I thought it will be interesting to try and make a comparison between the team than won the Euro 96 and the current one. So here's my opinion: Kopke vs Neuer - Kopke was good...but Neuer is World Class Reuter vs Boateng - no comment Ziege vs Lahm - again no comment Babbel vs Badstuber - I'll give the nod to Bads here...because he has improved a lot Helmer vs Hummels - Again Hummels gets the node. Sammer vs Schweinsteiger - Not playing in the same position, but Sammer was outstanding Freund vs Muller - Again different positions to compare, but Muller is the better Eilts vs Khedira - Khedira has improved, but Eilts was outstanding Moller vs Reus - Moller gets it for the penalty against England Scholl vs Ozil - no comment Kuntz vs Klose - no comment So in total is 7-4 in favor of the current team.
Good list but Khedira is also stronger than Eilts. He just brings more to the table whereas Eilts like Jeremies could only hit ankles instead of footballs. And I'm not sure about Neuer/Köpke yet.
Eilts was average in general, but during the Euro he was one of the best players. Agree that Khedira has been playing great, but still I'll give the nod to Eilts
Mario Gomez : “He [Khedira] became a real leader. What I am really happy for him for because he always received a little criticism. “There were discussions of him not being good enough footballing wise. That’s a discussion that never bothered him though. “He has taken a great step forward at Madrid. He is a world class player." I can see that on the pitch. Who would've thought that would happen 2-3 years ago ? It just shows that players improve the most after the age of 22/23(well at least those with the right attitude). Most players in the squad are between 20 and 24. It is just scary how good they will be come the world cup 2014 and beyond...
Neuer > Kopke Klinsmann > Klose Gomez > Bierrhoff Khedira> Eilts I dont think this current Muller is better than anyone. And I am a Muller fan
Khedira has proven me wrong in this tournament. I wasn't overly impressed with him in 2010, but he has improved massively since his switch to Madrid.
Kopke was just training Neuer lets not forget that. He must have learnt something from him like tips on how to play like Sammer played as Sweeper
I think their trajectories have been different. Khedira improved with every season, to the point where he became a big game player. Schweinsteiger had a bot of bad luck coming along so early and it wasn't until 2009 that he was moved to his best position but he really only had one great season in his entire career and he's nearly 28 year old. He has had bad luck with injuries and we can only hope that he will be one of those players whose best years will come late because he is such an important piece. Thankfully Khedira stepped up this tournament. I really think he is a better leader at this point than either Schweinsteiger or Lahm. It wouldn't be such a bad thing to give him the captaincy.
I would disagree somewhat. Schweini had a breakthrough '04 Euro and was the lone shining spot in that entire team. '06 Worldcup, he was brilliant too. Don't think he's lived up to those performances on a national team level since then.
In 2004, Schweinsteiger was mostly praised for being a young prospect of decent quality, which at the time was very rare and therefore special and noteworthy. The same applied to Podolski. Lahm was the biggest discovery of that tournament and one of the few German players that actually performed very well in all three games. The Confed Cup in 2005 was Schweinsteiger's and Podolski's breakthrough tournament. Throughout the 2006 World Cup, Schweinsteiger was constantly criticized for never living up to his 2005 Confed Cup performance all the way until the Portugal game, where he redeemed himself with his 2.5 goals. Before that last game, he was considered one of the few weak spots in an enthusiastic team that performed at the limit or above it. After being benched against Poland and then receiving a red card against Croatia in the group stages of Euro 2008, Schweinsteiger returned for the quarter final against Portugal and became possibly Germany's best player in that tournament along with Podolski. For both these players, 2008 was the best tournament they've had until that point. Schweinsteiger topped the Euro with a world class performance in South Africa 2010. That's easily his best tournament so far. Podolski, despite being solid, didn't reach the heights of 2008 again. 2012 mostly sucked for both, though Schweinsteiger at least had one good game against the Netherlands and is somewhat excused due to being injured. Podolski faded into nothingness.
It's irrelevant comparing individuals because at the end of the day Team 96 > Team 2012. That's all that really matters.
Sammer, Koepke, Ziege, Klinsmann, Haessler, and Moeller were all very, very good. Twice they were trailing, in the Semi and the final, yet they managed to came back. Quality wise there may be not so much of a different between these two teams. It's the psychology/mental strength that separate these 2 teams.
The 1996 EURO team would wipe the floor with today's players. They won that tournament despite and injury crisis.
But they did the other two times. They lose to one of the greatest teams of all time and they have losing mentality ? I don't think it is fair.