This is also your great last chance to share your favourite moments of the tournament with the readers of this blog.

Best Comedy Act: A tie between Germany’s defence and David Odonkor’s performance on the right side of midfield against Croatia.

Special Achievement in Jersey Technology: Jens Lehmann for wearing a neon jersey, which left a glowing spot on my TV screen long after the games had ended. Mad Jens proved that he is also a mad scientist, as neon coloured jerseys are scientifically rumoured to irritate penalty takers. Lehmann didn’t need to save a single penalty, but his jersey still managed to irritate Germany’s defenders.

Most consistent player: Torsten Frings – consistently grumpy.

Stick it to the man Award: Lukas Podolski scoring three goals, setting up another two and sticking it to Uli Hoeness and whoever was involved in bringing him to Bayern.

Vanity Fair Moment: Oliver Bierhoff and Michael Ballack getting into an argument after the final. The media assumes it was about some silly banner for the fans. In reality Oliver Bierhoff was just jealous that Ballack had overtaken him in Germany’s all-time top scorer ranking (Bierhoff: 37 goals / Ballack: 38 goals – insane amount for a midfielder by the way)

Best Kevin Kuranyi Impersonation: Mario Gomez

Best Free Kick: Michael Ballack
 

 
Most beautiful WAG: Sarah Brandner (Bastian Schweinsteiger)

Most powerful WAG: Angela Merkel (Bastain Schweinsteiger again)

Breakthrough Performance: Marko Marin – until he was sent packing again.

All-expenses paid holiday trip won by: Heiko Westermann and Piotr Trochowski

Best Team Goal: Klose > Podolski > Ballack > Podolski > Ballack > Podolski > Schweinsteiger > Goal
 

 
Best Villian: Manuel Mejuto after sending Jogi Löw to the stands during the match against Austria.

Best Coach in a Supporting Role: Hansi “Slick” Flick guiding Germany to their best performance of the tournament.

Franz Beckenbauer’s moment of truth: “This team puzzles me.”

Best Impression of Martin Scorsese at the Oscars: Michael Ballack (i.e. there’s still hope)

Best Individual Goal: Philipp Lahm (with some help from Thomas Hitzelsperger)
 

 
OK, I better stop now, I feel nostalgia is kicking in – despite some critique worthy things it wasn’t too bad a tournament for Germany.

What’s Spanish for “Stop rubbing it in”?

via: The Spoiler

We won’t have to worry though, that this reception could cloud the players’ judgement. Basically all of them are determined to improve, iron out mistakes and go one better in two years. Selected Quotes:

“We still have a very young team and I don’t think that in this tournament we were able to show the quality that we did in 2006 and qualification.” – Christoph Metzelder

“We have to improve in almost every part of our team, but that doesn’t mean that everything was bad – we reached the final of the European Championship. We hope that we can improve from these games and learn from them. We are still a young side and a good squad that wants to improve.” – An improving Torsten Frings

“We still have a considerable amount to learn both technically and tactically.” – Michael Ballack

So, the players are ready to learn and improve. Jogi Löw is ready to analyse the tournament in more detail. This should bode well for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

The Defence was a mess.
If there was any consistency in this German team, it was the consistently bad defence. It’s worth noting that Germany had overcome their shaky defence during the World Cup in 2006 and it stayed this way throughout the Euro qualifiers. In fact, the defence survived several injuries with completely new central defender or full back pairings without too much trouble. Something or better someone must have mixed it all up.

On the one hand you had Jens Lehmann in goal, who had been benched by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and who had no real match practise going into the tournament. Ahead of the Euros I thought that it might be too late to switch to another goalkeeper, because a keeper and his back-line have to click and Lehmann had been in goal for the German national team throughout 2007/2008. But in the first minutes of the game against Poland you could see that the two elements weren’t clicking. Both Lehmann and Mertesacker were going for the same ball, gifting Jacek Krzynowek a golden opportunity to take an early lead. One month later Lehmann was going for the same ball Philipp Lahm looked like he had under control. Lahm decelerated and Torres scored the winner. So, I was proven wrong. Apart from that, he wasn’t a confident and calming factor in games, which didn’t go Germany’s way. When the defence was shaky and erratic he was shaky and erratic too – except for the final.

