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"Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win." - Gary Lineker “International football is the continuation of war by other means.” - George Orwell, after Carl von Clausewitz "There is only one possibility: win, lose, or draw." - Franz Beckenbauer "Hitler." - Pissflaps "   " - ephex  Powered by the luxurious and powerful partner Mercedes-Benz, the German national team comes to Russia as your  REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONS OF THE WOOOOOOOORLD.  Four years after their triumph in Brazil, the Mannschaft has seen quite a bit of change, starting with the retirements of Schweini, Poldi, Lahmi and others, the influx of younger players and the resurgence of one Mario Gomez. In the end, only nine players remain from the 2014 squad and one of them is Matthias Ginter. Most notably, the scorer of the deciding (and only) goal of the 2014 final is missing: Mario "You're better than Messi" Götze. This comes shortly after his greatest achievement has been enshrined in the German Football Museum. Also missing are Bayern's forward Sandro Wagner, who reacted to not being called up for the preliminary squad by retiring from the national team and City's Leroy Sané. The latter being cut from the preliminary squad has been cause for quite some criticism and people start wondering (once again) if manager and noted booger-eater Joachim Löw is so high on the smell of his taint that he's finally lost the plot.    It's not like the 23 nominated for the tournament are terrible, though. This is a squad of talented players and should do well. Most bookies have them at 9/2 or 5, just behind or equal to Brazil and ahead of Spain and France. Let's not forget Germany won their qualifying group in dominating fashion (albeit against weak competition) and Group F with Mexico, Sweden and the Republic of Korea looks more like three games to find your footing rather than a fight to advance.   2014 world champions in bold Goalkeepers: #1 Manuel Neuer (32, Bayern München), #12 Kevin Trapp (27, Paris Saint-Germain), #22 Marc-André ter Stegen (26, Barcelona) As you'd expect from Germany, this is an excellent selection. The only question mark here is how good Neuer's form is after missing seven months with a broken foot. Löw said that he'd only bring him if he's fit to play as first choice and he did, but Löw's a taint-smelling booger-eater. Defenders: #2 Marvin Plattenhardt (26, Hertha BSC Berlin), #3 Jonas Hector (28, 1. FC Köln), #4 Matthias Ginter (24, Borussia Mönchengladbach), #5 Mats Hummels (29, Bayern München), #15 Niklas Süle (22, Bayern München), #16 Antonio Rüdiger (25, Chelsea), #17 Jérôme Boateng (29, Bayern München), #18 Joshua Kimmich (23, Bayern München) Likely to be anchored around the tried and proven partnership of Hummels and Boateng, but not quite as excellent at full/wingback. Midfielders: #6 Sami Khedira (31, Juventus), #7 Julian Draxler (24, Paris Saint-Germain), #8 Toni Kroos (28, Real Madrid), #10 Mesut Özil (29, Arsenal), #13 Thomas Müller (28, Bayern München), #14 Leon Goretzka (23, Schalke 04), #19 Sebastian Rudy (28, Bayern München), #20 Julian Brandt (22, Leverkusen), #21 İlkay Gündoğan (27, Manchester City) A wealth of riches, at least offensively. Happy for Gündoğan who missed 2014 due to injury to be included. Certainly the midfield spots will always be competitive and whatever the lineup looks like, there's enough fodder for discussion whether taint-smelling booger-eater Joachim Löw made the right calls. Forwards: #9 Timo Werner (22, RB Leipzig), #11 Marco Reus (29, Borussia Dortmund), #23 Mario Gomez (32, Stuttgart) If there's a weak position in the squad it's the central forward position. Has been for a while, honestly. Sure, Gomez has seen a resurgence since returning to Stuttgart and Werner certainly has talent, but neither are names that make you smack your lips. Reus is included here because FIFA lists him as a forward, but his main competition on the left wing is Draxler.  So there you have it, Germany 2018. One of the favorites to win it all, but nobody has won back-to-back tournaments in over 50 years (Italy 1934/38 and Brazil 1958/62 did it, btw). I forsee a lot of grousing from us Germans over selection while we coast through the group stage and then get then we all get on the hype train to the semis and from there, everything is possible, including actually winning this thing and being smug(ger than usual) about it. 
frankenfreak fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 5, 2018 16:21
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:55 |
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I just realized that I forgot to work this into the post re: Sané not being included in the squad https://twitter.com/BBCMOTD/status/...3D17%23lastpost
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Jun 5, 2018 16:30
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Torrannor posted:Ginter plays for Mönchengladbach.  Thanks. Already fixed the post.
