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The Week in Germany: Sports

May 9, 2008

UEFA Euro 2008: German 11 Kicks Off its Alpine Tour

Contest: Europe's top soccer players will vie fo the coveted UEFA trophy.

From June 7 to 29, the 2008 Football European Championships are to be held in Austria and Switzerland. Along with the hosts, teams from 14 countries will give everything to come away with the cup. The German team is to meet Poland, Croatia and Austria in the group stage. The final will be played in Vienna's Ernst-Happel-Stadion on 29 June and Germany wants to be there. Given the stiff competition, this will be a huge challenge.

With their 4:0 win over Switzerland in the friendly match on March 26, Germany’s national football team demonstrated once again, in time for the UEFA Euro 2008 Championships in Austria and Switzerland (June 7-29), the sort of refreshing, offensive play that thrilled spectators at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and put the hosts in 3rd place in the finals.

The man of the match in Basle was forward Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart), who was not in the 2006 World Cup team. Other players like Michael Ballack (FC Chelsea), Miroslav Klose, Philipp Lahm (both of Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen) and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, London) were among the mainstays of the German team two years ago. Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid) and Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen) were unable to play in the Switzerland match owing to injuries. Frings at least is expected to be back in form for the UEFA Euro 2008.

Also instrumental in Germany’s 2006 World Cup success was Joachim ("Jogi") Löw, then assistant to national coach Jürgen Klinsmann, whom he later succeeded as head coach, promptly leading his team into the UEFA finals.

Arena: Vienna's soccer stadium.

The game against Switzerland was the last international match before Löw announces his 23-player squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 on the 2,962 meter high Zugspitze mountain peak on May 16.

"The border with Austria crosses Germany’s highest mountain, and when the weather is fine Switzerland’s many mountain peaks are visible from there," team manager Oliver Bierhoff points out, explaining this symbolic choice of location.

Germany will then be playing two more friendly matches, against Belarus (on May 27 in Kaiserslautern) and against Serbia (on May 31 in Gelsenkirchen), before meeting Poland in the first UEFA Euro 2008 match on June 8 in Klagenfurt (Austria). In the Preliminary Round, Germany will also meet Croatia (on June 12 in Klagenfurt) and Austria (on June 16 in Vienna).

The German team hopes to return to Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium for the final on June 29, though this will be no easy task given the strong field of contestants.

"We’ve got to work hard in Mallorca," says Joachim Löw, referring to the training camp in the run-up to the Euro 2008. Germany will be playing in Vienna or Basle if they reach the quarter-finals, and in Basle if they reach the semi-finals.

The host countries of the UEFA Euro 2008 will also be showing the matches on large screens at public venues. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, public viewing at Berlin’s fan mile and other locations emerged as a highly successful alternative to watching the matches live in the mostly sold-out stadiums.

Contest: The coveted UEFA cup.

Photos copyright courtesy of the German government.

Links:

UEFA Euro 2008

Deutscher Fussball-Bund (German Soccer League)

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