You Started it - you invaded Poland - aka The Germans

The German National Football team is known simply as “Die Mannschaft” or “The Team” in their homeland – and its no wonder as they are, after Brazil, the 2nd most successful country in the history of International football.

Germany have won the World Cup 3 times and made the final on 4 other occasions, they have also won 3 European championships and finished runners up 3 times – and just for good measure East Germany won gold in the 1976 Olympic Football tournament.

The German equivalent of the EPL, the Bundesliga, doesn’t have the glamour or prestige of Serie A or La Liga but it does have Bayern Munich, the 4th most successful team in European Cup history, as well as Bayer Leverkusen and Borrusia Dortmund, Champions league finalists in recent years.

For over 10 years it’s been reported that Germany are a team are on the decline, but their results continue to disprove that theory.

Following a runners up finish at Euro 2008 they sealed qualification for South Africa with a 1-0 win over Russia, overcoming an extremely hostile atmosphere in Moscow.

They boast a series of genuinely World Class players and are always a very cohesive unit – their expected starting line up on June 13th will have over 650 caps between them

Germany is the perennial “Star Team” against the Dutch, Argentine or English “Team of Stars”.

The players to watch:

Michael Ballack:

Three times German Footballer of the year, Ballack will be playing in his 3rd World Cup in South Africa and is the Sixth most capped German of all time.

Ballack played for German side Bayer Leverkusen until 2002 before a big money move to Bayern Munich and subsequently joined Chelsea in 2006 where he has made over 100 appearances in all competitions.

He has the dubious honor of being the only player to have won 4 runners up medals in two different seasons, with two different teams

In 2002 he was runner up in the German league, German cup, Champion’s league Final and the FIFA World Cup Final.

Six years later he was runner up in the Carling Cup, Premier League, Champions League and UEFA Euro 2008.

In spite of these setbacks Ballack is still the biggest danger to us, particularly from set pieces and his ability in the air is a major threat from corners and free kicks.

Miroslav Klose:

As well as being Top goalscorer at the 2006 World Cup, Klose has an even more impressive statistic to his name; the German national team has never lost a game in which Klose has scored!

His record of 48 goals in just 95 appearances is amongst the best of all time

He also seems to save his best goal scoring performances for major tournaments and is the only player, in World Cup History, to score 5 goals or more in consecutive tournaments.

Klose has resisted the lure of big money transfers to the likes of Manchester United and AC Milan and has only played for German clubs, notably, Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.

One major controversy has followed him during his career, as despite the fact that he was born in Poland to a Polish mother and his wife is Polish, he opted to play for Germany – his Father’s country of birth

Philipp Lahm:

Undoubtedly the best attacking full back in World, Lahm was voted on to the 2006 World Cup Team of the tournament and received the same honour in Euro 2008.

He was an ever present selection during Germany's qualifying campaign and was the only player to play all 90 minutes, in all ten matches.

Lahm’s overlapping runs are a constant feature of Germany’s forward raids and his ability to lead counter attacks has been a key feature in Germany’s success in recent years.

His winner against Turkey in the last minute of their Euro 2008 semi final showed all that is best about his play, fitness, passing, speed and composure.

He is the quiet achiever of the team and a player to ignore at our peril.

A draw would be a great result:

Let’s not kid ourselves, a draw would be a great result against Germany in our opening match, as it would keep our fate in our own hands and pile the pressure onto Ghana, who know they will be facing Germany in their final pool match.

If there is one team in World Football you do not want to play in a sudden death or elimination situation, it is Germany.

Useless fact:

Germany has an unmatched record in penalty shoot outs in major competition.

Since losing a shoot out to Czechoslovakia in the final of Euro 76 they have won five straight shoot-outs.

In the 5 shoot out victories since 1976, they have in fact only missed one individual penalty and that was in 1982!