Throughout the conflict Herberger, who had been in sole charge of the national side since 1936, would do his best to keep his charges out of harm’s way. The continuing league system was held up by the Nazi regime as “proof of morale”. Three years later Sepp Herberger’s Breslau Elf – monikered after the side who defeated Denmark 8-0 in Breslau – went 11 games undefeated (winning 10) but by 1938 the Anschluss had created a “united” German side that was anything but and the World Cup campaign that year ended at the first hurdle with defeat to the Swiss. In 1934 the Mannschaft had finished third at the World Cup, beating the Austrian Wunderteam in the third-place play-off. Originally published by WSC Books, this new edition is fully revised and updated.In the inter-war period, German football had been among the strongest in Europe. Tor! challenges the myth that German football is “predictable” or “efficient” and brings to life the fascinating array of characters who shaped it: the betrayed pioneer Walther Bensemann the enigmatic genius Sepp Herberger the all-conquering Franz Beckenbauer the misfit Lothar Matthäus the coaches reshaping the modern game and even the radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann, whose ecstatic cries of ‘Tor!’ greeted the winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final and helped change a whole nation’s view of itself. Tor! (Goal!) traces the extraordinary story of Germany’s club and international football, from the days when it was regarded as a dangerously foreign pastime, through the horrors of the Nazi years, to the postwar triumphs, the World Cup victories, and all the way up to the present day. Germany did not have professional players or a national league until the 1960s, yet it became one of the most successful football nations in the world.
0 kommentar(er)
