Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger
This being a global website, I don't know which of the many, many internationals that were played on Saturday you have watched on television. But it is highly unlikely that you have seen a match as good as the Czech Republic versus Germany. Or, for that matter, a team as good as the Germans.
You really would need the verdict of someone who knows the opposition intimately, in this case the Czechs, to properly assess the game and your own team's performance.
Still, I think it's fair to say that Germany were very impressive in Prague and the fact the feared Czech offence only got rolling in the last fifteen minutes - once a lucky, deflected shot had gone past Jens Lehmann - was mainly to due to excellent work on behalf of the guests.
A similar thing goes for the Czech backline having such taxing 90 minutes. True, this is not the most solid defence in the world; but there were so many great German moves, especially in the first half, and so much nice one-touch football that even a much more cautious crew than the Czechs would have been busy sealing up leaks left, right and centre.
It says a lot about how solid Germany were as a team that chances fell to everyone upfront. Of course Kevin Kuranyi, whom - truth be told - I once didn't rate that highly, scored twice, drew a fine save from Petr Cech and should have won a penalty when it was 2-0.
But his partner, Lukas Podolski, hit the bar and attacking midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Bernd Schneider both could have been on target as well. (If you know Schneider, you'll be surprised to hear that he missed from just inside the box - with a header!)
So it was the performance of the side that made for pleasing news on Saturday. The result was less important. Because let's face it: there was never really any doubt Germany would qualify for Euro 2008. I hope this doesn't sound smug, coming as it does from someone who's used to catching flak for being habitually critical of the national team. It's just that we always qualify. In fact, Germany's record in qualification campaigns ranks among the best in football.
The last time we lost a Euro qualifier was almost a decade ago, in October of 1998 away to Turkey. (Just to show you how much time has passed since then: the coach who celebrated his debut on that day was someone by the name of Erich Ribbeck.) If you consult one of those insane statistics tomes and look up the all-time record as regards qualification matches for the European Championships you won't find Germany among the top four.
However, that is misleading. The teams that head this particular table - the Russians, the Czechs and the Spanish - have played roughly twenty games more than the Germans, which explains their higher points total.
But look at the 'lost' column. For Germany, it says six. The only team that comes close is England with eight defeats. All other nations that have some sort of track record in this competition (meaning those with a reasonable number of games under their belts) are in double figures.
And the picture is even more impressive when you look at World Cup qualifiers. Oh sure, you'll now quickly bring up Germany's 5-1 loss at home against England in 2001. But that was only the second defeat. Ever! In fact, Germany/West Germany went more than half a century without losing a single World Cup qualifier, before Portugal broke the spell in 1985.
So that's just two losses since March 11, 1934, when a 9-1 win over Luxembourg marked the beginning of Germany's history in World Cup qualifying campaigns. Brazil have lost that many matches while qualifying for the 2006 tournament alone, and they were beaten no less than six times on their way to the 2002 finals.
One is tempted to say you can't compare the two countries, because Brazil have had those mammoth CONMEBOL campaigns in which they regularly faced a superpower like Argentina. Then again, it wasn't that regular. CONMEBOL uses this unwieldy, one-group marathon with up to 18 matches per team only since 1998, when Brazil were automatically qualified.
And during the 1980s, West Germany always had to survive larger groups with some dangerous sides. (Just have a look at the 1986 qualifying campaign, when the opposition included Portugal, Sweden and the Czechs.)
At the same time, Brazil typically played only four games, usually against Bolivia, Paraguay or Venezuela.
But be that as it may, even if we leave comparisons with Brazil out of the equation, the fact remains that the Germans have a great and statistically unlikely qualifying record.
In my book, I cite this to counter the often-heard claim we are arrogant, because I couldn't - still can't, actually - see how you can be stuck-up and at the same time refuse to take any of the many lesser-known sides you are bound to meet in a qualifying round lightly.
So we had any right to be quite certain, even before the Prague match, that Germany would make it to the tournament in Austria and Switzerland. Whether we can make up for our dismal showings at the last two Euro finals is open to speculation, of course. But if Saturday's game is anything to go by, we should at least be able to send a team you don't have to be embarrassed by.
A team with some promising youngsters that is at its best when it takes the game to the opposition. And that in itself would be a vast improvement over 2000 and 2004.
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they shouldn't get ahead of themselves, there is still a long way to go for this team imo
I predicted a 4-0 score, once they scored 2.
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