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Euro 2008 Crunch Match

Germany's Honor At Stake in Clash With Austria

By David Crossland

German football will be plunged into a crisis if the national team crashes out of the European Championship in Monday night's encounter with hosts Austria.

Nothing less than Germany's honor as a footballing nation is at stake on Monday night when the national team plays Austria to decide who will go through to the next round of the European Championship.

Thursday's 1-2 defeat to Croatia has shaken confidence in the German side which now must now at least draw against hosts Austria in the match at 2045 CET (1845 GMT) to proceed to the knockout stage of the tournament.

The tabloids have been engaging in their usual bravado, with Austrian paper Österreich confidently printing a symbolic return flight ticket for the German team. Germany's mass circulation Bild retorted with a front page photo montage portraying the Austrian team as 11 Wiener sausages under the headline: "Auf Wiener-sehen, You Little Aussie Sausages!"

But Germany's football fans and officials are worried. The side revealed astonishing shortcomings in all areas -- defence, midfield and attack -- against a strong Croatian team on Thursday.

Failure to go through to the next round will plunge German football into the same sort of crisis it went through in 2004 when it crashed out of the first round of the European Championship.

The country's top clubs such as Bayern München and Werder Bremen have failed to win European competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Cup in recent years, which means Germany has been pinning its hopes for football glory on the national team.

It didn't disappoint in the 2006 World Cup in Germany when the team made it to the semi-finals, knocking out Argentina along the way. Germany had been hoping for a similar "summer fairy tale" this time around but was brought crashing down to earth last Thursday.

Reputation at Stake

"Please, Don't Embarrass Us," German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer wrote in an article published in Bild. "It's still inconceivable to me that our team will go out. It would be a huge embarrassment and terrible for German football," wrote Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player in 1974 and as manager in 1990.

"We would get the same debate we had after the European Championship in 2004," he wrote. "Not just about the coach but about everything. We've complained about the lack of competitiveness of our clubs in the Champions League in recent years, and the national team has remained as a shining example. But German football would suddenly be completely cast in a bad light. That mustn't happen. Who needs that!"

The players are reported to have been quarrelling among each other after Thursday's defeat, in marked contrast to the harmony that reigned during the 2006 World Cup.

"The situation is tense. Football isn't always about harmony," team captain Michael Ballack told reporters. He dismissed reports that some players were angry because others in the team had been relaxing with their wives and girlfriends rather than concentrating on the task in hand. "That's totally unimportant," he said.

Historic Encounters

Austria, which ranks 92nd in the world ranking, may be a footballing dwarf by comparison with three-times World Cup winner Germany, but the two sides have had some momentous encounters.

Austria has been fondly remembering a 3-2 victory over Germany in the Argentinian city of Cordoba during the 1978 World Cup.

They met again during the World Cup in Spain in 1982 in a turgid match that media dubbed a "non-aggression pact." Germany won 1-0, a result that enabled both teams to progress to the next round. Neither side has ever managed to shake off the suspicion that the result was pre-arranged.

The Spanish audience expressed its disapproval by waving white handkerchiefs, the Austrian TV commentator urged viewers to switch off their sets and his German counterpart simply stopped talking.

There will be no non-aggression pact on Monday. Austria need to win to go to the next round and Germany will be desperate to restore its credibility as a favorite to win the tournament, even though it has so far been outclassed by Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain.

German commentators say Monday's match is the most important for Germany since the 2006 semi-final against Italy.

If Germany goes out, it could lead to the resignation of coach Joachim Löw, who took over the team from Jürgen Klinsmann after the 2006 World Cup and has been praised for continuing Klinsmann's modern coaching techniques.

"Löw's resignation would be a step back for German football," wrote conservative daily Die Welt. Löw has followed in Klinsmann's footsteps of promoting a more attacking style of football, seeking out new talent and establishing greater independence from the top clubs and the football association.

"If the Germans beat Austria, much more will have been achieved than just reaching the quarter final. It would ensure that a process that still requires a lot of time wouldn't have been killed off in 90 minutes," wrote Die Welt.

If Germany prevails, it will face Portugal in the quarter-final. On Germany's performance so far, few would rate the chances of Löw's team in that encounter.

Meanwhile, a first encounter between Austria and Germany doesn't bode well -- Austria beat Germany 10-5 in a topless women's soccer match on Sunday organized by a chat room Web site.