Italia 90 shirt is far from dull...... Adidas are German yea? they should make Germany's shirt unique
Exactly.... Puma make unique shirts for all of their country's (see African Nations) but Germany's new shirt is similar/identical to France
Yeah it's an increasingly sad situation where clubs and national teams are being forced to try and fit their own colours, stripes and markings into the single jersey design by a manufacturer. Nike, Adidas, Puma, they've all been guilty of it in recent times. We've now reached a point where Nike jerseys, be they club jerseys from Europe or nationsal teams from South America, have exactly the same markings and you can't even buy them in long sleeves! What a joke.
But your problem in football is that you do not have the yanks or russians doing the job for you. perhabs you should try to build a coalition to archive a victory at the WC or the european championships.
I can only speak about Poland, but I do feel that there are many Poles who feel that there is a rivalrly between Poland and Germany, but at the same time thay recognize that it is primarily one-sided (meaning that only the Polish care about it). Without going into history and the war (in fact it was the games between East Germany and Poland that have been traditionally bloody and very physical - because Poles thought of East Germans are Russian stooges, and the East Germans of the Poles as anti-Communist reactionaries), the only game that resonates is the 1974 WC "semi-final" (I know it wasn't a bona-fide semifinal, for for all intends and purposes it was) where many Poles feel that they had the better team, but due to the Austrian (hint, hint) referee's decision to play the game on the waterlogged pitch the Polish team wasn't able to play their preferred long ground/long ground game, and so lost. Now tough there are additional factors that make make the Polish fans salivate over playing Germany: the Polish born Germans on the German team, and the fact that Poland never beat Germany - the closest they came was the 1978 0:0 draw in the opening game of the 1978 Cup. So I think that in the eyes of many Polish fans there is a rivalry with Germany, but most German fans really don't give a damn about the Polish NT.
Here in America--in college football (AMERICAN football)---I live in the state of Pennsylvania---where a perenial power is Penn State. Since i was a kid---part of Penn State's "mystique" are their plain WHITE road jerseys---no names on the back--no "piping".......but, it's "plain-ness"makes it classy--as opposed to some of these "garish" color combos. Anyone who thinks the German white jerseys & black shorts are .."boring"...or.."blah"......are shallow-----
hahaha....that's great. And guess what I did? I forwarded the link straight to my British buddy who still thinks the goal was legite That'll get his blood boiling and he will call me a bloody German bastard! PRICELESS......
True true Nobody really picked Italy but they don't know we have this pact with them where we win cups in Italy and they win against Germany
Is it fair to say that the biggest rivalry for us is still Germany vs England? It least this is the game that I would least like to see our lads lose. Smoga, I think you got that right. The rivalry is one-sided and no one in Germany cares about the Polish NT because we have always beaten Poland so far. But Poland is definitely seen as big threat in the group stages. I will never get the "Polish born players" thing, though. As far as I know the Kloses have a German ethic background and Miro's father doesn't like to be called a Pole. Podolski's grandparents are German and he came to Germany at the age of two and both players learned to play like that in Germany, never played for a Polish club. Are there people who actually think they should play for Poland just because they were born on Polish soil?
I find the England rivalry very one-sided, too, in general England fans care much more about it. About Polish vs. German players, let's just accept you can be a bit of both.
For me and all my German friends England doesn't come anywhere close to Holland as a footballing rival. But maybe this is an age thing and people who started following football in the second half of the nineties or later see things differently? I think the England - Germany rivalry has caught up a bit over the last 12 years or so. Agree about the Polish players.
Dirk, I think gooner was saying it's the biggest rivalry for her. It's the one I would least like to see Germany lose - and this is what I don't think many people get when I keep referring to England in here - because unlike you guys, I grew up with a heavy English influence, in an english school etc etc....the mickey-taking is very regular. Not because I am not German, but because it's Germany that I follow. I've had to put up with a lot of crap and a lot of outward arrogance, although it never gets too serious of course. The mickey-taking extends to cricket of course and Australia/NZ . I hope all of you support Australia in the ashes next year (which could be another 5-0, don't worry).
As a Germany fan, I don't really care about the Poland or England rivalry. I'd rather have Germany lose against them than a host of other nations.
In fact, she said "us", as in "us Germans". But I admit that she confuses me sometimes 'cos her lack of pessimism and her England bashing makes her look more like an Australian or Kiwi girl. Anyway I understand that some non-German supporters have other preferences, but that's not really what this thread is about.
Along with Argentina and Brazil. Whats more important than historical rivalries for me are our performances and results against the "top" National Teams at the moment, the ones considered to be the best in the world. The only way Germany will be considered the best is by beating all those.
To be honest though, new zealanders in my experience don't really "have a go" at england and theres not the same sense of satisfaction at beating them in sports. I mean there's the standard digs but the australians have more variety there as well as it all being more intense in force. New Zealanders are (at least outwardly) happier to subordinate to the "mother country". Even in rugby, the biggest rival is SA. The aus/england rivalry is two-way in equal amount, unlike ger/eng. But, it will never be dangerous for an australian to walk through an english crowd after a thrashing.
those teams aren't that impressive though at the moment, so compared to that, over the last 2 years germany are one of the best if not the best the only factor that sways it in their favour is that they have players in the hyped leagues, so germany's wins could still be downplayed and other teams' defeats downplayed cos yer know, only the CL and EPL matter
I agree with that, Portugal and Spain especially. The others though will always be rated, no matter how their NTs do and the only way to overcome whatever inconsistencies and exaggerations exist is to beat them one on one.
and that's pretty bloody funny isn't it, considering that this is a comparison of international teams