Houston, we have a problem:

S Korea 3 Germany 1

Who would have thunk it?

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Strider

bundesliga shut down for winter break- a friendly, 1.5 yrs until the world cup... & the result is a surprise? all it says to me is what i already knew- south korea has a pretty decent team. if south korea beat germany/italy/brazil/holland(ect..) in a world cup match- that would be a bit of a surprise, but not a huge one as south korea works very hard.

look at usa national team history- we knocked off brazil leading up to france & proceeded to lay a egg. south korea was probably fired up for the match- while german players already on winter break mode. the major soccer nations can take us lesser nations lightly on these "meaningless" friendlies.

With a new coach, German players would be treating this match as "meaningless" at their peril. As its the start of the winter break the German players are bang in form - your "Winter Break" comment might be more plausible for a Februaury 1st game.

What this match signifies - if the World Cup hadnt already - is that the balance of power in world football has changed. No way even 5 years ago that S Korea beats Germany even in a "meaningless" friendly.


PS.
Your comment on the USA in the France World Cup - the USA's performance was merely a reflection of an incompetent coach (Steve Sampson). His lack of competence was demonstrated in many ways - not least by bringing in at the last moment a total retard (Regis) and leaving the left back who got em there behind - AND by sending home Team Captain John Harkes etc etc . The US was not a bad team back then - they just had a lousy egocentric coach.

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Strider

still think my comment valid- german players tired from first half of season- last thing they want to do is play a friendly which means nothing really for them. while i think were better than south korea- there are some similarities- we both don't get much respect from the big soccer nations. any time we have a chance to play one of the major's- we lick our chops- probably the same for south korea?? for germany?? don't think the same emphasis put on game.

& yes- sampson really screwed the pooch in france- we did have a better team than the "LAST PLACE" we finished, i was just pointing out that friendlies before the world cup don't mean a lot... for example- we had a pretty good world cup in korea- but look at our buildup... we looked pretty bad in friendlies prior.

Not only that, this whole trip to Asia with 3 matches in around 6 days is completely useless. It's a political and financial thing, nothing more.

Personally, I'd rather have the players at home resting for the second half of the season. What I've heard is that most of them are tired and suffer from jet-lag and many are probably not too sure why they are in Asia to begin with.

_________________
Konjugation eines unregelmäßigen Verbs

Ich bin fest.
Du bist eigensinnig.
Er ist ein dickköpfiger, unbelehrbarer Hornochse.
(Bertrand Russell)

KOREA STUNS GERMANY

PUSAN, South Korea -- Germany's unbeaten record under Juergen Klinsmann came to an abrupt halt on Sunday when they were beaten 3-1 by South Korea in a re-run of their 2002 World Cup semi-final.

Kim Dong-jin, Lee Dong-gook and Cho Jae-jin were on target to give South Korea a measure of revenge for the 1-0 defeat by the Germans at the World Cup two and a half years ago.

South Korea coach Jo Bonfrere praised his inexperienced side after the match.

"We were missing a lot of senior players but we still beat a world-class side," said the Dutchman. "I think we deserved to win after battling so hard."

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Strider

I didn't even know that they even played.

The German press isnt likely to advertise that result are they!

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Strider

Well, they did pay as much attention to it as to the win against Japan... there will be wins and losses with Klinsmann as a coach, I rather loose in a friendly vs South Corea than in the WC final in Berlin... *dream*.. ;-)

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veni vidi vici
Gegen Rassismus
Remember Lara!

You all do realize that Keith is just trying to wind us up, right?

_________________
Konjugation eines unregelmäßigen Verbs

Ich bin fest.
Du bist eigensinnig.
Er ist ein dickköpfiger, unbelehrbarer Hornochse.
(Bertrand Russell)

I hope "coach" Riener looks at the recent FIFA ranking and reflects on the fact that he has benched a top player on a team (USA #11) ranked way above Germany (# 19 - and that was BEFORE the defeat to S Korea!)). !

FIFA World Rankings
Position Country Points
1 Brazil 843
2 France 792
3 Argentina 785
4 Czech Republic 777
5 Spain 765
6 Netherlands 758
7 Mexico 753
8 England 752
9 Portugal 747
10 Italy 738
11 United States 726
12 Ireland 716
13 Sweden 715
14= Denmark 711
14= Turkey 711
16 Uruguay 708
17 Japan 707
18 Greece 706
19 Germany 705
20 Iran 697

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Strider

fifa world rankings are a joke,

You know Keith, your arrogance really bothers me.

You know nothing about our coach, but you judge him. You don't know how he trains and you've seen maybe one or two of our matches.

You have no first hand knowledge of Mathis' behavior over here, but you can judge it anyway. In The process you ignore the opinion of everybody who has seen Clint's character up close.

