Maybe it's the fact that it doesn't happen that much but Jogi Löw and Germany have never really seemed like they can handle the harsh reality of defeat.
You might recall Löw's incredibly sour grapes after Shane Long put the ball in the German net at the Aviva last October ("We avoided 99 of those long balls, but the 100th long ball was too many"). Now, after his team were dumped out of the Euros at the semi-final stage, Löw and Mats Hummels used their post-fight press conference to take a swing at this expanded 24-team version of the competition which they say is diluting the quality of the tournament - and somehow this is effecting the Germany performances.
Löw said:
I think 24 teams is too many. The World Cup's going to be increased to 40 teams and it's getting more and more, and that's a problem in the long term. Sometimes you get the feeling that it's not doing football any good. The quality is suffering.
Does he have a point? In their journey to the semi-finals of the Euros, Germany faced Ukraine, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Italy while France played Romania, Albania, Switzerland, Ireland and Iceland. Of Germany's opponents only Ukraine qualified through the playoffs while Ireland were the only playoff team that France faced along the way.
Mats Hummels echoed his manager's thoughts and somehow found a way to blame some of the poorer teams in the competition for Germany's exit.
The level at this European Championships was not what we hoped for. There were many teams who didn't want to do anything with the ball and just packed men behind the ball.
To be fair lads, if you're a team like Northern Ireland (who qualified top of their qualifying group, remember) and you're playing the world champions, it makes perfect sense to be a bit more defensively-minded. Hummels and Löw, it seems, would prefer if these smaller nations would fall on their sword in some sort of ritualistic deference to their football overlords.
It might make slightly more sense to lay some blame at the feet (or hand) of Bastian Schweinsteiger, as Bild have done on their front page this morning. We'll let you translate that headline for yourself.
