Not entirely, you still have jantschke, gundogan and we still dont know what other kind of talent can pop out. I hope the team can make serious improvements, but i think our quality is hindered by our lack of vision. Loew had a tremendous system working before but played with it too often. We should have went with the players that suited our style rather than those who have done us well in the past.
What I thought it was obvious but it seems like you couldnt figure it out is that the players I mentioned are the real deal. I am not 100% sure about Boateng but the others are top class players and will be playing at the highest level for the next 8-9 years. The 2006 team was not a golden team ! It is obvious now in hindsight. It doesnt matter what you've heard in the media. They all talk bullshit. The ''young golden'' team starts in 2010 not 2006. There are so many signs for that. Bayern Munich reaching 2 Champions league finals in 3 years with 7-8 German players(with a lot of them very young) while they hadnt reached a final since 2001. All the German youth team are doing great at international tournaments in the last 6 not before that. Oezil and Khedira being starters for one of the top 3 teams in the world. Reus and Goetze are not like Podolski. They have great movement,creativity and technical ability. Germany having 4 Champions league places taking over Italy. Hummels is also obviously the real deal. I dont know how you can compare him with Mertesacker. Hummels is not slow and useless in the air. The reform at youth level was in 2000. 10 years later is coming to fruition. The kids born in and after 1988 are the ones who benefit the most from it. There were too few quality players produced who were born between 1980 and 1987. That was the problem. Golden generation 3.0 is 15/16 out of the 23 players. The other ones were (unfit 34 year old )Klose, Schweini (playing injured), Podolski (useless on the wing), Gomez ( supposedly doesnt fit germany's style of play),Wiese(bench player), Mertesacker(I dont rate him and was unfit) and Lahm. This Golden generation 3.0 is actually the real and first golden generation and they are between 20 and 24 and will be much better in the coming years.
I would definitely say 2010 was the start of things to come. All things considered, I think Loew takes a huge blame for the italy loss and tinkering with the squad. We could have gotten through, but once italy just sat down and defended it was going to be hard for any team to win.
Like replacing Podolski with Mueller, Kroos with Reus and Gomez with Klose would have yielded a far better result.
I'm so happy for khedira that he asserted himself as one of the top Center midfielders in the world. I really thought he was going to be replaced this tournament.
Wouldn't really want any managers who stick to traditional systems or don't show signs of being tactically flexible.
Sounds pretty easy for me...not. I highly doubt Ottmar would do the job, he has everything he needs in switzerland and doesn´t have all the media pressure on him like here. If there was a time he could´ve done the National Team, then it would´ve been at the time around when Klinsmann was hired.
Golden generation in '06? You must be kidding....two years before the team didn't make it out of the group stage. Lahm, Schweini, Poldi where 21-22 years with no experience. Borowski was average. Merte and Metzelder were not golden generation. The class players where only Lehmann, Schneider, Ballack, Frings and Klose.
In 2006, the overall expectations were largely different than they've been since 2010. Back then, Germany was coming from a period that saw them degraded to a 2nd rate footballing nation. They hadn't beaten a "big footballing nation" in years and were trying to somehow become relevant again. Klinsmann's official goal was to lead Germany back to a place among the world's elite, i.e. to become one of several teams at the top of world football, not necessarily the leading nation. He just wanted to be competitive again and create a team that was capable of playing a good role in any tournament and among any sort of competition. He wanted to go head to head with the likes of England, Portugal, the Netherlands or even Argentina and Brazil, all of which had long overtaken Germany and left them in the dust for years. The team in 2006 was just a really solid or even good one which consisted of the best performers of the 2002 World Cup finalists and a crop of promising new players. The first eleven was exclusively made of guys that were actually deserving of a spot in a World Cup starting formation. No filler material, no players on makeshift positions (other than Friedrich playing as RB possibly), no team members with the reputation of being far below the necessary standard. All of this applied for the first time since 1996 or, to a lesser degree, 1998, which caused a majority of people to be rather happy about finally having a capable team again. The average age was also quite low and after having performed relatively well at the World Cup, many people were hopeful - some even enthusiastic - about this team and its future. However, there wasn't really any talk about a golden generation at that point. The goal was simply to confirm the 2006 performance and to develope further into one of a handful of nations that actually have a shot at winning a title again. Winning Euro 2008 became the goal, however, there wasn't really any talk about being the clear cut favorites far above everyone else or about this being the best team Germany has had since the 70s etc. That talk only started after the U17, U19 and U21 won their respective titles and after an even younger German team than the 2006 version - full of potential/supposed world beaters - eliminated strong opposition like England and Argentina in a emphatic fashion that we hadn't seen for decades. That, combined with the fact that there seems to be an almost endless supply of well-trained, technically adept players coming up to increase the depth of the bench, is the reason for many having started to refer to the current crop of players as a "golden generation" of German football which has the duty to win a title. Conclusion is, the hunt for a title actually started in 2006, but feeling the absolute need to win one with a team that is regarded as being heavy favorites in each occasion was only introduced in 2010 (which was, of course, additionally fueled by coming in 3rd and 2nd in 2006/2008 and, thus, the desire to finally take the last, decisive step).
