Germany News Archives

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Anthony Young once lost a record 27 straight decisions before finally recording a win. The Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls - and lost each one. In 1986, Greg Norman led each of the four majors after the third round only to end up losing each one, a feat that was dubbed “The Norman Slam.” In 2004, tennis star Lleyton Hewitt pulled off a similar feat when he lost to the eventual champion in each of the four Grand Slam events.

When pitcher Brian Kingman lost 20 games in one season for the Oakland A’s, he said that you have to be pretty good to lose 20 games. Similarly, for those aforementioned athletes, you have to be pretty good to even be in a position to lose like that in the first place.

I’m sure that’s not much consolation to Michael Ballack.

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We’ve looked at the players, now it’s time to look at the managers involved at Euro 2008 and find out how they got on:

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For all the laudatory praise that will inevitably follow Spain’s 1-0 victory over Germany in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, the culmination of the 2008 European Championship failed to live up to its consistently thrilling early stages.

Despite their clear failure to organise a defence befitting a truly great team, Spain are a competent collective force with an individual technical assurance that borders on comprehensive. The free-flowing touch and finesse of their midfield four (five, for the majority of the semi-final and the final) shielded a distinctly streaky back four, comprising of the Spanish Jamie Carragher (Carlos Puyol), a glorified athlete (Sergio Ramos) and the unconvincing Capdevila and Marchena.

Nevertheless, for a tournament as satisfying as Euro 2008, the task of finding a winning performance that transcended those of Russia and Holland in the preliminary stages was to inevitably prove futile, and we can only rejoice in an outcome that lofts a team possessing faith in the eternal maxims of swift passing and fluid movement above all others.

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Germany went down to a Torres goal at Vienna in the Euro 2008 final. Here are the highlights:

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Germany 0-1 Spain (Torres 33′)
Euro 2008 Final
Date - Sunday 29 June 2008
Venue - Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna
Kickoff - 20:45 CET, 19:45 UK, 14:45 EST

They had waited 44 long and painful years but Spain finally got their hands on their first piece of major silverware since 1964 as they gave Germany a football masterclass in Vienna to win Euro 2008.

Rarely will a 1-0 win have failed to reflect the victorious side’s superiority as Luis Aragones’s side passed and moved their way past Germany’s two dimensional challenge to be crowned European champions. Fernando Torres’ first-half strike proved the difference but the Spanish could, perhaps should have made their stylish triumph more empathic.

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Germany 3-2 Turkey - Impressive Turks bow out in style
Germany 3-2 Turkey - Live Blog - Semifinals - Euro 2008

Video highlights from the first Euro 2008 semifinal:

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Germany 3-2 Turkey (Germany: Schweinsteiger 26′, Klose 78′, Lahm 90′, Turkey: Ugur Boral 22′, Semih Senturk 86′)
St. Jakob-Park, Basel
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Euro 2008 Semi Final #1
Kickoff: 20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT, 14:45 EST

Germany v Turkey - Live Blog
Germany 3-2 Turkey - Euro 2008 Semifinal - Video Highlights

Late goal specialists Turkey ran out of luck on a balmy night in Basel as Germany’s left-back Phillip Lahm stole the glory with a stunning injury time winner of his own. In truth it’s hard to believe that Germany have gone through to Sunday’s final because for the vast majority of this encounter they were played off the park by a Turkey side who performed brilliantly on the night.

Ugor Boral’s deserved goal midway through the first half was cancelled out by Schweinsteiger in Germany’s first serious attack. And then in the second half, two goalkeeping errors allowed Klose and then Semih to score – before Lahm’s magnificently dramatic late strike sealed a famous win.

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Germany (Schweinsteiger 26′, Klose 78′, Lahm 90′) 3-2 Turkey (Ugur Boral 22′, Semih Senturk 86′)
St. Jakob-Park, Basel
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Euro 2008, Semi Final #1
Kickoff: 20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT, 14:45 EST

Germany advanced to the Euro 2008 Finals with a thrilling 3-2 victory against upset-minded Turkey.