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Jun 5, 2018 16:49
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Mean Bean Machine posted:Thats Portugal. 
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Jun 5, 2018 18:00
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"Es passiert so gut wie nichts" is really an apt summation.
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Jun 8, 2018 19:59
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lol, almost
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Jun 8, 2018 20:22
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Un-nominate Reus for that post-match interview! What a stupid string of old clichés. "There are no small teams anymore, they know how to play football."
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Jun 8, 2018 20:27
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ephex posted:
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Jun 9, 2018 21:46
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oliwan posted:everything that's bad about Germany in one picture
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Jun 17, 2018 17:16
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It bears repeating: Löw is a taint-smelling booger-eater.
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Jun 17, 2018 17:54
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Dunban posted:Sane wouldn't have made much of a difference today.
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Jun 17, 2018 18:13
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Loving this Hummels interview. Moaning about how this wasn't a wakeup call, the wakeup call was against Saudi Arabia (he's right about this), how some players apparently haven't heard it (he's right about this), but completely not realizing he was poo poo today, too.
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Jun 17, 2018 18:20
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Jun 17, 2018 19:31
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Wengy posted:didn't see the entire game, but wasn't the other flank a bigger problem, i. e. the vast holes left by Kimmich?
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Jun 17, 2018 21:37
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Regretting my purchase already because
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Jun 20, 2018 15:35
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Jun 21, 2018 08:21
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Neuer - Kimmich, J. Boateng, Rüdiger, J. Hector - Rudy, T. Kroos - T. Müller, Reus, Draxler - Ti. Werner
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Jun 23, 2018 17:46
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Has anyone said "lowmats" yet?
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Jun 23, 2018 18:36
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Dunban posted:Don't worry everyone, we're safe
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Jun 23, 2018 20:59
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hopterque posted:we barely beat sweden in added time and boateng got red carded, its still plenty cursed.
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Jun 23, 2018 21:06
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hopterque posted:dont get me wrong i yelled extremely loudly and so did everyone else in my neighborhood but still what a loving rough game
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Jun 23, 2018 21:11
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Jun 23, 2018 21:35
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Torrannor posted:Players I don't want to be in the team anymore next World Cup: Hummels, Boateng, Khedira, Özil, Müller, Gomez. Might sort itself out, really. Probably after the Euro.
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Jun 24, 2018 07:54
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Making the Daum face, too.Torrannor posted:Can you imagine flipping out over a 6-1 victory over World Cup newcomer Panama? It's nothing compared to beating the most successful national football team 7-1 in a semifinal!
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Jun 24, 2018 16:13
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Can someone feed this lady into that app?
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Jun 24, 2018 19:09
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Jun 24, 2018 20:21
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pidan posted:Surely he's not the only guy with a funny name in this world cup?
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Jun 25, 2018 14:14
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ephex posted:Sandro Fagner
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Jun 27, 2018 12:01
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Jun 27, 2018 15:50
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corn on the cop posted:title change please Smirr posted:it (the german men's national team) is coming home (germany)
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Jun 27, 2018 16:56
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hopterque posted:honestly we didn't deserve to advance even if we had won today, the team looked like poo poo all 3 games. Jose posted:bottom of the group lmao
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Jun 27, 2018 17:01
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Gigi Galli posted:Löw just trying to be like Lippi and Del Bosque by winning a title then taking a giant poo poo all over their own legacy 4 years later.
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Jun 27, 2018 17:04
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Gigi Galli posted:Yeah I expect there will be quite a few veiled racisms in the coming days.
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Jun 27, 2018 17:06
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Smirr posted:lmfao at the götze "hurt" ad immediately after the game hahahaa 
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Jun 27, 2018 17:08
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oliwan posted:bottom of the group lol
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Jun 27, 2018 17:10
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Paranoid Peanut posted:how can Germany be the new leaders of the free world if they can't even get out of the group stages? lmao
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Jun 27, 2018 17:10
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General Probe posted:Didn't even deserve 3 points from Sweden game imo. 
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Jun 27, 2018 17:14
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track day bro! posted:get hosed all american plastic cunts. actual german ppls im sorry for your loss
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Jun 27, 2018 17:19
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Well *tugs collar* they would certainly have had to, but didn't. Hehehe. *wipes sweat*
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Jun 27, 2018 17:39
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 12:55 |
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Seriously, though, I was going into writing the OP with much more negativity. Then I looked up some bookie odds and they were pretty good (as mentioned in the OP) and so I switched my tone. I'm willing to eat crow over being lured onto that hypetrain.
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Jun 27, 2018 17:42
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