There's
a rather weird contradiction between German
soccer and its English counterpart. Despite the two countries being
arch-rivals in the game for over a century, you cannot hold back from
noticing the close resemblance between the two.
The soccer of Germany, as is the case with English one, is based on
physical athleticism, pragmatism and well rounded tactics.
German
soccer
fans respect a good hard tackle almost as cheerfully as the
English ones and it's no wonder that most of the national Germany
soccer team’s heroes are either defenders, defensive
midfielders or goalkeepers.
But leaving all theories aside, soccer in Germany has a lot of stuff
that makes it unique, on both club and national team levels.
Although
the German league might not be the toughest in the World, usually being
placed after the Italian Serie A,
Spanish La Liga and English Premiership, German clubs like Bayern
Munchen or Bayer Leverkusen are always tough competitors.
The German national team is also one of the most successful around,
playing in 7 World Cup finals, winning 3 of them. This "habit"
of reaching the final was put into a quip that says that "if Germany
plays badly, they reach the final, if they play well they win it too".
Since this section is dedicated entirely to German soccer, I split it
up into sub-sections, of which you can find a short preview below:
German
National Soccer Team
Strangely, the national team that had to roll with more punches than
any other is also one of the most successful in the
entire history of soccer. The German national soccer team's World Cup
record is impressive: in 16 participations to a World Cup, they managed
to win it 3 times, place second 4 more times and third 3 times. That's
10 different medals in 16 participations. I don't know about you, but
to me that's pretty impressive. And as if that
didn't prove the quality of the German national team throughout time,
take a look at their European Championship record: 9 participations out
of 12, 3 Cup wins and 2 runner-up places. No comment.Click
here to read more...
Germany's
Soccer Players
As stated earlier, German soccer players always based their
performances on athleticism rather than technique and on tactical
prowess rather than moments of brilliance.
Despite some exceptions like
that of strikers Uwe Seeler or Jurgen Klinsmann, most of the famous
German soccer players are defensive ones and we can just
point out goalkeepers Sepp Meier and Oliver Kahn, defender Franz
Beckenbauer or defensive midfielder Lothar Matthaus. Click
here to read more...
History
of Soccer in Germany
Being a nation with a long history in soccer, Germany went from
amateurism to professionalism at the beginning of the 20th century, a
few decades after than the "inventors of soccer" and at the same time
Germany's arch-rivals: England.
Throughout the entire soccer history of Germany, the country's national team and clubs had to suffer
immensely and come back after taking political punches like the two
World Wars, the great Economic Crisis or the split-up of Germany
resulting after World War II.Click
here to read more...