Germany v Turkey - Match Report
Germany 3-2 Turkey - Euro 2008 Semifinal - Video Highlights

Soccerlens live-blogged the event. Click below for the commentary.

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German coach Joachim Low is grinning. He will face Turkey in the semi-final of the Euro’s, not Croatia. Turkey pounced on a strong Croatia team to steal victory in miraculous fashion. Croatia thought they had won, but the last play of the game and penalties doomed the Croats to an early exit. Turkish fans are ecstatic after their second straight comeback win, but the Germans are the true victors on the night.

Turkey, although they are through to the semi-finals, are decimated by injuries and suspensions. Emre Asik, Arda Turan, Tuncay Sanli, Volkan Demirel, (assuming his appeal of his suspension is denied) and Nihat (possible injury) all are unavailable for their semi-final clash against Germany. It took a full strength squad (and some luck) to dispatch the Czech’s and they seem to have used up their resources against the Croats.

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Portugal v Germany - match report
Portugal v Germany - live blog

First Half Highlights

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Portugal (Gomes 40, Postiga 87) 2-3 Germany (Schweinsteiger 22, Klose 26, Ballack 61)
St Jakob Park
Quarterfinals, Euro 2008
Thursday 19 June 2008
Kickoff - 20:45 CET, 14:45 EST

Portugal 2-3 Germany - Live Blog

An enthralling quarter-final in Basel saw Germany progress to their first European Championships semi-final since 1996 thanks to a well earned 3-2 victory.

Luis Felipe Scolari’s imaginative side played their part in a fantastic contest but were undone by their inability to defend set pieces properly against a German outfit that had a distinct height advantage. It’s the end of the road for Cristiano Ronaldo and co, while the Germans will now be feeling optimistic of taking their place in next weekend’s final.

Here is the best and worst of the action in the SOCCERLENS FULL-TIME FILE…..

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Portugal (Gomes 40′, Postiga 87′) 2-3 Germany (Schweinsteiger 22′, Klose 26′, Ballack 61′)
St Jakob Park
Quarterfinals, Euro 2008
Thursday 19 June 2008
Kickoff - 20:45 CET, 14:45 EST

Portugal v Germany - Match Report

The Germans became the first team to advance into the Semi-Finals as they defeated Portugal 3-2 in an exciting match.

Soccerlens brought the action to you live. Click below for the live blog!
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16 matches gone, 15 more to go. After the agonisingly long qualification process, the tournament itself feels brutally short - then again, that’s probably what makes up most of the excitement at this level, the fact that every match is a final.

So how have the 16 teams performed so far? Let’s look at it group by group:

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Croatia (Srna 24′, Olic 62′) 2-1 Germany (Podolski 78′)
Worthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt
Group B, Euro 2008
Thursday 12 June 2008
Kickoff - 18:00 CET, 12:00 EST

Croatia defeated Germany, 2-1, in a spirited Group B clash.

Soccerlens brought the action to you live. Click below for the live commentary.

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Euro 2008 fixtures and results, all in one place. Bookmark and share away:

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Austria vs Croatia Highlights

First Half Highlights

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Germany v Poland, Group B
Worthersee, Klagenfurt
8 June 2008
Kick-off: 20:45 CET

The Euro 2008 Group B clash between Germany and Poland promises to be a heated event, based on the atmosphere in the media these past few days.

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Jens Lehmann is many things. Temperamental. Outspoken. High strung. However, the most enduring quality about Lehmann is probably his inconsistency. The only thing predictable about him is that he is totally and completely unpredictable.

He’ll mix moments of sustained brilliance with moments of jaw-dropping incompetence. He’ll be as impenetrable as the Berlin Wall one minute, only to crumble to pieces the next minute. One day, he’s the greatest goalkeeper in the world, standing up to world class strikers from Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. The next day, he’s lucky if he can stop the Ladybugs, Air Bud, or anyone from D.C. United.

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Head to head records for Euro 2008’s Group B participants - Austria, Croatia, Germany and Poland.

