German national B football team

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The German national B soccer team was a constantly fluctuating selection of players, which was led by the German Soccer Association (DFB) for the purpose of expanding or introducing the squad of the A selection . Between 1951 (0-2 against Switzerland on April 14th in Karlsruhe) and 1986 (3-0 against Sweden on October 28th in Essen) the DFB played 62 international matches with their B-Elf (40 wins, 7 draws, 15 defeats ; Goal difference 122:65). According to the former national trainer Sepp Herberger, it served "to capture and promote the youngsters in a team with strong playability". The junior national team U 21 finally replaced the B national team after the DFB had not played any international matches with the junior national team U 23 since 1974 .

history

The framework conditions for the national team in the early 1950s

In the DFB, the top performance of football was represented in the early 1950s by the national team , representative games of the regional associations, the relay teams of the football leagues ( south , southwest , west , north , Berlin city league ) and the final round of the German football championship . For the 1950/51 season, with the creation of a second division (initially also II. Division) in the south, a further contract player class was introduced to the one already existing in the west in 1949/50, and the first amateur league was installed as the top division of amateur football.

After the Second World War, representative games of the regional associations almost had the character of international matches. The historical background was the previous competitions for the Crown Prince's Cup and, from 1919, for the National Cup of the association selection teams of the regional associations of the DFB. On March 24, 1946, the first game of these national encounters took place in Stuttgart. South Germany won 3-0 goals against West Germany. “It had its second spring, so to speak, in the league era for a decade and a half, and the popularity was immense. Several weeks before each of these matches there were detailed previews and form reports, and the trade press let their readers vote on the lineups, with a huge response. The players' ambition and commitment were accordingly. ”They were particularly valuable for national coach Sepp Herberger when building up the national team. There could be no question of a “close-meshed” review of the player material - not even of repeated inspection appointments - in the five major leagues given the personnel conditions in the DFB at the time, the television coverage that was not yet available and the comparatively limited mobility. The trustful cooperation of the association sports instructors covered the area alone, but the decisive authority of the national coach was only able to do limited “random checks”. The reports in the newspapers about the regional leagues were not objectively usable in the dispute about the competing performance of the players in the south, southwest, west, north and Berlin. The journalists in the south - which of course also applied in reverse - had little idea about the player reservoir in the upper leagues west and north, at least not in terms of breadth. It was only possible to get an idea of ​​the finalists in the “foreign” top leagues. But whether a talent in Heide, Düren or Augsburg was worth observing, newspaper people also lacked any serious handling during these years. At Landefeld it is stated:

“ Because how should a journalist in the west know exactly what was going on in the southwest or in Schleswig-Holstein, which player was actually overrated as a national player and not just provincial and local patriotic? "

The national coach's legendary “notebook”, in which all the talents and experts of German football should be noted, helped more. “The national coach never contradicted the notebook legend. He loved such myths, because they exerted a suggestive power on the environment. ”The scheme of Herberger's search for young people clearly had to do with the simple communication channels available at the time. For him there were the reports of the association coaches and the assessments of the league coaches. Only when the suggestions and assessments of association and club coaches coincided several times did Herberger personally examine the players.

In the 1950/51 season the clubs 1. FC Nürnberg, SpVgg Fürth, VfB Mühlburg (South), 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Wormatia Worms, FK Pirmasens (Southwest), FC Schalke 04, Prussia Münster, Borussia Dortmund ( West), Hamburger SV, FC St. Pauli, Holstein Kiel (North) and in Berlin Tennis Borussia, SC Union 06 and Hertha BSC. The second division played in the north in five amateur seasons, in the south-west in six amateur seasons (from 1951/52 the 2nd league southwest was introduced), in Berlin in the amateur league with 12 clubs, in the west in a two-part 2nd division and in southern Germany in the 2nd league with 18 clubs. The personal opportunity to see in everyday life in the league was therefore only possible selectively due to the number of game classes in question due to the national coach.

The annual phase of the final round of the German championship brought more relevance and also significantly more quality and meaningfulness. From 1948 to 1951 there were four champions with 1. FC Nürnberg (1948), VfR Mannheim (1949), VfB Stuttgart (1950) and 1. FC Kaiserslautern (1951). 1. FC Kaiserslautern (1948), Borussia Dortmund (1949), Kickers Offenbach (1950) and Prussia Münster made it into the finals in 1951.

