Former German international goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, relegated to the bench during the 2006 World Cup, insists Germany would have been world champions if he had been in goal.
With Jens Lehmann in goal hosts Germany finished third in the competition after being knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual champions Italy.
But 37-year-old Kahn believes that logically he should have been first choice keeper.
"I'm not criticising what Jens Lehmann did, but with me Germany would have been world champions," Kahn, 37, told weekly magazine Stern.
"I'm convinced of it because the way my career has evolved points in that direction," said Kahn, who retired from the national side after sealing the bronze medal with a 3-1 win over Portugal.
"In 1994 with Karlsruhe I reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup - two years later I won this trophy with Bayern Munich," he explained.
"In 1999, I lost the Champions League final in the harshest circumstances (losing 2-1 to Manchester United in stoppage time) before winning this competition two years later.
"Finally I lost the 2002 World Cup final (against Brazil).
"This logic, and I really believe in the law of series, should have continued at the 2006 World Cup," said Kahn.
Kahn, who is under contract with Bayern Munich until 2008, said that he had tried to explain his theory to World Cup coach Jurgen Klinsmann before the competition but "he didn't understand or didn't want to understand".
No Kahn, I dont understand that either. That would surely mean that the results of football are merely based around your own existence and i think the local betting store would have sussed that by now. Perhaps this isnt a midlife crisis and that he is actually missing an important stage of child development, meaning that he thinks that life actually does revolve around himself? But to skip the philosophy for a second, lets see (as if i need an excuse) those two great goals again and judge whether Kahn had a hope in hell of stopping either:
No he didnt.
But football is of course in crisis here as there is a winter break again. Boo. Over the winter break the TV is naturally going to try to sell us those great World Cup moments again while they still can. Here our TV tip of the day:
And the Winner is ... Deutschland
Die Fußball-WM hat alle Erwartungen übertroffen
Die WM zeigt Wirkung. Seit dem Sommermärchen gibt es fast ausnahmslos glückliche Gesichter in Deutschland. Deutsche Städte und die Tourismus-Industrie, Bierbrauer und Sportartikelhersteller - alle profitieren von der Fußball-WM im eigenen Land. Die Liste der Gewinner ist lang.
Tonight ZDF at 6:15 PM and the title shows clearly how Germany is also in a bit of a mental crisis too. The winner was not actually Germany but ITALY!
Some stats from the article:
12% more people used the trains - Wow! Millions of people bought football shirts - Wow! Television sales up 30% - Wow! "Fan Mile" was proclaimed word of the year - Wow! 20 million were in the stadiums or at public showings - Wow! 2 million tourists came to Germany - Wow! Football brought a healthy patriotism to Germany - errrrr???
All very exciting and obviously a very critical and objective documentary it will be- Jim cant make the TV tip tonight but is desperately looking for someone to video it for him on Lila Kanal - Warning: This link may be sarcasm!
But for those, like Jim, who will miss the show, here a lovely Youtube memory of the best bits:
Some requested pictures of architecture found in Rostock for our culturally aware football fanatic friends in Leipzig. A rare treat on a disappointing away day and worth a photo or three.
Speculation has been rife that a mystery buyer is set to purchase the club and install Eriksson as coach.
But Anigo insists current coach Albert Emon will still be in charge after the winter break, adding: "It will not be Sven-Goran Eriksson, I can assure you.
"I have seen the rumours and I prefer to laugh at them."
I laughed too. After all the idea that anyone would want Sven is funny, as is the idea that Sven would get a job anyways as the English FA are still forced to pay him a stupid sum to doing nothing- I suppose you could call that "sweet FA".
Southend boss Steve Tilson was unable to hide his disappointment after his side's narrow quarter-final defeat.
"Considering the desire and commitment we showed it should have gone to penalties," said Tilson.
"It's even harder to swallow given that the goal was offside," added Tilson, referring to Defoe's winner.
"Credit to my players because we were up against a side that has won their last 10 games."
Bad behaviour in Scotland leads to action against those accused of singing sectarian chants and throwing missiles onto the pitch. Quite how this idea of punishing whole fan clubs will pan out is however slightly worrying
Rangers have suspended the registration of an East Kilbride supporters' club following a missile throwing incident and sectarian singing at Tynecastle.
One individual has also been banned from attending all Rangers matches.
Laurence Macintyre, head of safety, said: "Supporters' clubs must realise that they will be held responsible for the behaviour of those occupying their allocated seats on match days."
An object was thrown on to the pitch during last month's game with Hearts.
Mr Macintyre added: "The supporters' club in question received only three tickets for the match but claimed they did not know who had used them.
"This obstructed our inquiries and prevented us from reaching the actual person or persons involved in this incident.
"We were also made aware of sectarian singing in the same seating area and, as a result of this, and the missile throwing incident, the registration of the supporters' club has been suspended.
West Ham captain Nigel Reo-Coker has received hate mail during the club's recent run of bad form.
Some fans blamed him for the sacking of boss Alan Pardew and hate mail was sent to the club before he scored Sunday's winner against Manchester United.