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With a week to go before Euro 2008 starts, the 16 participants are busy with their final tune-ups before next weekend. Some teams look to be on firmer ground than others as they go through their final warm-up matches and training sessions before the real action begins.

Who’s looking good heading into next weekend, and who has a few things to worry about? Here’s a group-by-group rundown of the latest news.

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Four years ago, Dan Leo told me about a new ranking system. At least, it was new to me. Like most of us, I had grown accustomed to the monthly FIFA rankings. Those rankings were quoted by the media and other football commentators as the only source, and often, they seemed to create controversy. FIFA, the media, and controversy?

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Euro 2008 features 16 teams with each consisting of a squad of 23 players (with 3 goalkeepers). The final squads were submitted on 28 May 2008 and the teams will kick off Euro 2008 on 7 June 08.

Here’s a complete list of all 16 squads (group-wise), along with a detailed preview for each team as well as each player’s key stats: age, caps, goals, squad number and current club:

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After their surprise third place in the 2006 World Cup, expectations are high, especially as Germany enjoyed the luck of the draw with all the other big names in the opposite half of the draw. Germany have won at least one major tournament a decade since the 1970s.

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The Euro 2008 shop window opens in a week’s time - managers across Europe will have their scouting scopes trained at the 8 Euro 2008 stadiums looking for the best and brightest young talent to bring in during the following transfer window.

Here’s a look at the 5 hottest prospects traveling to Euro 2008 this summer:

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Looking at the world of football through the eyes of the press can give you a perverted and totally false view of what’s actually happening and on a broader scale what the world actually thinks.

So we turned to the world of football shirts - specifically, online retailers, and more specifically, a single online retailer who bribed us with a couple of free shirts (which reminds me - Simon, where are they? )

Jokes apart, the folks at Subside Sports have been kind enough to provide us with a list of the most popular shirts being sold for the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament (related: Euro 2008 kits).

Here’s the top 7:

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With just 2 weeks to go now the cream of Europe’s footballing nations are gearing up for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.

The fact none of the Home Nations have managed to qualify has put a dampener on the tournament for the majority of the United Kingdom’s population, but let us not get away from the fact that true football fans will still be tuning in for a feast of great action between June 7-29.

Sixteen countries divided into four groups will go head-to-head to become the pride of Europe for another four years as Greece, who stunned the football betting world in 2004, return to defend their crown.

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Euro 2008 betting punters looking to pull out a few shocks should probably steer clear of Group B as co-hosts Austria and Poland, both looking to make a mark in their first-ever appearance in the tournament, will have their work cut out to prevent the favourites Germany and impressive Croatia from marching into the last-eight.

Without being disrespectful to the Austrians had they not automatically qualified for Euro 2008 as joint hosts then it would be fair to say they would not have got near the finals in a qualification campaign.

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There could be tough times ahead for Luca Toni. The Bayern Munich striker, just recently crowned Bundesliga champion and currently leading the scoring charts with 21 goals, may soon be confronted with an unsurpassable obstacle… of the robotic kind. Its name is Goalias (or GoalIAS if you prefer), and it’s the first robot-goalkepeer capable of defending a regular-sized football goal.

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In recent seasons, we have witnessed (and continue to witness), slowly but surely, the elegant destruction of what we know as the ‘big’ teams. Spain, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Russia, Greece, and Turkey have all fallen to the inevitable rise of the ‘middle’ teams. Let’s review the movers and shakers:

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Stuttgart have slapped a 50m euros price tag on Mario Gomez, in a manner reminiscent of Lyon’s incessant posturing that comes every year before they sell their star player in the summer (usually to Madrid or Chelsea, or Barcelona have been the beneficiaries as well).

Mario Gomez is in demand right now and if he goes with (and stars for) Germany in Euro 2008, his value will go even higher. Once Gomez decides to leave for greener pastures, it’s going to be very difficult for Suttgart to keep him from going to Spain (Madrid, Barcelona) or England (Manchester United and Chelsea).

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