By now most clubs have started their pre-season preparations, most Spaniards have recovered from their Euro party hangover and I had time to sit back and inspect the Euros from Germany’s perspective for one final Euro 2008 blog post, before leaving the tournament to the history books and moving on to the World Cup qualifiers.
This [...]

 
I assume giving a post-match interview after you just lost the final of a major tournament is difficult enough, but doing so while a group of Spanish players – spearheaded by Iker Casillas in a Christoph Metzelder jersey – parades behind your back, might make it just a wee bit more difficult, cruel and all [...]

 
Following the Euro final defeat against Spain, around 100.000 fans at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin tried their best to cheer up the national team. This will probably have helped soothe the pain a bit for the players and the fans got some free merchandise.
We won’t have to worry though, that this reception could cloud [...]

When Jürgen Klinsmann stepped down after the World Cup 2006, Jogi Löw did a great job gradually refining and improving the team he had put together with Klinsmann. Germany continued to play aggressive attacking football throughout the qualifiers – even in meaningless friendlies – and Löw soon had amassed one of the best track records [...]

1. Congratulations Spain! A well deserved victory and about time really.
2. Congratulations Jens Lehmann. I made a lot of jokes and cynical remarks about you over the past few weeks, but at least in your last game as Germany’s #1 you did a great job and kept Germany in the game often enough.
3. For as [...]

The fan mile in Berlin is overcrowded and has been closed long before kick off. Michael Ballack is in the starting XI. The liveblog is here:
Euro 2008 Final LiveBlog: Germany vs Spain
Further Reading:
- Euro 2008 Final Preview: Germany vs Spain
- Euro 2008 Jersey Poll Tournament Final: Spain vs Germany
- From flops to heroes – the [...]

With a bit more than two hours to go it’s time to calm your nerves and distract you for a moment. While the German national team enjoyed a topsy-turvy tournament, so did the TV stations, who were serving up an overdose of football related coverage.

Following their shaky performance against Austria, German news channel N24 announced: [...]

The tabloids usually have their eyes and ears everywhere and when they don’t they pretend and invent. Yet, BILD currently scream on their front page “Jaaaaaaaa! Michael Ballack spielt!” which translates to “Jaaaaaaaa! Michael Ballack is playing!”. So, here’s a short bit of good news, or is it?
Afterall we will field a half fit Torsten [...]

Germany and Spain haven’t met in a major tournament for 20 years and only on three occasions overall. Here’s a quick rundown of the games:
Euro 1976 Quarter-Final (Yugoslavia)
Back in the days the Euros were played in a similar fashion clubs play out the Champions League and UEFA Cup. A group stage where each team played [...]

1. Germany is the underdog and thus the German players will be all the more motivated. The team has nothing to lose. Throughout the course of this tournament the favorite has always faced greater pressure and has played cautiously… almost always to their peril.
2. The German team has the quality up front [...]