The
German people
are always viewed as a pragmatic, serious and hard working one and the
German national soccer team shares these qualities. England's legendary
striker Gary Lineker once said about the German national soccer team
that "soccer is a game played by 22 people but in the end the Germans
always win".
This reflects the German team's strength in a fun manner, but believe
me; Germans are never to be taken lightly. They illustrated it by
playing 7 (yes, yes, SEVEN) World Cup finals, winning 3 of them.
let's take a deeper look in the past of the German national soccer team
and find out how the above feat of power was triggered.
German National Soccer Team
– History Besides being one of the national teams with
the longest and hardest to pronounce names in its native language (in
German, the national team is called "Die Deutsche
Fußballnationalmannschaft"), the German national team is also
one of the oldest around. Still, when it was formed in 1908, there were
a few already experienced national teams around, namely those of
England and Scotland.
World
Cup Record
Year
Position
Uruguay - 1930
Withdrew
Italy - 1934
Semi Finals
France - 1938
Round 1
Brazil - 1950
Banned
Switzerland - 1954
Champions
Sweden - 1958
Semi Finals
Chile - 1962
Quarter finals
England - 1966
Final
Mexico - 1970
Semi Finals
West Germany - 1974
Champions
Argentina - 1978
Group Round 2
Spain - 1982
Final
Mexico - 1986
Final
Italy - 1990
Champions
USA - 1994
Quarter Finals
France - 1998
Quarter Finals
Korea/Japan
Final
Germany
Semi Finals
Total
3 Championship
Since there weren't a lot of national teams in Europe at that given
moment, matches between the three countries were frequent, and this sparked
rivalries that can even be felt today. For the German
national team, England is considered its nemesis, especially since they
lost a World Cup in front of the
English squad in 1966.
Another negative result against their arch-rivals is that the German
national soccer team suffered its biggest defeat against England, in a
1909 match when they lost 9-0 to a much more experienced and mature
English
squad.
German National Soccer
Team – Division - Due to the
political events surrounding the country in the 20th century, the
German national soccer team suffered immensely, being practically
ripped apart into West and East. The West Germany team was one of the
most successful in Europe over the last century, however East Germany
also had a very talented squad of players and even managed to win the
Olympic title in 1976.
Many speculate that if both teams were allowed to play as one, we would
have witnessed an even more rampant German soccer team in international
competitions.
German
National Soccer Team – Trophies - Due
to the aftermath of World War I and its poor economic condition in
1930, Germany had to withdraw from the World Cup held in Uruguay.
However, 4 years later, debuting in official international competitions
at the 1934 World Cup
in Italy, they managed a huge performance, reaching the semi-finals and
grasping the bronze medal.
This great performance did not repeat itself in 1938 for the World Cup
held in France, as most of the athletes were taken in the army, as
Hitler staged World War II. After the war, with the World Cup
competition being suspended until 1950, Germany was not allowed to take
part and was subsequently banned from the World Cup held in Brazil, for
obvious reasons.
Being banned from the World Cup, even 5 years after the war was over,
sparked a desire between the German national soccer players and they
managed a massive performance 4 years later, being crowned champions of
the tournament in Switzerland.
Although this performance was not repeated in 1958 and 1962 when they
left the competition earlier than expected, they managed to reach the
final in 1966, but were beaten by their arch-rivals, England, who were
playing at home.
The defeat against the English team was a shock for
the German national soccer team, but they still managed to pull a good
performance in 1970, reaching 3rd place again and their pace increased
as they would stage the 1974 World Cup at home.
Eventually, they won this and managed to add to their trophy room. But
many consider that the best period of time for the German national team
was between the 1982 and 1990 World Cups. A group of greatly talented
German players managed to reach the finals in all 3 World Cups between
these periods, however they only won the last one in Italy 1990.
After reaching yet another final in Japan and Korea's 2002, German fans
were hopeful that their team would repeat the 1974 performance, when
Germany won at home. For the soccer World Cup in Germany held in 2006, fans
were pessimistic about their team getting a good run, as some
internal problems seemed to doom them from the start. Still,
in a display of ambition and with the home fans at their back, the
German soccer team managed an honorable 3rd place, bringing yet another
medal home.