PREVIEW: 2014 Football European Championships – Team Germany
“..although they have been a stronger team in the past few tournaments, the Germans must not underestimate the teams from the North!”
Everyday this week AFI will be bringing you an introduction to each country represented in this year’s 2014 Eat the Ball Football European Championship taking place in Austria from May 30th to June 7th. Game venues in the preliminary round will include Graz and St. Poelten, while the final games of the championship will be held at the Ernst Happel- Stadium in Vienna.
Today:
GERMANY
[su_dropcap]R[/su_dropcap]eigning European champion and title defender, Germany has made it to the final game at every one of the last four European Championships. Apart from its titles in 2001 and 2010, Germany also won silver twice (’87, ’00) and bronze four times (’83, ’85, ’89, and ’93). The German National Team is one of the 2014 favorites in the race for the gold and one of the for one of the open spots in the Stockholm 2015 World Championships!
THE DETAILS
Team Germany has been in camp in Frankfurt since Sunday, doing two a days and will be traveling to Austria on Thursday. They have had little preparation as group apart from an international friendly against Japan a few weeks ago, the German-Japan Bowl.
The Germans open up the tournament with a Group A game against Finland on Friday, May 30th. They then a few days off before battling Sweden on June 3rd. Both games with be played in St. Poelten, Austria.
WHO WILL QB?
The Germans return 27 of 45 players from the 2011 World Cup, when the Germans represented the top European team in their third World Cup appearance back in 2011. This might seem like a large number, but there might be some key roles still up in the air.
From journalist Nicolas Martin:
This is always difficult in a football national team. It’s going to be the first tournament in ages where Jo Ullrich is not the starting QB for Germany. Talent coming up at the position, Marco Ehrenfried will be starter I assume, more competition to come at the position in the next years.
KEYS FOR GERMANY
The Germans must get into rhythm early in the tournament to compensate for lack of preparation compared to other countries. And although they have been a stronger team in the past few tournaments, the Germans must not underestimate the teams from Sweden and Finland, who have put together strong teams for the 2014 Eat the Ball European Championships!
First with Finland, no other pairing has been played more often at the European Championships then German versus Finland. This is the seventh time the teams have met here, each team winning three of the previous six meetings. Germany won most recently at the 2010 European Championships. The Finns are returning many players from that matchup for years ago, all four years strong and wiser and seeking revenge. This is sure to be a great match-up!
TEAM GERMANY 45 MAN ROSTER
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