For players who were able to present themselves with their clubs in the finals, it was objectively easier to attract the attention of the football public and to find it in the national coach's “notebook”. Talents and mature experts, on the other hand, who did not have the sporting opportunity to reach the finals with the performance of their clubs, had a very difficult time getting noticed nationwide.

When the European Cup of National Champions was played for the first time from the 1955/56 season - from 1960/61 the Cup Winners' Cup was also held - club football was given the opportunity to compete across national borders. The sighting for the national team also benefited from this sporty and financially stimulating competition, even if in Germany in the early years of the European Cup, its fascination and its contribution to improving performance was not recognized in its elementary importance for European football. Actually, the perception of the European Cup only started with the unexpected entry into the finals in the 1959/60 competition by Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany and was continued by Hamburger SV the following year with the games against FC Burnley and FC Barcelona.

The attitude of the DFB to the European competitions at the beginning of the planned European championship of the national teams is exemplary . In the first two tournaments for the European Championship, 1960 and 1964, the DFB did not take part with its national team as a protest. National coach Herberger commented on the "European Cup of Nations":

“A complete waste of time. "

The German media world also gave the European tournament very little attention. In Germany there were concerns that the busy schedule would no longer be able to cope with, and the complaint about the high demands on the players was also cited as an argument against the introduction and participation of the European Championship.

Selection teams of the DFB in the Oberliga era, 1950 to 1963

The senior national team's first international match after the Second World War took place on November 22, 1950 in Stuttgart against Switzerland. The two representative games of selected teams of the regional associations on November 11th and 12th in Ludwigshafen and Frankfurt am Main between Southwest ( Werner Kohlmeyer , Werner Liebrich , Fritz Walter , Ottmar Walter ) and South ( Erich Retter , Andreas Kupfer , Gunther Baumann , Fritz Balogh , de la Vigne ) - 2-2 in front of 62,000 spectators - as well as a second team from the South ( Karl Barufka , Gerhard Kaufhold , Max Morlock , Horst Schade , Richard Herrmann ) against West Germany ( Toni Turek , Paul Mebus , Josef Röhrig , Felix Gerritzen , Alfred Preißler , Karl Hetzel , Hans Schäfer , Bernhard Klodt ) - 5: 4 in front of 24,000 spectators - were the final test of the national team candidates. The second leg was played in Zurich on April 15, 1951 and the national coach took the opportunity and, with the consent of the DFB, launched the B national team as a foundation.

The first official game of a B national team took place on April 14, 1951 - one day before the second A international match in Zurich - in the Karlsruhe stadium in Honsellstrasse and ended with a 2-0 defeat against Switzerland. The players of the first B national team were:

Willi Rado (FSV Frankfurt) - Erich Retter (VfB Stuttgart), Adolf Knoll (SpVgg Fürth) - Hans Haferkamp (VfL Osnabrück), Paul Matzkowski (Schalke 04), Heinz Trenkel (VfB Mühlburg) - Gerhard Kaufhold , Kurt Schreiner (both kickers Offenbach), Paul Lipponer (SV Waldhof), Horst Buhtz (VfB Mühlburg), Rolf Blessing (VfB Stuttgart)

The selection consisted of nine players from the Oberliga Süd and one representative each from the north and west. From this team defender Retter, outside runner Haferkamp and attacker Kaufhold were later appointed to the senior national team, the man from Osnabrück only two months after the B-Elf's debut on June 17, 1951 in Berlin in the international match against Turkey. In the years that followed, national coach Herberger kept the frequency of the B-Elf's missions within limits, only in 1956 the DFB held four B-internationals as a peak value. Two or three B-games a year were the norm. In order to take part in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Herberger also built an amateur national team , which he also used for the national team over the years in the talent search. The last newly created DFB team in the Herberger era, which supplemented the basis of the selection team, the U-23 national team , made its debut on June 25, 1955 in Frankfurt with a 3-3 draw against Yugoslavia.