Then there was Christoph Metzelder, who is a good defender when he’s in form and fit. The problem was, that he came straight from a five month injury spell and was decidedly unfit in the pre-tournament friendlies and it remained the same in the group stage. Jogi Löw took a gamble on Metzelder, hoping he would reach his peak in time for the later stages of the tournament, but all he got was another destabilising element in his defence.

Marcell Jansen on the left flank was another player, who could easily be identified as a weak link, but there was something wrong with that left flank in general. You might come to the conclusion that Philipp Lahm is a bad defender after watching the Turkey and Spain match, but in the previous games he was still one of Germany’s best players. Something messed with his form curve here as well. It definitely didn’t help that Lukas Podolski played in midfield. If he has a future on that position in the national team, then he needs to learn to back-track and defend. Jansen and Lahm were confronted with much more traffic coming their way, so they might even be excused a little bit. Friedrich was – like in the World Cup 2006 – OK at the back but ineffective and uninspired going forward.

Going from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 was not a stroke of genius.
While the change from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 formation had been hailed after Germany managed to overcome Portugal, it mostly served to close gaping holes in the defence. It probably also had a psychological placebo effect on the team. Michael Ballack might have felt that it freed him to run the midfield more, but in reality he covered every inch of the pitch in a 4-4-2 formation just like he had to carry out a lot of defensive duties in the new 4-2-3-1 formation as well. 4-4-2 worked well throughout the World Cup in 2006 and the Euro qualifiers and Ballack was comfortable in it. With a more confident defence, there wouldn’t have been a need to try and patch things with an extra midfielder, who often failed to fit in when it came to keeping possession and creating chances (Hitzelsperger against Portugal, Rolfes against Turkey and Hitzelsperger again against Spain). So the overall impact and involvement of the extra midfielder was limited and in the end he couldn’t stop the defence from being a disaster either. Miroslav Klose is definitely not the kind of player who can act as a lone striker. It sort of worked out sometimes because he is strong in the air, allowing him to receive crosses from Podolski, Lahm or Schweinsteiger but he is much more effective when he has a partner to play with. Klose can’t keep the ball and he can’t fight for the ball, so passes from the midfield to him were usually doomed before they even got near Klose. Germany were completely reduced to the flanks, because a player was missing in the centre and neither of the two defensive midfielders were involved enough in the offence to make anything happen here either. In short, bad decision making or nervous or insecure decision making by Jogi Löw. I’m convinced that we’ll see a 4-4-2 formation again going into the World Cup qualifiers, with everybody pretending this 4-2-3-1 experiment never happened.

The team couldn’t cope mentally.
And the word team includes the coaching staff. This is probably a point, which is a bit all-encompassing and also played a part in all the other things mentioned in this post. It was just too obvious that the team wasn’t ready when they went into the match against Croatia and Turkey. There was a lethargic mental slowness about this side, which allowed, on paper, inferior opponents to dominate the match. In fact they were able to completely unsettle the team ending in players playing lots of bad and nervous passes. Even in matches Germany seemed to have under control, it was easy to turn things around. Germany started into the match against Poland in a great aggressive manner, which I thought was a promising sign of things to come over the next few weeks. Unfortunately what happened after 35 minutes was closer to the truth. From the end of the first half right into the second half, Poland had taken the game away from Germany. It wasn’t until Poland’s attacks got more desperate later in the second half, when Germany got enough space again to put together a few good attacking moves. When Jogi Löw talked about the “winning mentality” of his side after the Turkey match, he didn’t so much acknowledge the cliché about German football, but rather tried to work his psychological toolbox, to give his team confidence and self-believe ahead of the final, but it didn’t really work out, or rather it worked for like 15 minutes.

