Germany Are (Smallish) Champions Of Europe

June 30th, 2009 | by: chris |

Last year was a rough one for Germany. They lost the final to Spain on a Phil Lahm faux pas and then proceeded to send German family counselors scattering abroad for fear of being roped into aiding the crumbling Mannschaft. (Remember that ridiculous meeting to clear the air between Captain Ballack & Jogi Lowe at an airstrip which was all cheesy James Bond? Exactly.) The big boy squad also lost a friendly to England which I’m sure they’d love back, as that was back when England was England, not Fabio Capello’s England. Not quite humiliating, but far from thrilling.

So the U-21’s took revenge for the senior team against both yesterday. They won a European final – the Under-21 variety, their first ever – by thrashing England 4-0 (aided by some awful keeping) in a game which doesn’t quite make up for last summer, but is quite a nice consolation prize.

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tom

how about this for a fun fact:
Germany are current “Europameister” on the following levels:
U-17, U-19 and U-21

one match shy of rounding off the set with the aforementioned final loss to Espana… not bad at all Germany
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Did we ever find out what the goalkeeper got booked for in the semis (and thus suspended in the final)? Wonder how much that would have changed the game?
John

Yes, he was cared for taunting one of the Swedes during the PK shootout.
John

oooooh, that was a backup GK. Well… that guy is… bad…
Arminius

The talent is there. Football is a treacherously round i.e. ad lib affair.

My present guess: Top favourites for WC 2010 (in hierarchical oder):

Brazil
Germany
Argentina
Italy