Euro 2016

[Bundesbiers]

Oh no, what makes you think that I dont want England to win that game.
Oops, Russia with the last minute equaliser

Gutting. That killed my parlay.

 

[I asked LT to delete my acct]

1-0 England, do Russia know that they can set up a wall when the opponent got a free kick

Russians are fantastic match officials though Nessie.

 

[Itkovian]

Lol I've never seen a forum censor cr@cker

 

[Bundesbiers]

Lol I've never seen a forum censor cr@cker

And I had the word "fire" before it... and it still censored me. I had to look at it for a minute to understand why the hell it censored me. The Liberals would already label me a racist.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Whew... The USA pulled it out. On to the knockout stages.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Well this is fun. Football language in Germany.

Choice phrases

Moving through the team, the goalkeeper can be known as a Teufelskerl (devil’s man) or, if he is no good, a Fliegenfänger (fly catcher). And in front of him you’ll expect your defence to put in the odd Blutgrätsche (blood tackle). In midfield you should have a couple of Wadenbeißer (lit. calf-biters, fig. short-**** waspish types), while your man up front is very much a Torjäger (goal hunter).

Some fairly no-nonsense terms of aggression in there, but on more playful grounds we have:

• The mouse is over! (Aus die Maus!): the game’s up, there’s nothing more we can do. This one is a catchphrase from a children’s show in the late 90s.
• The keeper goes down like a railway gate (Der Torwart fällt wie eine Bahnschranke)
• Cucumber troop (Gurkentruppe): A team that is, frankly, a bit pony (I think I understand this one Brits ((Cockney right)) Pony and trap = crap)
• Death of chances (Chancentod): Nickname for a striker who keeps missing opportunities

And being a national obsession, football has coloured everyday language:

• The **** card (Arschkarte): The referee keeps the yellow card in his breast pocket, and the red in his back pocket, next to his ****. “To get the **** card” is to have something particularly bad happens to you.
• Keep the ball down low (den Ball flach halten): hold your horses, don’t be hasty
• To give a through ball (eine Steilvorlage geben): to put something on a plate for someone

Finally, Mario Götze’s goal in the final of the 2014 World Cup was a Jokertor (goal by a substitute). As Rafa Honigstein pointed out in Das Reboot, it was also a goal which owed a debt to the new-fangled Footbonaut.

Rivals

Unrequited love is a terrible, gut-wrenching thing. Unrequited hate, on the other hand, is just kind of sad.

So it’s not great that while in England we love to put one over on the Germans, they aren’t nearly so fussed by Tommy. Instead, they focus on the Käsköppe (“cheese heads”) to the north. So it’s with some glee that the chant of “We’re going to the Euros without Holland” (Ohne Holland fahrn wir zur EM) has rung out around German grounds in recent times.

It’s noticeable that German fans are happy to describe their opponents in their own language, using Tommy for England, Elftal for the Netherlands and Squadra Azzurri for Italy. The rivalry with Italy goes back to at least 1970, where the World Cup semi final (4-3 to Italy) is considered as the Jahrhundertspiel (Game of the Century).

Who speaks what

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

Unlike the UK, the Germans are not quick to associate regional accents with social class. However, the North German spoken by players like Toni Kroos has a very inherently homely feel. It is closely related to Dutch and has vocabulary that is felt to be charming so, basically, you can swear all you like and get away with it. Compare, for example, the sound of the standard German Idiot or Dummkopf next to the altogether lovelier North German versionDösbaddel – you just can’t be angry with someone who calls you a Dösbaddel.

Colemanballs

In 2006, Lukas Podolski won Football Quote of the Year (it’s a thing) from the Deutsche Akademie für Fußballkultur for the deep thinking behind the following doozy: “Football is like that. Sometimes the better one wins.” (So ist Fußball. Manchmal gewinnt der Bessere). He supposedly once also remarked that “football is like chess, just without the dice”, but despite how much we want it to be true, we suspect that one is made up.

Patrick Funk doesn’t play for the national team, but wholly merits a mention for “left is similar to right, just on the other side” (Links ist ähnlich wie rechts, nur auf der anderen Seite). Just think how much head-scratching could have been saved if we’d had the Funk in 1990s England, when we couldn’t sort out that interminable left-side problem.

Chants

In 2006, Sportfreunde Stiller’s “54, 74, 90, 2006” became the unofficial anthem of theMannschaft. They’ve since had to go to the trouble of adapting and extending it because just they keep on winning things, which we in England can entirely sympathise with (“30/40/50 years of hurt”, anyone?)

Besides baiting the absent Dutch, another popular chant to goad your opponents with is “you can go home” (Ihr könnt nach Hause fahren!).

And, of course, there’s always Mario Gomez.

Germany begins its 2016 Euro campaign Sunday June 12 with its Group C match against the Ukraine in Lille. Poland and Northern Ireland are the other two Group C nations in this year’s Euros.

 

[mhnessie]

Translating literally can be fun

 

[Bundesbiers]

It's pretty rare when you lose the first game of a Group Stage match and come back and top the group. All the while doing it with being down a man for almost an entire match in the last game. Never seen that before.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Neuer has been big today. I thought Ukraine would play defensive today. I was wrong.

 

[mhnessie]

Neuer has been big today. I thought Ukraine would play defensive today. I was wrong.

The best game of the Euro 2016 so far. Ukraine on eye level, think they have noticed that the German defense dosnt work as it should be.