On September 22 and October 14, 1951, in the first half of the 1951/52 season, the next two internationals of the B national team were carried out. On September 22nd, the second international B match between the DFB and Austria took place in Augsburg, and they ended with a 1-1 draw. Only left wing Rolf Blessing from VfB Stuttgart also represented the German colors at the debut game on April 14th that year. A total of twelve international newcomers came to Eduard Schaffer , Alfred Mirsberger , Hans Bauer , Gerhard Bergner , Wilhelm Struzina , Josef Röhrig , Manfred Krüger , Georg Stollenwerk , Willi Schröder , Otto Baitinger and the two substitutes Richard Steimle and Kurt Ucko in the second international B match Commitment. The Oberliga Süd provided nine players - Schaffer, Mirsberger, Bauer, Steimle, Bergner, Struzina, Ucko, Baitinger, Blessing - the west was represented by Röhrig and Stollenwerk and the north by Krüger and Schröder. Stollenwerk came into action as a player from the 2nd League West (Düren 99) and Schröder even from the amateur camp in Bremen in 1860.

One day later, on September 23, the senior national team won their international match in Vienna against Austria with 2-0 goals and Alfred Preißler celebrated his debut as a right half-forward next to his teammate Felix Gerritzen on the right wing.

Before the next game of the national team on October 17, 1951 in Dublin against Ireland, national coach Sepp Herberger carried out an extensive screening with representative games of the regional associations and the B-Elf. On October 13th the representations of southern Germany and southwestern Germany faced each other in Stuttgart and on October 14th in Kiel the northern selection against western Germany. Southern Germany formed a 3-2 win with five players from VfB Stuttgart (Bögelein, Retter, Schlienz, Barufka, Blessing), and was completed with three players from SpVgg Fürth (Knoll, Hoffmann, Schade) and two from 1. FC Nürnberg (Baumann, Morlock) and Richard Herrmann from FSV Frankfurt. The southwest played with players from 1. FC Kaiserslautern (Kohlmeyer, W. Liebrich, F. Walter), TuS Neuendorf (Adam, Miltz, Voigtmann, Warth), Wormatia Worms (Mechnig, Blankenberger) and FK Pirmasens (Laag, Grewenig) on. In the 2-2 draw in Kiel Schönbeck, Dzur, Boller (St. Pauli), Oettler, Haferkamp, ​​Nienhaus (VfL Osnabrück), Posipal, Krüger (Hamburger SV), Hänel, Schnieke (Bremer SV), Heyduck (Arminia Hannover) represented ) and defender Morgner von Holstein Kiel the selection of Northern Germany. In the west selection, the players from Preußen Münster (Lesch, Gerritzen, Preißler, Rachuba, Lammers) were in the majority and were completed by Michallek, Schanko (Borussia Dortmund), Herkenrath, Graf (1. FC Cologne), Kisker, Dongmann (Hamborn 07); B. Klodt (FC Schalke 04), Hetzel (Meidericher SV) and Islacker from Rheydter SV.

The B-Elf also played their third international match against Switzerland on October 14 in Basel. She won the game with 2-0 goals and Hans Schäfer from 1. FC Köln stormed the left wing , who made his debut with two goals in the national team on November 9th. Herberger also brought in Kurt Sommerlatt , Matthias Mauritz , Georg Stollenwerk and Willi Schröder, four players from the future amateur national team - the first international game of the DFB amateurs took place on May 14, 1952 -. The A-Elf lost the international match on October 17th in Dublin with 2: 3 goals. From the B-formation from the game in Basel against Switzerland there was no player in Dublin on the field.

In 1952, the DFB had only scheduled one B international match. It took place on November 9th again in Basel against Switzerland. National coach Herberger had not previously had time for the B-Elf due to the time-consuming reinstallation of the amateur national team for the soccer tournament at the Olympic Games in Helsinki from July 15 to August 2. That is why the B international match in 1952 took place after the Olympics. The national coach subsequently rewarded his Helsinki drivers Hans Eberle , Kurt Sommerlatt, Herbert Schäfer and Willi Schröder with the call to the B-Elf in the game against Switzerland. Schröder, the Bremen attacker, scored both goals for a 2-0 victory. Goalkeeper Heinz Kubsch and outside runner Gerhard Harpers were later also used in the A-Elf. At the same time, the national team prevailed against Switzerland with 5-1 goals in Augsburg. Horst Eckel and Hans Schäfer made their debut.