How much of a difference it can make, to find the key to a player’s psyche was best exemplified by Bastian Schweinsteiger. He was out of form and lost his place in the starting XI to Lukas Podolski. He was reduced to substitute performances and eventually got himself sent off against Croatia. He received a lot of criticism afterwards and Jogi Löw publicly announced that Schweinsteiger owed it to the team, to make up for his mistake. What followed was a man of the match performance against Portugal.

But Jogi Löw didn’t seem to be able to find a key to the team as a whole. On top of that, he probably underestimated the pressure of being in charge of the national team during a major tournament. He made an unusual amount of questionable decisions. His substitutions mostly failed to have any impact. He did well to replace the weakest performer in every match, but in situations where he needed to take risks, he feared the potential consequences. He basically admitted that it would have made sense to revert to 4-4-2 during the Turkey match, but then again thought it could harm the midfield, so he ended up doing nothing. His overall squad selection left a bit of a bitter after taste. He put all his trust in experienced players, even if this experience went by the name of David Odonkor or came fresh from a long injury spell. This must have been frustrating for a those players, who didn’t get a chance.

So, how could you expect Löw to give his team the mental edge, when he was missing it himself?

2007/2008 wasn’t kind to the players.
I’ve spent the better part of this post lamenting details, which by and large could be blamed on the coach. In his defence though, it’s worth pointing out, that last season was a mixed bag for a lot of players. Mario Gomez was a rare exception – a player who was in excellent form throughout the season but a complete flop during the tournament. But a lot of other players had to deal with serious injuries, sidelining them for months, or a serious form crisis which often saw them benched in their respective clubs. This is not an ideal situation going into a tournament and the good karma of the national team can’t make up for everything.

Conclusion
So, to wrap this post up: would a 4-4-2 playing German national team with the right attitude, an in-form Gomez and a solid defence been able to win the Euros? Potentially yes, but not necessarily, as Spain would have still been a tough team to beat. But we could be much more optimistic looking ahead to the qualifiers and the World Cup. Because this team has an excellent future, so it’s a bit unfortunate that we now have to worry about all those little flaws, which need to get ironed out in time for the World Cup.

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 much people wanted to make this Michael Ballack’s tournament – Premier League bias(?) – it really wasn’t. He wasn’t there when games didn’t go Germany’s way, whether it was against Croatia, Turkey or in the final against Spain. It’s a bit sad that he’ll keep his perennial runner-up tag, but he probably also didn’t do enough himself to shrug it off. So it was league runner-up, Champions League runner-up and World Cup/Euro runner-up in one season twice for Ballack. Cruel.

4. The ref could have handed out two red cards, one for Silva after a head-butt and later in the game one for Lehmann after handling the ball outside the box.

5. This time around Philipp Lahm’s mistake gave Spain the lead, but different to the Turkey match he couldn’t make up for it, as he had to be substituted due to injury. But then again, Marcell Jansen did a good if not better job. And in the end, Spain could have punished a lot of other defensive mistakes, so you can’t really just blame Lahm. But discussing the defence and what went wrong in general will be material for another post.

6. 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 doesn’t really matter. The change might have worked well against Portugal, but probably also had a bit of a placebo effect in giving the team some confidence back. Again this whole patch-work team and tactics building during the tournament is something that needs to be discussed.

7. There were bursts of German dominance in the game, where we got an idea of what could have been possible if the team hadn’t approached most of their games in such a lethargic manner but with aggressive fore-checking and fast attacking moves.

8. Either all of Schweinsteiger’s crosses and corner kicks are spot on or they are all rubbish.

9. Former Stuttgart striker Kevin Kuranyi and current Stuttgart striker Mario Gomez were on the pitch at the same time, and for a moment I was really worried what kind of future could lie ahead for Mario Gomez…

10. I had the feeling Spain won most of the headers. So much about being so much taller. But then again all set pieces were executed pretty poorly in the first place.

