The Bundesliga has suffered the most. When I was a teen my greatest exposure to football was a one hour tv show called “Soccer Made In Germany” They would show the game of the week and condense it into an hour. For ten years I watched the greats of the Bundesliga play the game the way it should be played. Bayern with Beckenbauer, Muller, Rummenigge, Breitner, Maier and Hoeness, Cologne with Dieter Muller, Flohe and Schumacher, Hamburg with Kevin Keegan, the Monster Hrubesch, Magath, Kaltz and Moenchengladbach with Vogts, a young Matthaus, Heynckes and the great little Dane Simonsen. And the list goes on with fantastic players. Even the poor teams had a player or two that could play very well.

The league had quality defenders but the style was open and attack was promoted. Quite often the poor teams were very tough to beat in their park and they could occasionally shock a titan. Minnows back in that league and era, were capable of more and showed a lot more courage to attack. All teams back then played 4-3-3 and some played 4-4-2 but the 4-3-3 was to be compared with todays version. Back then 4-3-3 meant two central strikers charged to score goals and a winger who’s jon it was to create width and get in crosses. Many teams had scoring midfielders and many defenders were very attack minded with Beckenbauer being the King.

It’s too bad that along the way something happened to the game world wide and that kind of entertaining soccer was replaced by the brand most teams play today. Lets thank Italy for all the crap that is soccer today. Klinsmann created a Renaissance in German football not just by tactics and formations, but by team attitude, diet and team traing methods. Once again they are the team to beat and I for one think they will win EURO 08.

Players like Muller, Beckenbauer, Netzer, Hoeness, Heynckes etc made that era fantastic. The German Bundesliga was also a goal extravaganza. There would be very high scoring games and 4-2, 5-3 games were a regular occurrence. In the early 80’s players like Rummenigge, Fischer, Breitner and many more always made Germany an offensive threat. Things became more negative as the game changed in the mid 80’s. Still, players like Klinsmann, Voeller, Matthaus etc maintained the prestige of German soccer up until 1998. That is when things went bad in both the National Team and in the Bundesliga. The Bosman Rule has had more damage on German football than anything. But they are making a quick recovery and are now one of the favorites to win EURO 08. So the National team certainly does not suck. And heaven help any team that has to beat a German team in a penalty kicks shootout. No team has reached the World Cup Final more than the Germans and they have had a club side reach the CL final no less than 12 times in the tourney’s history. At no time other than the 2002 World Cup were the teams ever negative in their play. Sometimes their style was slow but very methodical and their aim was always to score goals.