The importance of the amateur national team in the Oberliga era is shown by the fact that the Helsinki Olympians Mauritz, Schäfer, Schröder and Stollenwerk were also appointed to further appearances in the B and A national teams. The internationally successful careers of Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and Willi Schulz began in the amateur team and within months led to the senior national team. For example, the performance of the defender Willi Gerdau from Heider SV in the amateur international match on May 15, 1957 in Glasgow against Scotland was one of the decisive factors that he made his debut in the A-Elf seven days later, on May 22 in Stuttgart, in the international match against Scotland. The Hessian goal scorer of the amateur club Griesheim 02, Erwin Stein , also qualified in April and May 1959 directly from the amateur into the senior national team.

The fact that the first appearance in the senior national team was preceded by international testing in the B-Elf was a common practice in the time of the top football leagues, with national coach Herberger. In 1953 and 1954, the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland was the focus of planning with the national team. Herberger used A-Elf and B-Elf international matches, representative matches of the regional associations and other selection test matches for a thorough and comprehensive selection of personnel. The series was opened on February 1, 1953 with the two games of the regional selection West against Southwest in Düsseldorf and Saar against West in Saarbrücken. On March 22nd, two international matches between the A and B eleven were played against Austria. The game of the B national team took place in Vienna and ended in a 1: 3 defeat. The newcomers Karl Bögelein , Josef Derwall and Franz Islacker could not recommend themselves for higher tasks, although the A-Elf had not convinced at 0-0 in Cologne either. The 1952/53 season ended with a hopeful 5-2 win for the B-Elf on June 14, 1953 in Düsseldorf against Spain. Here the left wing with Alfred Pfaff and Hans Schäfer could come up with an outstanding performance. But also defender Herbert Erhardt , the outside runners Karl-Heinz Metzner and Richard Gottinger , as well as the attacker Ulrich Biesinger collected plus points. Previously, Herberger had carried out two test matches of a DFB selection against southern Germany and Berlin on June 4th and 6th and then also brought Erhardt, Metzner, Gottinger and Biesinger to the B international match.

The first half of the 1953/54 season was dominated by the World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Saarland. In the 1-1 draw on August 19, 1953 in Oslo, Eintracht Frankfurt's playmaker Alfred Pfaff made his national team debut. In the second qualifying game, on October 11th in Stuttgart against Saarland, the national coach - Erhardt, Mai and Gottinger - played three debutants in a 3-0 victory. On September 2, there was a test match of a DFB selection against a Swiss selection in Constance and on October 10, a representative match between West and North Germany took place in Dortmund. An official B international match, however, was not carried out in the first half of the 1953/54 season. The full concentration was on the World Cup qualifying games of the senior national team for participation in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.

In the spring of 1954, on March 24th and April 24th, two international matches for the B-Elf were again part of the national coach's program for the final spurt of the squad composition for the tournament days in Switzerland. Again, two representative games of the regional selections from Berlin, West, North and Southwest - on February 28 in Berlin and Hamburg - preceded the international games. On March 24, the seventh international B match of the DFB and on March 28, the decisive World Cup qualifying match of the senior national team was played in Saarbrücken. The B-Elf were shown the qualitative limits by a 4-0 defeat in Gelsenkirchen by England, at least in the personal formation of the attack, where Otto Ernst (TSV Straubing), Heinz Lettl (Bayern Munich), Richard Kress (Eintracht Frankfurt ), Otto Laszig and Hans Krämer (both Schalke 04) players who either never found their way into the A-team or, as in the case of Kreß, only years later, at the end of their careers. With a 3-1 win over Saarland, the national team paved the way to the soccer world championship in Switzerland on March 28th.

On April 24, the B-Elf played their eighth international match. In Offenburg, the team around goalkeeper Kwiatkowski, defenders W. Liebrich, Bauer, Kohlmeyer, runners Mebus and Harpers, and strikers Klodt, Metzner, Gerritzen, Biesinger and Pfaff surprisingly lost 1: 3 goals. With national coach Herberger, Kwiatkowski, Erhardt, Bauer, Mebus, Metzner, Klodt, Biesinger and Pfaff still found their way into the 22-man squad for the World Cup days in Switzerland. The A-Elf won the last international match before the World Cup on April 25 in Basel with 5: 3 goals against the World Cup organizers. Goalkeeper Heinz Kubsch and defender Fritz Laband made their debut and were then part of the final World Cup squad.

