Off course you can't trust us, we are the mafia, involved in everything even slightly related to Bigsoccer, including the Netherlands, WW2, Iran and all the fishsticks.
What is that supposed to mean? I am trustworthy: Now, if you please would give me all your money, I will take care of it!
So Hannover is where all our bikes are? I'm afraid I'll have to send our caravan commandos to block the autobahn near Hannover then.
I think most Germans would regard England as their main rivals. How else could you explain this massively selling T-shirt in Germany (taking the mickey out of England)? www.deutschland-england.de I don`t really know why this is so, I personally think they should concentrate on Italy and Brasil, since they are much harder to defeat!
I wasn't aware that the German side were made to wait at an airport well inot the early hours of the morning after the game night. What is suprising is that I haven't heard any ex player of that team complain about it either. That, if you ask me is an admirable trait. If that had happened to the Italians or the Argentines, they would have cried high and loud over it till the next world cup. But if you put the exhaustion aside, the German team had one thing going for them. They had very high morale going into this game. That win against France, however close, must have done wonders to the confidence of the side. 3-1 trailing, and they go on to tie it and then win it . That is the epitome of fighting spirit. The only complain I have against that team is the foul commited by Schuhmacher, on the French player Baptiste (sp?). He never looked like getting the ball, and he didn't even get booked. He could have killed the Frenchman. Worse still, he didn't have a silver of remorse in his eyes after the foul.
Patrick Battiston is the guy. It was a horrible foul, but IIRC, Schumacher has said several times he wishes he'd gotten a red card for that foul.
Here is some thing I found out on Schuhmacher. He published a book which in which eh criticized the DFB and their alleged drug use to build up players. He was banned from all national team competitions after that. After the game, in a post match interview, he said the challenge was a legitimate one. I think he had to bow down to pressure later, and speak say something more diplomatic. http://de.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Schumacher Here are some of his quotes. They are in German, so I don't understand them properly, but they quotes don't paint a very nice picture of him. He even features in a all time world cup "hard men" list http://worldcup.uk.msn.com/features/top10hardmen/ I think this man is reason enough for France to declare Germany as her no.1 football rival
Did he travel from the Soviet zone to the British zone? Then he probably was quite happy getting there. While the English officers were high-brow and arrogant, they were still preferable to Soviet officers (hope nobody slags me off for this). If a 70-year-old German man was walking down a street and a 28-year-old English officer came the way as well, the old man would have had to take off his hat automatically. If he did not do that, the young English officer would stop the old man (who had already passed him) and ordered him to take off his hat. It is also important to note that the English officers did not greet back, they completely ignored the person that had to greet them. And this didn't happen once or twice, this was an official demand by the British Forces and you could even get punished if you refused to take off your hat. This regulation was especially annoying to people that were not Nazis.
I actually don't remember which zone he wanted to leave. Might have been the Soviet one, sure. I thought he was based in Munich before, wasn't that in the US zone? In any case, I object to you using the term 'the British officers'. That's implying you know the behaviour of all British officers, which you don't. We also don't want to be classified as 'the Germans', or at least I don't. I am sure some British officers were arrogant, but I am also sure some weren't. Sorry if this sounds pedantic, but I really don't like this kind of generalisations.
*sings* One World Cup and two World Wars ENGLAND ENGLAND!!! One World Cup and two World Wars ENGLAND ENGLAND!!!
I found some more fodder, to fuel the Italy rivalry theory. In the all time world cup, simulated by some football experts, Germany yet again loses to Italy, in the quarter finals. http://www.planetworldcup.com/atwc/atwc.html
You are right. Let's word it this way: the majority of British (or better English) officers were like that. Bavaria was in US zone. The Rhineland was US zone as well, but then the English took over. That's why my father (of Xanten, Rhineland) could compare the US occupation with that of the English. The Americans gave out sweets and candy to the kids, and behaved generally amicable, especially the colored G.I.'s, no such things from the English.
That Germany lost against Italy was to be expected. But I wonder what they based their results on. Germany was in the same group as Argentina, and they let the Argies win. If Germany had won, they would have topped the group, giving them an easier route in the later games (Sweden and Hungary instead of England and Italy). The obvious way to determine an outcome would have been to look at previous World Cup results. Germany and Argentina met four times in World Cups (1958, 1966, 1986, 1990). Germany won twice (1958, 1990), Argentina won once (1986) and they drew in 1966 (goals 6-4 to Germany). Thus by all means Germany should have won the group encounter, but they made the Argies win 2-1.
I too had the same doubts.Firstly, the groups seem very poorly made. France, Belgium. Chile, Ireland is a poor group.Sweden, Austria, Denmark, England is an all European teams group.Secondly, Italy beats Brazil 4-1 in the semifinals of this simulation. Another result I doubt. Further more there is no Ballack or Sammer in the squad. The exclusion of these two, even from the substitutes list is suprising.Had Germany played Sweden and Hungary, they surely would have reached into the semi's atleast. There was unnecessary dramatisation: the penalty kick victory over England. Just to rub salt into the wounds. I think the experts at Big Soccer should do the simulation once again. There is a famous Confucian saying: " All generalisations are false, including this one" Generalisations are generally speaking, fun and quite harmless. For a people like the Germans, who by and large belong to the same ethnic group, speak the same language, follow the same religion,confess to being football,beer,car, mathematics (not necessarily in that order) freaks and without exception are proud of the fact that their national team plays in boring colour combination possible, can be generalised upon once in a while, in a lighter vein. I am yet to meet a German who will admit that his/her national team jersy is too dull.