The subject of Episode 13 of the Póg Mo Goal podcast, we’re reposting our 2014 article where Ron Ulrich of 11freunde recalls when, for 4 minutes and 38 seconds, ‘The Miners’ were the 2001 German champions. Then Andersson struck and hell opened.
It was a telling slip by Irish manager Martin O’Neill. ‘Jon Walters is the essence of our club’ before qualifying his remark: “We have a club mentality.” For many Republic of Ireland fans, particularly those who travel to away games, the national team is very much their club side. Ron Ullrich of cult German football magazine 11freunde.de argues the opposite is the case for the World Champions for whom, he says, he has ‘no love left.’
“Germany had no clue how to find a loose brick in the Irish wall and this time there was no David Hasselhoff at hand to just sing it down.” What ever happened to the champions of 2014? After the triumph of Rio, Germany now has a hangover in the qualification round. The World Cup memories fade as scepticism grows, writes 11freunde’s Ron Ulrich.
Ahead of Ireland’s clash with Germany in Cologne, Ron Ullrich of the cult German football magazine 11freunde.de examines Giovanni Trapattoni’s impact in Munich and the far from unanimous support for current national team coach Joachim Löw.