After the unexpected win of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, the selection of national coach Herberger could no longer confirm the impressive performance of the tournament days in the next two years. In the two years 1955 and 1956, 14 international matches were played by the A-Elf, nine of which were lost. For the reigning world champion a more than just negative balance. Low points were the three defeats in 1956 against Holland (1: 2), Switzerland (1: 3) and Ireland (0: 3). Herberger responded with a large number of test matches of his selection teams against clubs from the major leagues (1956: Hamburger SV, RW Essen, Nuremberg / Fürth, 1. FC Cologne, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Eintracht Frankfurt, Saarland) and led three test matches in 1957 of A-selections against B-selections. The Herberger protégés experienced a memorable rebuff against Yugoslavia on September 25, 1955 in the international matches of the A and B national team. In Zagreb the team lost with the world champions Posipal, Eckel, Liebrich, Morlock, the brothers Walter and Hans Schäfer with 1: 3 goals and in Laibach the keeper of Hamburger SV, Horst Schnoor , had to go to the 0: 8 bankruptcy in the B- International match, far too often from a German point of view, reaching behind them. The day in Ljubljana was also a setback in terms of sporting development for the talented inner storm with Klaus Stürmer , Uwe Seeler and Willi Schröder .

At the low point of the national team - 1956: eight games with two wins, one draw and five defeats - took Herberger in four B-internationals only in Horst Szymaniak and Hans Tilkowski two new performers for the senior team, which should belong for years whose parent . In 1957, the balance turned positive again - five games with four wins and one defeat - and Herberger used the example of Helmut Rahn to show how the demotion to the B-Elf can lead to a new boost in the A-Elf. On March 6, 1957 “Boss” Rahn stormed alongside Karl Borutta , Rudolf Hoffmann and Fritz Semmelmann and scored two goals for the 4-0 success of the B-Elf in the international match in Munich against Austria. Four days later he scored two goals in the A international match in Vienna for a 3-2 win against hosts Austria. The 1958 World Cup in Sweden took place in June, with the B national team only playing the game on May 1 against Luxembourg in the first half of the year. There was an embarrassing 1: 4 defeat and only the two players Günter Sawitzki and Rudolf Hoffmann were accepted into the defending champion's squad for the World Cup tournament. Karl Mai and Willi Schröder finally gambled away their chances of being nominated.

The makers of the world championship eleven from 1954 did not allow himself to be dissuaded from his belief in players by defeat. On October 3, 1959, the B-Elf played their 20th international match in Constance. Opponent was Switzerland and the German selection surprisingly lost with 0: 1 goals. Goalkeeper Fritz Ewert and outside runner Willi Schulz made their debut in the A-Elf on October 21 and December 20, respectively, and with Willi Giesemann , Ferdinand Wenauer , Friedel Lutz and Heinz Strehl , other players from Konstanz also made it into the A afterwards -National team. In the last five years of his national coaching activity, 1960 to 1964, Herberger completely refrained from hosting games of the B-Elf. He contented himself with the representative games of the regional associations - these selection games ended with the game North Germany against South West Germany on September 29, 1962 in Braunschweig - the finals for the German championship, as well as the games of the junior team U23. The qualifying games for the 1962 World Cup in Chile , the tournament itself and the nomination round in the major leagues 1962/63 for the new Bundesliga were in the foreground in this phase. In the first season of the Bundesliga, 1963/64, the last junior game under Herberger took place on April 29, 1964 in Karlsbad against Czechoslovakia. The German team included Hartmut Heidemann , Horst-Dieter Höttges , Peter Kaack , Horst Gecks and Günter Netzer who were to help shape the appearance of the Bundesliga over the next few years.

The B-Elf from the introduction of the Bundesliga, 1963 to 1986

The Schön era, 1964 to 1978

Under Herberger's successor Helmut Schön , the first international B match was played in Hanover against the Netherlands after a break of more than five years on March 10, 1965 - in the second half of the second Bundesliga season 1964/65. The new names from the still young Bundesliga represented Manfred Manglitz , Peter Blusch , Theo Redder , Rudolf Nafziger , Lothar Ulsaß , Walter Rodekamp , Günter Netzer and Franz Beckenbauer . In contrast, the other teammates Otto had already made a name for themselves in the previous leagues Luttrop , Leo Wilden , Walter Schmidt , Heinz Strehl and Gerhard Zebrowski . The new national coach used the second international B match in 1965 on September 1 in Cologne against the Soviet Union as a test for players of the senior national team before the decisive World Cup qualifying second leg on September 26 in Stockholm against Sweden. In the 3-0 victory, he played with seven players - Hans Tilkowski , Horst-Dieter Höttges , Franz Beckenbauer, Rudolf Brunnenmeier , Peter Grosser , Horst Szymaniak , Werner Krämer - the first set, which also in the 2-1 success in Stockholm laid the foundation for participation in the 1966 World Cup in England.

