Soccer in Germany

The preparations for the soccer championship in South Africa, however, started with a deep shock: In November 2009 the suicide of Robert Enke touched deeply (not only) soccer fans in Germany. Enke was nominated as keeper for the German national football team. His suicide made public: depression is a dangerous desease.

7 months before start of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa the jerseys of the German team were presented by the DFB. The white shirt has 11 vertical stripes, 3 of them in the colors of Germany (black, red, yellow). The number "11" is meant as a symbol for the players of a soccer team. The jersey is designed by Adidas.

After the shock with Robert Enke in November 2009 Germany´s National Soccer Team had to face the next deep hit: Goalie Rene Adler from Bayer Leverkusen got seriously hurt during a Bundesliga match against VfB Stuttgart, just a few weeks before the start of the FIFA Worldcup! His announcement, that he would not be fit for South Africa, gave National Coach Jogi Löw a fiddly problem:
Who should be Germany´s new "Number 1" Goalkeeper? Manuel Neuer? Tim Wiese?

15. May 2010 - the next bad news: Michael Ballack, captain of the team and one of the most important players at all, will not play in South Africa! He got a severe ankle injury during the cup final between his team FC Chelsea and FC Portsmouth.
Can Ballack be replaced?

Keeper: Manuel Neuer, Tim Wiese, Jörg Butt

Defence: Dennis Aogo (Hamburger SV), Holger Badstuber (Bayern München), Jerome Boateng (Hamburger SV), Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC), Marcell Jansen (Hamburger SV), Philipp Lahm (Bayern München), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Serdar Tasci (VfB Stuttgart)

Center: Sami Khedira (VfB Stuttgart), Toni Kroos (Bayer Leverkusen), Marko Marin (Werder Bremen), Mesut Özil (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern München), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburger SV)

Forward: Cacau (VfB Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (Bayern München), Stefan Kießling (Bayer Leverkusen), Miroslav Klose (Bayern München), Thomas Müller (Bayern München), Lukas Podolski (1. FC Köln)

Coach: Joachim Löw

13.06.2010: Germany-Australia 4:0
Excellent playing German Team. Müller and Özil best players.

18.06.2010: Germany - Serbia 0:1
Germany did a poor match. Red card for Klose, Podolski lost a penalty. Klose and Badstuber weak.

23.06.2010: Germany - Ghana 1:0
An indifferent game. Mertesacker weak. Özil matchwinner (goal).
Germany, however, qualified for the next round.

27.06.2010: Germany - England 4:1
Man of the match: Thomas Müller. And the referee, because he made a wrong decision: he did not acknowledge a goal for England.
Nevertheless, a strong performance of the German team, notably Schweinsteiger, Özil and Friedrich.

03.07.2010: Germany - Argentina 4:0
Magnificent victory! Not a chance for Argentina and superstar Lionel Messi.
The 20 year old youngster and former "nobody" Thomas Müller now top scorer of the complete Championship.

08.07.2010: Germany - Spain 0:1 (Semi-Final)
After some great performances during the last weeks once again a poor match.
To sum up: The volatile performace of the Germans shows, that Jogi Löw´s youngsters still have to learn.

10.07.2010: Germany - Uruguay 3:2
After the bitter disappointment of the semi final just a match for the statistics.
Thomas Müller hit once again, thus becoming actually top scorer of the championship.

6 months later, winter 2010/2011: The championship is over. What remains? South Africa is still looking for economic wealth, has to manage high costs for the stadiums, because many of them are empty.