March 22, 2006...12:09 pm
Germany versus the United States
According to the Guardian, Germany is a nation afraid of humiliation. Angela Merkel has spoken out in support of the man blamed for what is going on. And tonight the Americans are coming to possibly add further to the disarray. There is panic in the air, the media is having a field day, and all this just about football.
Of course, as Germany are hosting the thing, an early exit from the World Cup this summer would be embarrassing, but seeing as the team is already down following a run of less than spectacular results, wouldn’t it be better if they got behind the team and the coach, rather than hammering them in the papers, on the radio, and on television all of the time? If I were Klinsmann I’d probably tell them where to shove their job and go back to California and spend the summer with the kids. Can it be worth the aggro?
In the end he might not have the choice. There are whispers that defeat to the United States in Dortmund tonight could lead to Klinsmann being asked to step back only a few months before the World Cup. This would be madness. It is not as if the USA team is as useless as many in the German media seem to be making out. They are ranked 5th in the World at the moment. They spanked Norway 5-0 in Oslo. They were only a handball away from knocking the Nationalelf out of the last World Cup. They’ve got some good players…
Defeat would not be great for the Germans, but it wouldn’t be a catastrophe. Except that it would…that at least has already been decided.
The biggest argument against letting Klinsmann go, even if they do lose this evening, and apart from the fact that it would be stupid in general, is the question of who would take over. Lothar Matthaus? I’m falling of my chair laughing. Hitzfeld? Does he want the hassle? Daum? Sammer? Are they going to do any better than Klinsi? Doubtful, especially at this late stage.
In the end the problem with the German team is less about the coach and more about the material he has to work with. And this won’t change whoever is in charge. So why not accept the World Cup is going to be a learning exercise for the younger players and focus on the next European Championships and the World Cup four years down the line. Get off their back and support them, and maybe they’ll surprise the doomsayers. Because I can’t imagine this current media frenzy is helping one little bit.
As a quick aside - this pessimism and criticism surrounding the German football team seems to me a very ‘German’ trait at the moment when talking about all kinds of different things, be it the economy, politics or sport. I guess that’s the problem when performance doesn’t meet such high expectations.
Good luck tonight lads.
On the Atari DJ Tapedeck: ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, The Beatles.
2 Comments
March 23, 2006 at 9:53 am
What a horrible showing in the second half by the U.S. I hope it was because they put all their scrubs in.
March 23, 2006 at 10:57 am
Yeah, the US were missing a few players. Also, for them it was just a warm-up game. For the Germans the pressure was enormous, and they had to win…that might have been the difference.
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