Löw himself was talking about a golden generation in 2006 (and he wasn't the only one). Ok, this news article (from 2006) quotes him with Germany having "something like a golden generation", but close enough: http://www.news.at/articles/0650/270/158965/wir-generation-jogi-loew-zuversicht-dfb-zukunft Edit: better article http://www.faz.net/aktuell/sport/fu...ft-loew-sieht-goldene-generation-1383916.html
Jogi might have coined the specific term in that occasion, but - unlike 2010 and onwards - it was a) directed towards the future, with half of the names mentioned not even being close to the actual senior squad and many of them completely unproven b) directed to what I described above, as in the team becoming good enough to establish themselves among the world's elite after a long spell of nothingness, not above it and c) exaggerated and slightly delusional with names such as Clemens Fritz, Madlung, Polanski, Malik Fatih (or even the more established ones like Podolski and Mertesacker) being mentioned as evidence. Essentially, what he's saying is that the days of dread and a complete lack of talent are over for Germany and there's finally hope again to field a full team of capable players that ranks among the better ones of the planet and will continue doing so for quite some time. Whereas these days, everyone's crazy about there being 30 international stars (many of which weren't even on the map before 2010) and about the biggest wealth of talent "ever" which not only is capable of playing well and reaching semis, but has the duty of winning titles; preferably 5 in a row.
Well, back in 2006, here on BigSoccer, it was already pretty clear that Germany was going to win 2010, at the very least, and Podolski and Schweinsteiger would find their well deserved place among Germany's all time greats. And yeah, people in Germany weren't that annyoing with the thing yet (more the good old "wir sind wieder wer!"). By now the newest talking point seems to be the "failed golden generation" already, though.
The last time I heard the term "golden generation" thrown around, it was referencing the Portuguese team from 2000-2004... they didn't win anything either.
I guess it all depends on the definition of "golden generation". If it's used for any generation that sees a good, competitive team which is capable of making it far in tournaments and/or playing attractive football, the 2006 team fits the bill. However, in that case, basically all generations in German football since 1954 and outside of 1998-2004 would qualify as a golden generation. If, however, it's used for the best generation in the history of the nation or, at least, the greatest in quite a few decades, with an entirely unusual wealth of talent, then 2006 does certainly not qualify. The Portuguese generation of 2000-2004 qualified, because the country saw its biggest pool of talent and its most capable team since the Eusebio days ~4 decades earlier. Inbetween those two generations, Portugal wasn't nearly that kind of footballing power and the Figo days marked another peak. In the article(s) you posted above, Jogi was clearly using the first definition, as compared to the past decade before 2006, this was a big step up, whereas - compared to the nation's history in football - it wasn't quite unusual. Just a return to quality. He referred to being "number 6 on the FIFA list" as a benchmark and set the goal to "establishing the team among the world's elite". Those goals were met, however, it has to be said that by 2008, the team had actually become weaker both in terms of available players and performance in comparison to '06. This only changed again by 2010, with the introduction of the new crop and another "generation" shift, which lifted the team to a higher level than in 2006 - without achieving an actual result so far, as we all know.
England has had a Golden Generation each and every year between 1967 and 2011, all of which turned out to be gold-painted sheet metal generations.
I don't mthink most people who use the term even have a specific definition in mind. Golden generation is just another of those cliched stock phrases in soccer, describing every group of players which is somewhat good and of the same age. For Portugal I'm pretty sure the name was based on the team winning back to back U-20 World Cups in the early 90s (which later made up the core of Portugal's NT for over a decade).
Metzelder was definitely considered golden, he was by far one of the best central defenders of that time and even alex ferguson wanted to sign him, badly. Still think that he could have been a tremendous CB, but he gets injured so often he never really got a chance to shine. Also, even during his later years at RM, he still defended well when called upon.
I can't stand Loew. He annoys me with his sh*t: The expectations in Germany are too high. People should not criticize when we beat Faroer Islands 3-0, ... F*ck, stop the p*ssy talking, men. You are in charge of the German NT and you did not win us any titles. It is about time for you to start winning titles.
Anyone else read the Bild am Sonntag Interview? I was just reading the first 3 lines and knew everything. "We can´t have the claim, that only a title matters"....Da Fuq? That just says it all, what´s wrong with the whole "Project Löw", which I declare as failed. He has done an exeptional job, but as it is clear, can´t finish it. The Guy is no winner at all. Sad to say, but that´s my opinion.