"It got to a boiling point for a young man," his agent Tony Finnigan told BBC Five Live Sport.
"I told him to stick it in the dustbin and get ready to go to war against one of the best teams in Europe."
A shot that hits the crossbar, bounces on or over the line and then bounces out again has a name in German. It is called a "Wembley Goal". The fact that a) the 1966 goal was clearly in b) the Germans would have lost anyways and c) Germany have won the World Cup so many times that this once is pretty petty has not stopped the Wembley goal becoming a cult topic in Germany. Obviously this goal 40 years ago in London was such a blow to the German psyche that the phrase is used to describe a goal that is a difficult call and is usually used to suggest that it was not actually in. This makes it hard to write a match report on the 1-0 cup loss against Hertha 03 last week because firstly neither myself or Jim were at the match and secondly because the other reports are tending to suggest the goal was not actually in and therefore a "Wembley Tor".
The defeat means that as we thought the season was all over, well it certainly is now!
TeBe are too far behind Babelsberg to really even bother applying for the licence to the next league required in Germany to go up. The only remote chance left to us is that the local council in Babelsberg still havent got round to filling in their paperwork for the extension of the flood lights at the Karli. They still have a while to do this and so this straw probably isnt worth clutching at. Save collecting a petition from local residents against the extension plans I see no hope and if we did that then we really would deserve a good kicking from our friends in Babelsberg.
With promotion hopes dashed and our 2 and half years unbeaten cup run over, the season is about as exciting as a garden gnome owners' convention. The players that came to us in order to get a foot in the door of higher level football will now have to go: We cant pay their wages and they should be looking further afield now for their chance. The squad will have to be cut, sponsors are not happy, the management are under fire and the fans will probably start setting priorities in their lives that mean a rainy friday night match against a team in the Oberliga will probably have to miss out to more exciting activities.
The current split in the fan scene isnt going to help with the more vocal (at least on the Internet) members of Block E calling to spend the rest of the season in a party mood. This call for action probably intended to boost optimism and keep fans coming to the matches will undoubtedly been seen as a threat rather than a promise to the majority of TeBe fans who come to Tennis to actually watch the football. But anyone wishing to seriously discuss this issue should avoid using the fan forum Lila Kanal unless they want to be banned as the forum really isnt designed for such things. Alternatively there are face to face meetings, but critics of the current situation will probably have little success at the fan meeting in January either. What a thoroughly depressing situation.
Last game before the winter break, last chance for a bit of hope to carry us through said break. Not to be. Babelsberg finally dropped points for the second time this season, we could have closed the gap to eight, but now it's twelve and it's Goodnight Vienna. My first defeat of the season, too
Prelude to this match: To thank the fans for their great support, and to show some solidarity with them, the team and management donated 10 'weekend [train] tickets' for the fans to enable them to travel to Rostock for free to roar on the team. As usual, when there's a freebie going, everybody wants a piece, so we managed to get 65 to travel, a cracking away crowd for us. For those 'not on the list', a hat was handed round in the train to raise the extra money for tickets, so I paid 2 EUR for a 6-hour return journey :D
I got on one station later than the assembled posse, and it was great to see the last carriage filled with Purple and White, not to mention at least 10 huge cops. The fans seemed to have been organised themselves into two camps; the quieter, mostly older (30s) crew downstairs in among families on daytrips, and the mostly younger drinking crew upstairs and in the aisles. The atmosphere was good, it was nice to see so many travelling away, but already a few alcohol victims could be spied, those who hadn't gone to bed and had drunk through the night. As usual, the 'merry brigade' were singing plenty of songs, but it all stayed in good spirits, even with the police, who had been less than friendly the previous weekend. No problems this time, they even chatted with fans, bored witless no doubt. I decided not to drink for this journey to see what it was like and because of recent stresses. It made the day very interesting and eye-opening.
We got to Rostock 3 hours later, nice day, and all waiting outside the station for various stragglers, people buying more drink, peeing etc, and had our first victim, a younger member scooped for 'urinating in public' - 15 EUR fine :-/ We then started to walk to the ground, a good 40 minutes away, and it was the usual carry-on, everything taking ages, walk, wait, walk, wait. Eventually a group of around 8 non-alcohol-fuelled people had enough and walked on without stopping, much to the chagrin of Fan Rep PPA. We were accused of a lack of solidarity and egoism, maybe justifiably. But tbh I felt no solidarity with a group of loud growling pissed people, and egoism works both ways. Very strange to have the shoe on the other foot for once.
Well the others got on the bus and got to the ground before us. Poetic justice you might say. But it was a nice day, the walk was nice, and I got talking with someone who had become an honorary member of the Green And White Army (Northern Ireland) and had been to Denmark at the same game as me, all from meeting NI fans in Berlin! Very cool.
We passed Hansa's glossy lego-like Ostsee Stadium on the way, we were playing on an old training ground, and entrance was 2,50 EUR, bargain. The Party Army had assembled close to the TeBe dugout and were already in full voice. We soon found out that a friend's banner was not allowed to be unfurled in the ground because of the political message on it:
"Not an inch of ball for Fascists: Greetings and Kisses from Friedrichshain"
Which in the light of the spate of recent football violence, right-wing chants and symbolism, is an absolute disgrace. As a result, at the end of the game, we unfurled the banner and held it up in the block, singing all the while.