Due to the concentration of the top performance in German football as a result of the establishment of the single-track Bundesliga from the 1963/64 season, the screening for the national team - whether A, B or junior team - was feasible under much better circumstances than it was before in the regionally divided league was the case. In addition, the new talents from the Bundesliga poured into the national team. While in the last year of Herberger's 1963/64 the players Libuda, Krämer, Overath, Gerwien, Ferner, Thielen, Weber, Steiner, Sturm, Redder and Sieloff made their debut in the national team, in the first two years of Helmut Schön followed in 1964 / 65 and 1965/66, the other "children of the Bundesliga": Brunnenmeier, Manglitz, Piontek, Patzke, Höttges, Hornig, Lorenz, Ulsaß, Rodekamp, ​​Rebele, Beckenbauer, Grosser, Netzer, Nafziger, Held, Emmerich, Maier and Grabowski. The two Bundesliga promoters in 1965, FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach , significantly improved the quality of German football over the next decade.

The increase in performance was also evident in the European Cup. 1860 Munich reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965, Borussia Dortmund became the first German club team to win the title in 1966 and Bayern Munich followed Westphalia in 1967 with a 1-0 victory over Glasgow Rangers. The national team was not inferior to that, they were runner-up at the 1966 World Cup in England. In the first decade of the Bundesliga, the national team only had one slip on December 17, 1967 in the European Championship qualification against Albania, the Schön protégés did not get past a 0-0 draw with the football dwarf and thus failed of qualification. The qualification for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico continued the upswing with 11: 1 points, the culture of play and the third place at the World Cup tournament brought about a further increase. The highlights of the game were the games in the success of the European Football Championship in 1972 and the visible coronation was the 1974 World Cup in Germany.

The national team successes were accompanied by the appearance of the Bundesliga clubs in the European Cup. From 1965 to 1978 there were no semi-finals or finals in European club competitions without German participation. So it was not surprising that the DFB did not play a B international match at all from 1966 to 1971. Firstly, it was used to rectify the calendar, secondly, B-games were no longer attractive and no longer necessary for viewing. The Bundesliga round, the DFB Cup and the probation in the European Cup provided significantly more meaningful information about the level of performance of the players than was possible before the Bundesliga.

When, after winning the title at the 1974 World Cup, Wolfgang Overath , Gerd Müller , Jürgen Grabowski and Paul Breitner, four world champions withdrew from the national team, the search for their successors and the finding of a team to defend their title in Argentina in 1978 revived the B-Elf. The end of the national team career of Franz Beckenbauer also contributed to the promotion of the games of the "second suit" to eight international matches in 1977 . The outstanding player of the past twelve years ended his extremely successful career in the national team with the international match on February 23, 1977 in Paris against France. Without Beckenbauer, Overath, Müller, Grabowski, Breitner and Netzer, the intensive search for successors through B-internationals was announced again.

The players who were able to qualify for the senior national team by playing in the B-Elf during this period included Manfred Burgsmüller, Karl-Heinz Förster, Harald Konopka, Felix Magath, Hans Müller, Franz-Josef Tenhagen and Gerd Zewe. The last international B match in the Helmut Schön era took place on April 18, 1978 in Norrköping against Sweden and was won 1-0 by the German team. From the victorious team, Rudi Kargus, Dieter Burdenski, Harald Konopka, Gerd Zewe, Ronald Worm and Bernd Cullmann included six men in the 1978 World Cup.

The framework conditions and necessities of 1978 were no longer comparable with the starting year of the B national team, 1951. The Bundesliga had already existed for 15 years in its concentration of performance, the European Cup had created three recognized competitions at the same time, for the national team the tournament of the European Championship had been added to the World Cup tournament. As a result of the 1974 World Cup in their own country, the quality of the stadium had also been significantly improved and television presence had also increased noticeably.