 

[Bundesbiers]

The best game of the Euro 2016 so far. Ukraine on eye level, think they have noticed that the German defense dosnt work as it should be.

They have attacked the weakness of Germany's defense. I give them credit. #9 and #7 of Ukraine are great footballers.

 

[I asked LT to delete my acct]

The best game of the Euro 2016 so far. Ukraine on eye level, think they have noticed that the German defense dosnt work as it should be.

Sir Geoff hurst and Martin Peters noticed that as well .

 

[mhnessie]

Sir Geoff hurst and Martin Peters noticed that as well .

But no Russian Linesman to get them back on track. But even if there were one, he certainly wouldnt make a call for Ukraine....

 

[Bundesbiers]

But no Russian Linesman to get them back on track. But even if there were one, he certainly wouldnt make a call for Ukraine....

Unless there was a negotiation for the return of Crimea.

 

[Wolf Packer]

A well oiled machine, is how i'd describe the German team right now. Not even a great performance, but very efficient, never looked in any danger of losing that game. Not sure about the false 9 position though, would like to see a CF stretching the opposition a little more.

 

[PackerFan71]

The best game of the Euro 2016 so far. Ukraine on eye level, think they have noticed that the German defense dosnt work as it should be.

Where was Hummels Nessie? Piggy's goal was cool although he now looks about 50.

 

[mhnessie]

Where was Hummels Nessie? Piggy's goal was cool although he now looks about 50.

That's exactly what I thought, besides his goal he did not look fit and he certainly should lose some weight. I don't think he can help the team very much in this shape.
Hummels should be back on the pitch on Thursday against Poland. He was injured and Jogi did not want to take a risk to lose him for a longer time.
Hopefully his return helps to improve our defense.

 

[mhnessie]

A well oiled machine, is how i'd describe the German team right now. Not even a great performance, but very efficient, never looked in any danger of losing that game. Not sure about the false 9 position though, would like to see a CF stretching the opposition a little more.

Well, there is much room for improvement, especially for our defense. At least we know that we still have a world class keeper between the posts and Jerome Boateng is back on track after his long injury. Great performance by him too.
Fully agree regarding the false 9, I expect Gomez to play for Gotze on Thursday.

 

[Wolf Packer]

Well, there is much room for improvement, especially for our defense. At least we know that we still have a world class keeper between the posts and Jerome Boateng is back on track after his long injury. Great performance by him too.
Fully agree regarding the false 9, I expect Gomez to play for Gotze on Thursday.

Can't argue with that, Boatengs goal-line clearance was superb. Gotze being natrually more of a midfielder came a little too deep, and swamped the 3 playing behind him, if he'd have played on the shoulder of the Ukraine CB's, Muller, Draxler and Ozil would have had much more space to inflict more damage.

Pleasantly suprised by Ukraine, mind.

 

[mhnessie]

....now I know
Well done BBC, great and funny video

You must be logged in to see this image or video!

 

[mhnessie]

Can't argue with that, Boatengs goal-line clearance was superb. Gotze being natrually more of a midfielder came a little too deep, and swamped the 3 playing behind him, if he'd have played on the shoulder of the Ukraine CB's, Muller, Draxler and Ozil would have had much more space to inflict more damage.

Pleasantly suprised by Ukraine, mind.

Ukraine had a very good game. Instead of parking the bus like N.Ireland or Romania did they attacked and as we could see our defense had major problems several times.
Offensively I expect it to get better with Gomez. This should leave more room for other players, especially Ozil who was invisible for most of the game until his assist for Schweinsteiger.
We are well known for getting better later in tournaments, therefore I'm fine with this win despite of all the problems we had.
Looking forward to todays game between Belgium and Italy. Let's see if Belgium really can be a contender. Also looking forward to Englands game against Wales on Thursday. England has a very talented team, will be interesting to see how far they can go this time.

 

[PackerFan71]

Ukraine had a very good game. Instead of parking the bus like N.Ireland or Romania did they attacked and as we could see our defense had major problems several times.
Offensively I expect it to get better with Gomez. This should leave more room for other players, especially Ozil who was invisible for most of the game until his assist for Schweinsteiger.
We are well known for getting better later in tournaments, therefore I'm fine with this win despite of all the problems we had.
Looking forward to todays game between Belgium and Italy. Let's see if Belgium really can be a contender. Also looking forward to Englands game against Wales on Thursday. England has a very talented team, will be interesting to see how far they can go this time.

One diffrence between a side such as england and germany for me is the finishing and lack of fear, both german goals were well taken. Whereas england (good finish on the free kick apart) for all their decent build up for most of the time no end product.

 

[mhnessie]

One diffrence between a side such as england and germany for me is the finishing and lack of fear, both german goals were well taken. Whereas england (good finish on the free kick apart) for all their decent build up for most of the time no end product.

Fully agree, but I think the lack of efficiency has something to do with the lack of experience. However, if they want to make it to the knockout stage they need to learn fast and secure wins against weak teams like Russia.
Russia, btw, was playing a kind of football that was played in the 90's. Terrible.

 

[PackerFan71]

Fully agree, but I think the lack of efficiency has something to do with the lack of experience. However, if they want to make it to the knockout stage they need to learn fast and secure wins against weak teams like Russia.
Russia, btw, was playing a kind of football that was played in the 90's. Terrible.

Yep that Russian team and their fans are very difficult to like.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Yep that Russian team and their fans are very difficult to like.

I must disagree to a certain extent.

You must be logged in to see this image or video!