matches have only limited significance for the competitive opener. Popp knows that too and therefore warns: “Arminia Bielefeld are a strong opponent, and we have to be fully switched on from the very start.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.