Now the old argument of “too many games”, the risk of overload, the difficulties with the overloaded appointment calendar, for the Bundesliga professional of the 1970s, had objectively gained in importance. How high the value of international B matches in 1977/78 was compared to the attractive European Cup appearances was highly controversial, and in terms of audience appeal and television coverage, it was not at all comparable. On the player side, the commitment in the B national team was no longer largely associated with an award. The Bundesliga stars were nominated for a B-Elf and usually felt that way.

The B-Elf in the Derwall era, 1978 to 1982

In the era of the new national coach Jupp Derwall , twelve "double game days" of the A and B national teams were carried out, with the B team playing one day before the A selection. The first game with Derwall / Ribbeck took place on October 10, 1978 in Pilsen against Czechoslovakia. The German B-Elf lost 1: 2. A day later, on October 11th, the A-Elf won the international match in Prague 4-3. In Pilsen, Harald Schumacher, Bernd Martin, Markus Elmer, William Hartwig, Ronald Borchers, Walter Kelsch, Harald Nickel, Heinz-Werner Eggeling and Helmut Schröder made their debut in the B national team. The Cologne goalkeeper Schumacher became a fixture in the senior national team, while the players Martin, Hartwig, Borchers, Kelsch and Nickel made individual appearances in the senior team. The schedule was full with the A-Elf through the European Championship qualifiers for the 1980 European Championship in Italy, the European Championship tournament, the qualifying games for the 1982 World Cup in Spain and the World Cup tournament. The penultimate game of the national B team took place on February 16, 1982 in Mannheim against Portugal, on February 17, the German A-team also won 3-1 against Portugal in Hanover.

After the 1982 World Cup, the DFB-Elf had reached the final, but did not win the sympathy of the professional world and the fans, the DFB and national coach Derwall were criticized and now concentrated only on the next tournament, the European Championship 1984 in France. There was no more time to work with a B national team. There was only one B game under team boss Franz Beckenbauer. The 62nd and final B international match was played against Sweden on October 28, 1986 in Essen. Thanks to goals from Stefan Kuntz and Thomas Allofs , the German team won 3-0. On the following day, October 29, the senior national team lost 4-1 to Austria in Vienna and the U21 youth team won their international match 2-0 in Koblenz against Bulgaria.

Players and statistics of the B national team

→ see also: List of German national B players in football

The B-selection of the DFB played 62 official internationals between April 14, 1951 and October 28, 1986 (40 wins, 7 draws, 15 defeats with a goal difference of 122: 65). 342 players were used, of which 167, almost half, also played for the senior national team in the course of their careers. Ronald Worm played the most B international matches (twelve games), followed by Rudi Kargus (11) and Karl-Heinz Körbel and Harald Konopka (10 each), the most successful goalscorer was Manfred Burgsmüller , who scored as many goals in his eight appearances.

Conclusion

In December 1952 national coach Herberger sums it up with satisfaction:

“ There is a healthy rivalry in the making between the core and the offspring of our team. She is a reliable employee to me. The “ancients” of our tribe know about the toil and effort that had to be put in to assert themselves in the fight for a place in the national team; they will certainly not make it easy for the offspring to displace them again. And that's quite right! Those who want to go up must be able to do more than those who have already proven themselves and are still doing well. "

With the senior national team, he had successfully completed the first development phase, having played 13 games after the end of the Second World War. Two further DFB teams, the B national team and the amateur selection, were added as a substructure and to sift through the youngsters. This was at the time of contract player football in the Oberliga era - it was passed on August 1, 1948 for the four major leagues in Germany and provided for monthly payments of up to 320 marks for players in the highest German class - an imperative. The national coach was only able to keep an eye on the national team's players, and only in the long term and on the basis of mutual trust. Current form checking for a new talent was not possible in a hurry. The inclusion in the circle of the three DFB teams was a high distinction, an honor for the players. At Landefeld / Nöllenheidt it is noted:

“In my experience, the elite awareness of the players that Herberger had been appointed national player was greater than it is today in the generation of players at that time. However, the upper league generation of the 50s and early 60s also had a lot more to do with them than their successors. They were certainly more authoritarian, but also with a greater devotion to their sport, absolutely convinced that everything the "boss" Herberger or his assistant and mouthpiece Helmut Schön said was correct. Not a single one of them would have thought of complaining about staying in the Spartan barreness of sports schools or about the long absence from the family. And if he did - he could have packed his bags straight away and said goodbye, never to return. "

In the time of the regional top leagues, the B national team was an important aid for the national coach in the sighting and training of international match candidates. The level of performance of the various leagues was different, there was mostly a performance gap in the leagues and the number of clubs in the top league was clearly too high. The finals alone could not make up for the gap to the international competition. The national coach was only able to counter the inadequate training operations in the upper league with three units, as a rule, by asking his cadre players to do additional work and personal training.