OK, I’ll reserve the rest of my thoughts for some in depth Euro review posts. Enjoy the rest of your evening. I think there’s no need to be overly sad, as this Spanish side and Spain in general really deserve to both overcome their history and finally win a big trophy again after so many decades. And we won’t have to play the stupid Confed Cup. Yeah!

Further Reading:
- Euro 2008 Final Preview: Germany vs Spain
- Euro 2008 Jersey Poll Tournament Final: Spain vs Germany
- From flops to heroes – the strange world of Schweini and Poldi
- And from heroes to flops again – what Poldi, Schweini and Gomez will do while their team mates Luca Toni and Franck Ribery win the Champions League with Bayern Munich.

Following their shaky performance against Austria, German news channel N24 announced: “Ballack scheisst Germany into the quarter final.” You are free to look up the word in italics in your favourite German dictionary. (via: direkter-freistoss.de)
 

 
The national broadcaster ARD improved on N24’s typo with a more creative graphical hick-up. They got the colours of the German flag mixed up, when they reported about the upcoming game against Turkey. In case you plan to start up your own country, you might also be interested to hear that no country on this planet is using this flag yet. (via: FANartisch)

Afterall we will field a half fit Torsten Frings (fractured rib) and a half fit Michael Ballack (something with his calf) and should Ballack not be able to play on, we are faced with an early substitution. Look at it whichever way you want.

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 each other twice and a two-legged quarter final. Only the semis and the final where played in the host country (Yugoslavia). First Germany travelled to Spain, where they drew 1-1 and then made sure of advancing to the next round with a 2-0 victory in Munich.

Spain – Germany 1-1 (Madrid)
1:0 Santillana (21.)
1:1 Beer (60.)
Germany – Spain 2-0 (Munich)
1:0 U. Hoeneß (17.)
2:0 Toppmöller (43.)

Euro 1984 Group Stage (France)
Eight years later the Euros had eventually adapted a more familiar format and Spain and Germany were drawn to the same group. A 90th minute 1-0 victory by Spain in the final group game sent Germany packing and ended Jupp Derwall’s career as national team coach to make room for the Kaiser.

Germany – Spain 0:1 (Paris)
0:1 Maceda (90.)

Euro 1988 Group Stage (Germany)
Four years later the two countries were drawn together once again. This time Franz Beckenbauer’s side were the ones sending the Spaniards packing.

Germany – Spain 2:0 (Munich)
1:0 Völler (30.)
2:0 Völler (50.)

If you felt that this was all a bit too much chronicling and too little football, here is the whole story with moving images.
 

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 to finish off what few chances they have. This is Germany’s sole advantage as they simply cannot wait and defend. Indeed, like always, everyone on the German team must help in defending because the best thing that can be said of Germany’s defenders and goalkeeper thus far is that they have done just enough. In fact, I would not be surprised if Low starts with a second striker in Gomez. It is about time Gomez redeems himself.

3. The Spanish are already entangled in thinking about their destiny. Though Spain may have won some confidence against Italy and Russia, when Germany puts them on the back foot, all that confidence will vaporize just like it did against France in 2006. It is Spain after all!

4. Michael Ballack is injured. At first glance this would not be something good for Germany. Yet not only is the wounded beast the more dangerous one, but also without Ballack Low will have no choice but to labor hard over the tactics. As the game against Portugal showed, when Jogi thinks hard, Germany wins.

5. Germany is physically fit. Germany has not played any game more than 90 minutes during the entire tournament. Thus when it comes down to the final half Germany should have the energy reserve to keep on.

6. Spain is weak on set pieces and simply put Germany is more physically imposing. Spain has yet to face an opponent that plays like Germany in this tournament… one that combines English pace, Dutch tactics and well German finishing.

7. Schweini.

Now this one is for all the underdogs out there who have dared to dream…