Preview: After last week’s start of the occasional series of footballing moments which yours truly looked back at how the Germany-England friendly last year made her look at football loyalties differently, the latest edition of the unofficial football focus series put the spotlight on the match which yours truly always thought was a turning point in how she came to support the German national team at one time. The 2006 World Cup semi-final match between the host nation Germany and eventual champions Italy. It was played at Germany’s answer to the Wembley but, the Azzuri had other ideas during the final moments of added extra-time...
The match took place on the eve of America’s Independence Day. Or at least that was in Germany time given due to the time difference, it took place on the 4th of July at my side of the world.
There are times when I looked back now as a former supporter of the German national team, the whole so-called ‘summer fairytale’ which they still called it in Germany was to me...all a mirage. Or rather, it felt like that I had been taken for a ride. Or rather, it is like me having some sort of a forbidden ‘summer romance’.
I mean, without totally knowing about the prominence of the German national team in the international stage at that time, the loss to Italy in added extra-time sealed a place in me then. Reading about how their neighbours Austria used to be better than them in football until after the end of the Second World War, reading about Hungary’s ‘Mighty Magyars’ have always considered one of the best sides to have never won the World Cup given the Germans destroyed the myth in the 1954 World Cup final, reading about how the 1982 World Cup in Spain became a turning point in regarding to schedule the timing of final group matches at various tournaments when Germany and Austria played an infamous group match which was eventually called 'the non-aggression Pact of Gijon', reading about how the great Dutch side of 1974 lost to them in the 1974 World Cup final and how the sentiment especially among Dutch fans was how did the Dutch lost to the Germans then, reading about former Manchester City’s German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann was actually not selected for the German national team due to him playing in England in view of diplomatic relations between the two countries after the war (he actually missed out on being in the 1954 World Cup squad due to where he was playing his football)...I realised I had been fallen into some sort of trap.
It is like the feeling of a guy who promised me everything, only for me to find out that he had been actually cheating behind my back all along. I felt like the girlfriend being cheated. All those stuff that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it all first came about way before the Euro 2008 tournament. But, back to the semi-final in Dortmund.
Maybe it was me and my instinct, considering whatever they say about a female’s instinct. But then already before kick-off, I already had bad feelings about the match. It was based on me reading up on relevant information about the match which was held at the Signal Iduna Park which the Germans had never lost there in any international match. It was regarding Germany’s not-so-pleasant record against Italy. Because in the end most of the time when the two sides meet, Italy wins.
Ironically it was a thrashing which Italy handed out in many weeks before the tournament kicked off in a friendly in Florence which got the entire nation (in this case, Germany) sat up and wondered what was going wrong with their national team. After Germany managed to get past Argentina in the quarter-finals on penalties (to think it was way much later I once checked penalty shootout records out of boredom and it told me that contrary to popular thinking, Argentina is actually ahead of Germany when it comes to success rate of the penalty shootout), comes Italy. Italy came into the match in Dortmund after their comfortable win over Ukraine. Prior to the match, the German media bang on the fact that their national team had never ever lost at Signal Iduna Park. But instead it was the Azzuri who destroyed the myth in what was often seen as the greatest match played in the tournament itself.
One of those things I read prior to the match was about Italy’s record in penalty shootouts. Poor when compared to the Germans. The semi-final match in Dortmund went goalless all the way to the added extra-time. But when it looked like penalty shoot-out was on the horizon, Italy had the final word. Watching the match in the living room then, I was on the edge of my sofa when the first goal went in through Fabio Grosso. My mind then shouted ‘Come on!’. Too little too late when Alessandro Del Piero broke many Germans’ hearts two minutes after the first goal went in. By then I knew it was all over and Germany was out. I was in an almost state of denial in the immediate aftermath of the match. Not since like in the wake of my maternal grandfather’s passing four years before the tournament, had I been angry at the world. And for someone growing up hearing about Del Piero whenever Italian football is mentioned, it was like as if my world had been shattered.
Back then when people said that match was the best one throughout the entire tournament, I shunned it. Because for me back then, it was not-so-nice. Even if I never looked at any clips relating to the match since, the match became a turning point for me in more ways than one. It was the first time in my life watching a football match in the wee hours of the morning, it was the first time I actually cried over a sporting event considering during the 2004 Athens Olympics I never cried when our female table-tennis team failed to get a bronze medal and most importantly, the match finally made me a supporter of the German national team. Coming at a time when I was not that proud to say I support England, I had committed what I called the biggest crime an England supporter can commit. I played the Devil’s Advocate by supporting one of its rivals in football without knowing.
It seemed logical at that time when considering England eventually famously never qualified for the Euro 2008 tournament. But since then, the tables had turned especially after the Euro 2008 tournament for both England and Germany. England’s turnaround in that same year was completed after they met their old rivals in Berlin last November in a friendly. Granted the situation going into the match for both sides, but still at the end of it...what a way to end the year from England’s perspective. By then I was already not shy to say that I support England. The support for the German national team was diminishing by the minute then, and eventually died out.
Looking back, that match in Dortmund three years ago was a lesson for me that I should have known better regarding the German national team. I should have read more about the history of the German national team before deciding whether to support them or not.
I became more attentive to food labels and expiry dates in food packaging after what I learned in Home Economics class back in secondary school. Why didn’t I apply the same logic prior to the 2006 World Cup semi-final between Germany and Italy? It all felt like well, like what I typed in the second paragraph.