You make a show out of mis-spelling people's names, which shows a lack of even the most basic respect.

On the subject of Ralf Rangnick: you don't know one bit of why he failed in Hannover or what he might have learned from it to make him a better coach. You know little if anything about the differences between Schalke and Hannover. Yet you know exactly who to praise and who to scold.

You try hard to irritate people who take their time to talk to you when they surely could do nicer things.

All of this shows a great deal of arrogance, ignorance and indecency. It also makes a textbook case of why half the world hates the United States.

You are not stupid, Keith, so why this gives you so much pleasure, I won't comprehend. But unless you decide that you actually want to discuss things in a decent way, I'm just going to stop bothering with your posts. As pretty much everybody else over here already has.

_________________
Konjugation eines unregelmäßigen Verbs

Ich bin fest.
Du bist eigensinnig.
Er ist ein dickköpfiger, unbelehrbarer Hornochse.
(Bertrand Russell)

Keith is just doing an excellent job of demonstrating the American stereotype!

i really thought my german friends had a grip on what keith was. he is a real jerk, calling germans krauts & in general being a as*hole... i expected better than from der rote.. maybe in a political forum i'd take more time to talk about that one- but i will say here- if anyone hates me- or americans in general so be it. maybe i'm being a arrogant american but if you don't like me or my country - i'm not going to lose sleep over that.. most americans i know are decent/ hardworking people & some are as*holes...
what- no as*holes in germany??

& with luttje lage writing

well- another enlightened post from my german friends... and again- i don't care to get into sterotypes of americans- or germans for that matter.

if the situation was reversed & some bozo from germany was posting on a american sports message board the kind of garbage i see keith post- i could see similar reactions to yours above from some of my american friends- but they would be wrong- just as you are. I just thought you understood who/what keith was. to say he is reinforcing american stereotypes??? sounds pretty prejudicial to me. americans are arrogant/loud know it all's, jews are money pinchers, blacks are criminals- germans are??? hmm.. i'll judge people after i've met them & not all of them based on a few oddballs.

I came to this site because i enjoy football in general, loved my brief time in germany & the german people and after seeing a couple of hanover games on fox sports- liked the reds. -

my new years wish is keith mellows out & stop's being such a jerk, we get some more local hanover fans to contribute to this forum & get some good football/fun talk on the board.

Well, nobody was talking about you. All I'm saying that this is the kind of sh*t that leads to many people all over the world not being down with the US. And believe me, if I had a problem with you or your country, I would stay in the German chat rooms. But I like talking to you guys. In general.



As well as you should. But don't forget one thing: I never said that I personally believe Americans as a whole to be arrogant, etc. I said that one particular American is doing a bang-up job of living up to existing prejudice. Big difference there.

Plus, I do find it kinda ironic that one single post agitates you so much when we have to read day in day out that our coach is trash, etc.



I'm with you all the way. Unfortunately, Keith bothers most of the other people who used to post here so much that they decided to stop posting. So I doubt there will be many people here.

_________________
Konjugation eines unregelmäßigen Verbs

Ich bin fest.
Du bist eigensinnig.
Er ist ein dickköpfiger, unbelehrbarer Hornochse.
(Bertrand Russell)

der rote wrote
well- my first post was telling keith he was out of line. think squig(maybe?) told me don't worry about it- they understood keith was a mb troublemaker.. most of his posts i ignored as you & squig were able to put him in line much better than i could not knowing a lot about current vs former coach(ect.ect..). i did weigh in about the mathis situation but realized talking to keith about this was counterproductive.

from the beginning i let it known- i didn't appreciate his attitude/ mb manner.

der rote also wrote well- guess all i'm saying is it shouldn't- keith doesnt have my approval to represent me- or my country.

der rote also wrote
very sorry about that for sure, but i can't blame them.

oh- just wanted to add something to last post (& yes- thanks to the helpful squig/der rote) i know how to edit my posts- but wanted to do it on a new one...

i appreciate the time squig/ der rote(& others) have taken to post on the board. thanks,

Well, I'm glad that you are here to provide a counterpoint. I'd hate to see this forum die for lack of reasonable people expressing reasonable opinions.

_________________
Konjugation eines unregelmäßigen Verbs

Ich bin fest.
Du bist eigensinnig.
Er ist ein dickköpfiger, unbelehrbarer Hornochse.
(Bertrand Russell)

You are so way out of line..........

Soccer is still a minor sport in the USA. We US soccer fans get a real sense of pride seeing our VERY SMALL NUMBER of soccer "exports" do well in the major leagues in Europe. When one of the best players we have gets totally screwed by a coach some of us get upset. But dont make a mountain out of a molehill. THAT is being a total jerk.

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Strider