‘We need the Evil Germans’

COMOX, BC  ●  After three weeks of football, we are at the eve of the final of EURO 2012. The endgame will be between expected Spain and not so expected Italy.

Let’s be honest, who would have thought Germany would be put to shame like this?

The Germans who in the past always did get better and better during a tournament and in the end, often enough took home the prize.

Over the past four years this has changed. Spain beat them four years ago in the final, during the World Cup in South Africa they struggled to go past the group phase, and now, even when they did very well early on in the tournament, they were just a bleak copy of themselves in the semi-finals against Italy.

You have to admit, this was not the team we saw over the last couple of weeks. Timid and un-German like behavior did them in against an Italy, that really was not that great in the first fifteen minutes of the game.

So, where did it all go wrong for Germany? Was it a wrong line-up sent in the field by Joachim Loew? Some would say yes.

At first I thought too it was not the right plan of attack with Gomez and Podolski, but then I wondered if that ‘ueberhaupt’ had anything to do with it.

Talking as a former ‘Dutchie’, hating the Germans should be in my blood. I know, I know, so many years after the war we all should move on, but it is not something you get over so easily.

So normally we hate the German teams with a passion. Mention the year 1974 to a Dutchman and see how he crumbles and starts to cry. It still and will always hurt that Germany in that year beat The Netherlands in the final of the World Cup. Compare that to 2010 and you will get a totally different shoulder raising reaction.

No, losing to Germany went straight to the core.

Holland hates the Germans. Period.

But you know what, during Euro2012 those feelings did not bubble up like they used to. I actually found myself cheering for Die Mannschaft at some points and was wondering what was wrong with me.

You simply don’t cheer for Germany unless you are a German.

And maybe we get a little bit more to the point here.

There are a lot of likable players in the German team. Frankly I can’t think of a single player I do not like. Super Mario, Reus, Kroos, Neuer, Lahm, Podolski and even a German with the most German name of them all, Bastian Schweinsteiger, is sort of ‘nice’.

They are not like the Muellers, Beckenbauers, Rummenigges, Matthäuses, Voellers, Kahns, Ballacks of the past.

Can you detest Joachim Loew, their coach? No.  He certainly is no Uli Hoeness.

Maybe that’s why Germany are not winning the big prizes anymore. Nobody hates to play against them anymore.

The respect is gone and with that a big chunk of the magic.

So, what the Germans need is anything but a new coach. What they need is one or two players who are a chip of the old German block.

Players, who are so good and have that German superiority aura around them that we so despicably dislike.

Then, only then will everything be right in the world of soccer.

We need a fairy tale with a villain in it. How famous would Snow White be without her evil step mother and what kind of a movie would Star Wars be without Darth Vader?

We need the Evil Germans, not these cutie pies….

 

Carla Boers