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European championship Posted by on Jun 14, 2012 in Culture, Sports

Since a couple of days, the Europameisterschaft (European championship) 2012 is running in Poland and Ukraine. You might ask “Which sport?”. But if you are in Europe these days or if you know a little about European sports, there is only one answer: Fußball (soccer). Especially in Central Europe, people are crazy about this game so they are happy that the long expected games finally started.

After a phase of qualification, 16 teams made it to the Endrunde (final round) that started last Friday. And glücklicherweise (fortunately) Germany is among them. The Mannschaften (teams) are separated in four groups. The best two teams from each group will reach the Viertelfinale (quarter final) and so on.

The first match for Germany was on Saturday where they had to struggle the Portuguese.  In the end Germany won by  one goal to zero. Though the match wasn´t very good, the victory was pretty important for the German players to develop some self-confidence against strong Gegner (opponents) like the Netherlands, Spain or Italy. And of course it is always good to start a Turnier (tournament) like this with some well deserved points.

Yesterday there was the second match for the German team. This time against the Netherlands. I don´t know exactly why, but regarding soccer, there is a deep Rivalität (rivalry) between Germany and the Netherlands. So the game was expected with high tension. I guess most of the German fans were a bit doubtful if they could win against the strong players of the Netherlands. But when the Schiedsrichter (referee) started the match, all skepticism has gone away. The erste Halbzeit (first half) was fantastic and Germany could come to the fore with two Tore (goals) by Mario Gomez.

In the second half, the Netherlands became stronger and stronger and finally scored a goal. But fortunately (for Germany) the match was over before they could balance it by scoring a second one.
As you can imagine, a lot of German fans started a big party after this.

The next match will be on Sunday against Denmark. I think a Unentschieden (draw) would be enough to reach the quarter final. But winning is always better 😉

So what are the most popular sports in your country? Are you watching the European championship as well? Do you have similar tournaments? Tell us by posting…

Some vocabulary to this post:
die Europameisterschaft – European championship
der Fußball – soccer
die Endrunde – final round
glücklicherweise – fortunately
die Mannschaft – team
das Viertelfinale – quarter final
der Gegner – opponent
das Turnier – tournament
die Rivalität – rivalry
der Schiedsrichter – referee
die erste Halbzeit – first half
das Tor – goal

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About the Author: jan

My name is Jan and I live in the south west of Germany. My profession is being a project manager at a company that creates digital media (first of all internet related things). This is my job since over a decade so I´m quite familiar with the web and its tools. Whereat today almost every school kid does. But that´s one of the main reasons why nowadays there are quasi no more limits in the internet and so it can be used for all imaginable types of things. For example learning languages! And that´s where we are at the moment. I first got in touch with Transparent Language when my family and I used to live in France a couple of years ago. I just had a break from work and by coincidence I produced some cultural videos in French. A few months later the whole blogging thing came up and I was lucky to be a part of it. So now my (second) job is to feed you with information, exercises, vocabulary, grammar and stories about Germany and German language. For being a passionate videographer I´m trying to do this more and more by videos. If you have any wishes or needs of topics that should be treated here, please don´t hesitate to contact me via a comment field. I´m open to your suggestions (as long as they are not too individual) and will try to satisfy your needs.

Comments:

  1. Efrutik:

    Of course I am watching the Europameisterschaft (and a lot of folks in D.C. as well)and thanks to the Goethe Center in Washington D.C. I can watch it with other spectators on their big screens. It is very fun! I am glad Germany got a win this game and there is an upcoming one this Sunday. Of course my friends and I will go again :)For the game with the Netherlands, I was hoping they make at least one goal and they did it makes the game that interesting too, when there is a competition.

  2. Tomas:

    I never miss our Mannschaft play! The rivalry comes from WWII but it has fallen off a bit since the 70’s/80’s. It’s still there but it’s not as strong. The Dutch had no good chance of beating us yesterday not because they don’t have good players, they do, but their egos and poor tactics were the main cause. Honestly the only team that we will have a tough time with is Spain. I think this will be a repeat of 2008 but this time Germany will win! Auf gehts Deutschland!

  3. yehe:

    “I don´t know exactly why, but regarding soccer, there is a deep Rivalität (rivalry)”…

    I suspect you’re too young to remember (or watch) the same game 38 years ago when Germany kicked the Dutch 2 to 1 in the world cup. Enough?? 🙂