Germany vs Poland [R]

[The Jitty Slitter]

Didn't really need to get out of second gear for that game...

Difficult to tell where this team is IMO

Very very organised though

[timotheus]

"
i dont know from where u get myths like "podolski asked poland to play for them"."


Myths?

Am I wrong on Podolski asking to play for Poland and being rejected?

[Emperor_Norton]

Myths?

Am I wrong on Podolski asking to play for Poland and being rejected?

I think it was not him but the Polish media which asked Polish officials to cap Podolski. But maybe I am wrong on this.

[ForeverRed]

Honestly, who cares about Podolski and Klose's roots with Poland? They're Germans now and they are playing for the German NT. Its a bit tiring how their polish heritage comes up everytime Poland and Germany are mentioned in the same sentence.

[ForeverRed]

Difficult to tell where this team is IMO



How do you mean? I think I may know what you're hinting at but I'm not quite sure.

[Leinad]

"
i dont know from where u get myths like "podolski asked poland to play for them"."


Myths?

Am I wrong on Podolski asking to play for Poland and being rejected?

yes, thats wrong and common sense should tell you this. I mean what reason should there have been for him to ask to play for poland?
As soon as he appeared on the senior level he started to play for the german youth teams and then for the german senior NT, there was simply never a doubt about it and now that he is a known german striker all this funny stories pop up about him being "rejected" by poland and tbh its a deliberate try to make it look like there is someone playing for germany who shouldnt be while the total opposite is true.

[Pfeife]

"
i dont know from where u get myths like "podolski asked poland to play for them"."


Myths?

Am I wrong on Podolski asking to play for Poland and being rejected?

Yes you are.

Here I have something for you:

"Polens Nationaltrainer hatten vergeblich versucht, die Wurzeln des Sturmduos für ihr Land zu nutzen. Bevor Klose am 24. März 2001 erstmals für Deutschland spielte, hatte Zbigniew Boniek, der Vorgänger von Pawel Janas, bei ihm in Kaiserslautern angeklopft. «Aber ich habe nicht lange darüber nachgedacht», sagte Klose. Janas war bei Podolski hartnäckiger. Drei Mal schickte er ihm polnische Nationaltrikots mit seinem Namen und der Nummer 10 - zu spät, so Podolski: «Als diese Anfrage kam, konnte ich gar nicht mehr für Polen spielen, weil ich bereits die U 21-Europameisterschaft für Deutschland gespielt hatte.»"

source:
http://www.fussball24.de/fussball/250/251/253/31481-klosepodolski-zwei-polen-fuer-deutschland

Translation:
The polish national coaches had vainly tried to use the (Polish) roots of the striker duo for their country.
Before Klose played his first game for Germany on 24th March 2001, Zbigniew Boniek, the predecessor of Pawel Janas, had visited him in Kaiserslautern.
"But I didn't seriously consider accepting the offer." said Klose.
Janas was more persistent with Podolski.
3 times he sent him a Polish jersey with the number 10 and his name on it- too late, says Podolski.
"When this request came, I wasn't allowed to play for Poland anymore anyways, because I had already played at the U21-championship for Germany.


Facts > Myths

[timotheus]

Aha, thanks for that clarification re: Podolski.

But from the above, it looks like the polish football "experten" missed the boat on him and that he himself said "it was already too late".

Not an emotional issue for me; just curious.

[Fußballgott]

The only thing watching this is it reminds me of WC'06 and the Germans had one of the epic World Cup journeys that I have seen down to their crushing defeat to Italy.

I will have to get a good DVD of it. If anyone has any recommendations, in german preferably.

"Deutschland ein Sommermärchen" would be the logical choice.

Edit: though I think it has mostly backstory and not that much of the games.

[squidward123]

D'you think that actually counts as an assist?

yes it does

i will now be hoping poland goes through from here

[Borussia]

OMG, already 50 pages in this thread! :eek: I better go to bed now before trying to read them all...;)

[Borussia]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080608/capt.06f6624f0197482a9a630da69576536f.soccer_euro_2008_germany_poland_xeur114.jpg

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=544294&cc=5739

[Smoga]

That he still shows respect to the country of his ancestors is a nice gesture but ppl put a bit too much into it (i am german while having croatian ancestors, id do it like Podolski even though i feel 100% as german).

It's not a "country of his ancestors". He was born in Poland, so Poland is HIS country as much as Germany is. But that doesn't matter. Germany deserved to win. The defense was well organized, and the attacks, wheter counter or positional, were always dangerous. Really, the German team once again looked like a well oiled machine, and it's hard not to feel that they will win it all at the end. Even though Poland had better possession and more shots, it was Germany that made them count, and that's what matters.

But Poland played well also, surprisingly well. I have high hopes against both Austria and Croatia, if all three teams play as they did today.

See you in the semis!;)

[Dead Fingers]

But Poland played well also, surprisingly well. I have high hopes against both Austria and Croatia, if all three teams play as they did today.


I think you can definitely take away some positives from the game. Good luck with the rest of the games! :)

[$crooge]

Imho, Poland did much better than Croatia today. If the Croatians go on like this Poland will surely survive the group stage.

[Emperor_Norton]

Smoga,

I totally agree with everything you write. Actually, I expected Poland to be a strong opponent and they didn`t disappoint me. They looked strong indeed, and sometimes - at this level - it are small occurences which can turn a match for the better or worse.

See you in the semis. But I honestly don`t want to play against Poland in the next tournaments anymore. I have a soft spot for the Polish team and I can`t support them when they play against my team.

Powodzenia.

[Abebe]

Germany's only weakness was in the midfield defense. If the coach does not address that, the Portuguese, the Italians will take advantage. Poles had too much time on the ball there. Other than that, the german players looked as sharp as I have seen any team in a long time.

[Borussia]

Let me mention again:

In all the major tourneys before this one, I was ashamed of admitting to rooting for Poland. Losing to Ecuador, putting 11 men on the goal line against Germany in WC....

They are actually doing OK, and are actually playing.... watchable soccer.

...



I agree. You could easily see that they have a pretty good manager...

I'm releaved to see us getting the important win (the first one since the EC final 1996) against an expected strong Polish team, which managed to put us under some serious pressure for 15-20 minutes after the interval. Their Brasilian striker, who came in after 45 minutes, was impressive and caused us a lot of trouble...

Nevertheless, I think that our victory is deserved ... since we controlled 60 minutes of the game and had more & better scoring opportunities!

Das hast du gut gemacht, Prinz Poldi! :)

[BMike86]

alright... hopefully Germany kick the shite out of Croatia since they looked like shite against Austria. THEN if we can take care of business with a tough Austria side, and a tough Croatia side then MAYBE just maybe we can sneak out of the group with Germany.

the 2nd half wasn't bad for us because that goal by Podolski was pure sick and we could do nothing about it... but we have to never play that stupid offside-trap strategy ever again because we almost never use it and apparently Leo wanted to surprise Low and it backfired BIG TIME... we sucked with it, thank god he ditched it... i'd like to see Roger behind Smolarek instead of Zurawski because Roger looked very good throughout the 2nd half and could be VERY important and useful against the other 2 sides with a full 90 minutes.

with that said, congrats on the victory Germany... well deserved

[Borussia]

It's not a "country of his ancestors". He was born in Poland, so Poland is HIS country as much as Germany is.


I wasn't born and didn't spend my childhood in Germany either ... nevertheless, Germany means a lot more to me than the country where I was born!

However, I totally appreciate Poldi's gesture to show respect to Poland & his relatives still living there!