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Valencia
June 30
Well it’s taken us almost half a century to beat Germany at football. And how great to see the footballers of both teams shaking hands after the match. Thank goodness the match didn’t go to a penalty shootout which the Germans always win.
We’ve lost to the Germans so many times in the last half century, but we’ve sort of known that they have rightly won with their talented players conjoined with their famous German organisation.
In truth, we’ve rightly admired some of their best footballers who have caused our demise. Beckenbauer, the captain for many years, was a world class, elegant, dominating defender who could surprise the opposition with a rapid counterattack leading to a goal, instead of the easy side pass or back pass to the goalkeeper. Gert Muller, a stocky, old fashioned centre forward who for years tormented our defenders with his skill, determination and victory goals.
The point is that during all these years of losing to Germany, there was never any bad feeling. As a footballing nation, Germany never cheated, rarely did ‘professional’ fouls, beat us on merit and we sort of knew it.
All the more pleasure now that this time we won fair and square.
Brian
