Yesterday Germany lost 1-2 to FF Macedonia and you may think that England had a disappointing performance last night! This was Germany's first World Cup qualifying defeat in 20 years, since they were thumped by ENGLAND in Munich in 2001, 1-5. Do you remember where you were when that happened? I know where I was and it was at the start of a very fine evening party.
In Germany, the first type of game played was like rugby and probably with imfluence from other European countries, association type clubs were founded. The German Football Association was formed in January 1900, with representative matches against local English XIs. The first German international match was played in 1908 v Switzerland which the Swiss won 3-5. (photo below)
Before the Second World War, Germany was rearranging its regions and obviously after the war, boundaries changed, influencing the number of regions and clubs coming under the "German" umbrella. Then there was West Germany and East, which eventually merged to one.
The recent defeat, yesterday, to North Macedonia was Germany's third ever loss in World Cup qualifying since a similar game in 1934. The other two defeats coming in 1985 for the country, then known as West Germany, against Portugal.
For Joachim Low, who has spent 15 years successfully as national manager, this would have hurt. Germany's 35 match unbeaten run in WC qualifying at home has come to an end and left the Germans third in their qualifying group, that includes Armenia (top at mo), N.Macedonia, (Germany), Romania, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Low, who led Germany to the World Cup triumph in 2014, is due to retire after these Euros. His team also exited the World Cup in the Group Stage in 2018, so their recent progress has been disappointing and there is also a sticky time ahead in the present Euros. In November they lost 0-6 away to Spain, the country's worst defeat since 1931.
On 20th April 1908, an England Amateur XI played Germany in Berlin winning 1-5 and on March 13th 1909 they met in Oxford and the home team won 9-0.
North Macedonia (pop no greater than 2.5 million) was part of Yugoslavia and has become an independent country. Goran Pandev is their most famous player, their captain and a top goal scorer, with 37 national goals from 117 apps. He was "schooled" by the Italian League club, Genoa. Another favourite will be Ezgjan Alioski at Leeds Utd.
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