Bundesliga Fanatic

The ball goes out and a collective sigh of resignation comes over Germany supporters in Warsaw’s national stadium. Germany just earned a corner against Italy in the semi final of the EUROs but instead of excitement over the possibility of scoring a goal, Germany supporters knew it would be just another missed opportunity.  That moment [...]

Germany supporters everywhere are still reeling after their disappointing dropout from the EUROs this summer. We learned that Spain are still ahead of the competition and that their quality is so outstanding that an entire team of midfielders and defenders is a plausible alternative going forward so long as the right quality exists. Looking at [...]

A long time ago, Paul Simon recorded a song called “Old Friends”.  It begins, not with music, but talking, old men and women talking.  It starts quietly, barely audibly; suddenly this old man says quite forcefully, “I’m in pain; I’m in pain strongly!”  What I remember most was just how much I heard it in [...]

Mission 2012. A seemingly fitting title for a side that wasn’t quite the out-right favourite of international football. I say wasn’t because in an aesthetic sense, Germany are becoming one of the worlds favourite sides to watch. With Oezil’s vision, Gomez’s finishing and Hummel’s outstanding presence, it is hard to see why anyone wouldn’t want [...]

Pod regulars Cris Nyari and Niklas Wildhagen welcome Tobias Escher from spielverlagerung.de. The three of them sum up the EURO 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine from a German perspective. Was Schweinsteiger fit enough to be a starter at this tournament? Should Marco Reus have gotten more playing time? What to make of Lukas Podolski? [...]

Another year, another tournament behind us.  Well, for Germany anyways.  Against Italy, die Nationalmannschaft suffered their third semi final exit in their last four major tournaments, throwing supporters everywhere into a deep trance of self pity and frustration. To many, Germany’s exit summed up another premature exit but alongside that disappointment are also several positives [...]

The German playmaker gave a defiant yet defensive interview in Welt’s Sunday edition discussing the team’s bitter loss to Italy, Joachim Löw and Germany’s impression at the tournament. Germany have come under much scrutiny after failing to win a title again with expectations very high after the World Cup two years ago, non perhaps bigger than [...]

In light of Germany’s elimination against Italy here is a nostalgic, slightly more optimistic, trip down memory lane to a time that was more kind to the German national team.  A rare moment in which Germany could at least claim, in an odd way, to have triumphed over the Italians. With two wins from their [...]

Germany go out at the semi finals for the third time in four major tournaments after being beaten by an impressive Italian side. Löw’s team were unable to overcome a Balotelli brace in the first half, struggling to ever really get a grip on the game against a tactically disciplined and resolute Italian team. Ozil’s [...]

Once again Germany exits in the semi final stage and once more to a familiar opponent. Tactically outwitted by a smarter team combined with individual mistakes and ultimately poor cohesion in the final third, Germany have nobody to blame but themselves.  Here are the ratings for the match. Germany Manuel Neuer, goalkeeper 3: He could not [...]