With the introduction of the Bundesliga for the 1963/64 season, the general conditions changed fundamentally. The sporting necessity of a B national team just for sighting was completely eliminated. Every Bundesliga match day brought together the best players, talented as well as experienced, the national coach was now able to see the entire team of selected players personally in the tough competition within four weeks. The European Cup games also provided further specific advice on the selection and composition of his squad.

When the high of German football was over in the mid-1970s, one tried again to activate the "old means" of the B national team. For the B national team, however, there was no spectator interest and the motivation of the Bundesliga players to take part in the “second suit” was limited. The time of the B national team was up. The junior teams have now come to the fore when it comes to introducing top talent in the youth field, not least because of the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, which has been held by UEFA since 1978 . This also serves as a qualification for the soccer competition of the Olympic Games every four years. The lack of competitive character was one of the main reasons for the poor acceptance of the B national team from the Bundesliga era.

The successor teams

There was first an A2 national football team from 1999 to 2001 , which had been launched at the 1998 World Cup in France due to the poor performance (0: 3 in the quarter-finals against Croatia ) .

The first game took place in Lens on June 2, 1999 and ended in a 2-1 defeat against France.

Seven more matches were held:

After it was determined that Germany would host the 2006 World Cup , a new selection team was created on October 7, 2001 as a result of the poor performance at the 2000 European Football Championship , the 2006 team . It should offer players the opportunity to recommend themselves for the senior national team and future tournaments through international play. The team's first coach was Uli Stielike , before DFB coach Erich Rutemöller followed him on April 8, 2003 .

The first game took place on June 6, 2002 in Mönchengladbach and ended with a 1: 2 defeat against Turkey's A2 team.

Line-up: Hildebrand - Lense ( Kern ), Friedrich ( Fahrenhorst ), Wenzel , Meichelbeck ( Kling ) - Korzynietz , Fritz , Kreuz ( Borowski ), Dabrowski ( Voss ), Daun , Bierofka

The last game took place on November 15, 2005 in Mattersburg and ended with a 5-2 win over Austria .

Line-up: Weidenfeller ( Wessels ) - Marx , Ottl , Madlung , Weigelt , Kringe , Rolfes ( Cimen ), Gentner , Gerber ( Schäfer ), Auer ( Krontiris ), Gómez

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Bitter: Germany's football. The encyclopedia. Pp. 64-65.
  2. ↑ Schulze-Marmeling: The history of the national soccer team. P. 126.
  3. ^ Jürgen Bitter: Germany's football. The encyclopedia. Sports publisher. Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-328-00857-8 . Pp. 93, 365
  4. ↑ Jens Reimer Prüß in Werner Skrentny (ed.): When Morlock still met the moonlight. The history of the Oberliga Süd 1945–1963. Klartext-Verlag, Dortmund 1993, ISBN 3-88474-055-5 , p. 64.
  5. ↑ Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 , p. 84.
  6. ↑ Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 , p. 84.
  7. ↑ Hardy Greens : Football EM Encyclopedia. 1960 to 2012. 2nd edition. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-89784-350-9 , p. 40.
  8. ↑ Karl-Heinz Jens: The omniscient football. Sports magazine published by Olympia-Verlag, Nuremberg 1966, p. 201.
  9. ↑ Heimann, Jens: Kicker Almanach. 1989, p. 104.
  10. ↑ Heimann, Jens: Kicker-Almanach. 1989. Copress-Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7679-0245-1 , p. 106.
  11. ↑ Heimann, Jens: Kicker-Almanach. 1989. Copress-Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7679-0245-1 , p. 108.
  12. ^ Jürgen Leinemann: Sepp Herberger. One life, one legend. Rowohlt-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87134-285-8 , p. 297.
  13. ^ Jürgen Bitter: Germany's football. The encyclopedia. P. 667.
  14. ↑ Harald Landefeld, Achim Nöllenheidt (ed.): Helmut, tell me dat Tor ... New stories and portraits from the Oberliga West 1947–1963. Klartext, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-043-1 , p. 86.