To the match. TeBe were playing in all-black. The first half was a good game, open, lots of attacks, TeBe, slightly the better team, with a few half-chanes, but Greil had to be sharp to make a few good saves from Rostock too. Ryan Thomson was his usual all-action bustling self, Benny Griesert was weaving his magic on the wing, including my moment of the day when he skinned two Hansa players before lofting this deft deliberately-sliced pass with the outside of his foot to Scholl, worthy of the Bundesliga, and the left side was strong thanks to Below's strong preformance. Sascha Kadow, on the other hand, was not at the races at all, and I'm amazed he lasted 45 minutes, let alone the whole match. We seemed to be playing 3-5-2, with Kadow as a link man, but he looked lost, afraid of the ball, without bearings. I really don't what our best 11 is, our what our formation really is. We really missed captain Petrowsky yesterday, he has that bit more creativity than Ryan, for all the good work he does. We do lack some real inspiration though, and didn't put in enough crosses. For me, Thiam didn't have one of his better days, made a lot of elemental errors, which were all the more noticable because of their rarenes. Duygun laboured hard, and I like him as a guy, but I don't think he's quite good enough. We missed Schalle too I think.
Anyway, onto the second half. Unlike the team yesterday. Who stopped. It was ALL Hansa. We left the right wing uncovered all day (just like in the BAK game) and it cost us again, as that was where the corner stemmed from that led to their first goal. The only people that came out of the second half with any credit at all, were Thomson, who ran himself into the ground, and to a lesser extent, Manu. Fuss laboured, but he was too greedy on occasion. We missed two gilt-edged chances, or should I say the keeper made 2 great saves, one when Fuss was clean through, and the other a double save, first from a piledriver from the edge of the box from Fuss, which he parried to Thiam 6 yards out, who STILL couldn't convert, hitting it straight at the keeper.
The second goal, in injury time, was a comedy of errors, with a Hansa handball in play too. Defenders slipping, a weak shot from a tight angle, but the keeper off balance and not looking his best in trying to reach it. Then a bit of stress: some fans, already fuming about the handball and goal, flipped out when the Hansa players ran over to the TeBe fans and made provocative gestures. Some TeBe fans stormed forward to unleash their verbal rage, and the anal stewards, who had been itching for a fight all day long, piled in, started shoving and pushing, leading to an escalation. The final whistle went immediately after, and full credit to the players, they came over and deliberately INTO the block to show solidarity with the fans and to make sure no shit was going on, full credit to them, esp. Duygun, Fuss and Ryan (head up, big man).
As for the fans, it was mostly good. They sang all match, and there seems to be a new youth section of the Party Army with a couple of new songs. There was also a group of older fans who were very vocal. I also saw a surprising number of unfamiliar faces, obviously in for a freebie. Some things were less good. As usual, due to the inebriated nature of many of the fans, the clapping and singing was up the left, and some unnecessary things were shouted, eg “Rostockers are all fucking Nazis”. Really not needed. There were one or two more, but I’m not writing them here.
We all piled onto a bus back into town, without paying of course, on instruction of the two police accompanying us, then made our slow way to the station, via shops, a supermarket to stock up on supplies for the journey home and a long slow walk back, together this time. I couldn’t believe how relaxed and laissez-faire the police were with us. Only 6 of them, very reserved, and it made me laugh how they just let our fans throw firecrackers about the place, even right beside the police, and did nothing!
The journey home was amazingly peaceful, I expected the inebriated nature of fans and possible misunderstandings to provoke a police response, but nothing. The quiet crew sat in the non-smoking section, the rowdy bunch in the smoking compartment. It was really nice to chat with some of the older stuff about TeBe politics, what’s next, do crosswords and joke around. It was really nice that I had some fellow non-drinking accompaniment in Endi, Mirko, Daniel etc. Cheers, would have been hard to take otherwise.
One more Cup match on Wednesday which I can’t attend due to work, and then the fu cking two-month German winter break before the next game. There’s nothing to look forward to anyway after yesterday’s result. It was telling that immediately after the final whistle yesterday, the first song the fans sang was
“Pokalfinale, Pokalfinale, wir fahren jedes Jahr zum Pokalfinale”
[‚We go to the Cup Final every year’]
That is our only hopeleft for this season. Pity.
German match report maybe soon on ultras71 (though the reporter was very drunk ;) )
Denis took some photos too, not many of the match though, here.
Doughnut Boy to upload photos soon, he’s promised…
These are the new shirts for this season. They cost just under 50 Euros from the fan-shop. If anyone is interested in buying one to wear about their home town abroad, then you can always send me an e-mail and I will promise to do all I can.
This is just the site of Andy and Jim, TeBe Fans living in Berlin. The thoughts and comments here are not official club opinion and we take no responsibility for external links, our translations or the comments.
