Three World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990) and three European Championship titles (1972, 1980, 1996) are included in the far reaching chronicles of the Deutschen Fußball Bundes (DFB – the German Football Association). Therefore, Germany is the most successful European team, ahead of Italy. They additionally appeared in the World Cup final on four occasions (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002) and well as appearing twice in the European Championship final (1976, 1992).

Germany is therefore also the second most successful team in the world behind Brazil. Whereby the German team even holds the record for World Cup final appearances. Having played in seven finals, they have taken part in one more than the record World Cup winners, Brazil. “The reputation that German football enjoys in the world is, as it always has been, unique,” said DFB President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder.

The quarter-finals marked the end of the road for the DFB side at the 1994 and 1998 World Cup finals in USA and France repectively. Participation at the European Championships in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2000 and in Portugal in 2004 led additionally to situations that not only the media described as being a sporting disaster. Prior to the tournaments, the German national team had never been eliminated at the group stage of a big tournament.

When the international football association FIFA introduced the world rankings in 1993, the then World Cup holders occupied the No 1 spot. The German national coach Berti Vogts at the time made fun of the new rating system, which he considered to be ridiculous. Only a little later when his team, who were the title holders at the time, were knocked out in the quarter finals at the FIFA World Cup 1994 in USA, he pointed to German football’s world prestige. His team heads the world rankings, said the former world class defender. His opinion about the FIFA ranking system had changed drastically. Scepticism had turned to pride.

But the German side started to creep slowly down the rankings. First they dropped out of the top ten. Then they hovered around the 12thposition before nose-diving down to 19th in December 2003. The placing is seen by Jürgen Klinsmann – Rudi Völler’s successor as national coach – as being a “joke”. He can’t comprehend why teams like Mexico, Ireland, Uruguay and Japan are higher than his own team. The World Cup winner feels it might be due to the inadequate points system, which disadvantages his team. As World Cup hosts, the German team is not required play qualifying matches.

But Klinsmann also knows that German football has to accept the fact that teams like Turkey and Greece gained better results in the past years. Other teams won crunch games and it’s something the Germans don’t do that often these days. In contrast to the German team’s best times, which lasted almost 40 years, the DFB’s side has simply become too unstable in the last few years. Since October 2000, when England were beaten 1-0 in the final game at the old Wembley Stadium, Germany hasn’t been able to defeat a single top ten national team. Up to the end of 2004, they had more than ten opportunities to do so.

In between the poor European Championship results in 2000 and 2004, the German team however succeeded in causing a coup that not even optimists had expected. At the FIFA World Cup 2002 ™in Japan and South Korea, Rudi Völler’s side forced their way into the final. It came about due to concentrated performances but also due to a fortunate tournament draw, in which strong opponents such as Spain and Italy were eliminated before they were able to take on the Germans. 

Three 1-0 victories against Paraguay, USA and South Korea qualified the record European Champions, for whom Oliver Kahn was brilliant between the posts, for the final. The Germans then proceeded to give their best performance against Brazil in Yokohama. Nevertheless the score was 2-0 in the South American side’s favour after 90 minutes. at the end. When the losers arrived back home, they were given such a rousing welcome. It was as if they had won a fourth World Cup.

Looking back, German football appears in a better light than these days, when referees are behind betting and match fixing scandals. Great players such as Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier, Günther Netzer, Wolfgang Overath, Paul Breitner, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Rudi Völler and Lothar Matthäus represent the successful period between 1972 and 1992 in which the German side reached eight World Cup and European Championships finals. Older heroes go by the names of Fritz Walter, the captain of the 1954 World Cup winning side, Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock and Uwe Seeler. The younger members of the 1990 World Cup winning team such as Thomas Häßler, Andreas Möller, Jürgen Kohler and Klinsmann continued to help prevent Germany’s football reputation from becoming permanently rusty for almost a decade.

Enriched by players from the former GDR, such as Matthias Sammer, the national team played wonderfully at the 1996 European Championships despite having many key players missing through injury. They were duly rewarded with the title. And the current situation, one year before the FIFA World Cup 2006 ™, looks better than it did last summer. (Link to the second text on the state of the current team in the Confederation Cup section).