Notes - Germany

World Cup 2006 Teams and Players

Germany does not have a national stadium, and rotate their home matches among various stadiums across the country.
The national team's home shirt colour has always been white, while the away shirt colour has changed several times. Historically green has been the most often used colour. Other colours such as grey and black have also been used. The last change, from black to red, came in November 2004. Klinsmann hopes to use the red away shirt as first choice for the 2006 World Cup.
Germany played in the FIFA Confederations Cup twice, in 1999 (first round exit) and in 2005 (third place) as hosts.
Interestingly, Germany have not beaten a European team in the finals of either the World Cup or the European Championship since their victory over the Czech Republic in the Euro 96 final. It is also often reported in the media that they have not beaten a "major football power" since their 1-0 victory over England in 2000. However, which national teams should be considered as "major football powers" is debatable. For example, Germany have beaten Mexico and the United States, who are both ranked in the top ten of the FIFA World Rankings, during this period.
Since their penalty shootout loss to Czechoslovakia in Euro 76, Germany have not lost a penalty shootout in major international tournaments. In particular, England suffered two heartbreaking semi-final losses to Germany on penalties in the 1990s. As England striker Gary Lineker once said: "Football is a game with 22 people and in the end the Germans always win." But in reality Germany or German teams are among the teams with the most final loses (sometimes also very unlucky), for example in the FIFA World Cup or in the UEFA Champions League.
German teams have something of a tradition of beginning their history against Switzerland: The first match of a German national team ever, the first match of a West German team after World War II in 1950 when Germany was still banned from most international competitions, and the first match of the reunited German team in 1990 were all against Switzerland. Most of the home games (7 since 1911) were at Stuttgart's Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. Klaus Fischer also scored Germany's "ARD Goal of the Century" there against the Swiss in 1977, with a "Bicycle kick" ("FallrÃ¼ckzieher"), his trademark move with which he also scored the important 3:3 equalizer in overtime (108th minute) at the 1982 World Cup vs France, but this was not among the Top 10 of the WC Goal of the Century

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