German national soccer team (U-23 men)

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The German U-23 national soccer team was a selection team of German soccer players that was subordinate to the German Football Association (DFB) and represented it internationally at the U-23 level ; for example in friendly matches against the national teams of other national associations, but also at the European championships of 1972 and 1974 of the European continental association UEFA .

Eligible to play were players who had not yet reached the age of 23 and who were German citizens . In tournaments, the age at the first qualifying game was decisive.

history

Start in the league era, 1955 to 1963

International youth games have been around since the 1950s. At first they ran under various names (e.g. foal games) and only gradually did these games find their way into official international gaming traffic. Eligible players were those who were not yet 23 years old on September 1st of the game year. A new regulation applied to the European championships "Under 23". Anyone who was eligible to play for the first game could be used until the end of the two-year competition. The DFB has not held any junior international matches "Under 23" since 1974 and replaced the "U-23" team with the new "U-21", which also replaced the "U-23" European championship in international matches. "U-21" international matches in the DFB have existed since October 10, 1979, with the first game that the German selection lost 1-0 in Thorn against the "U-21" selection in Poland.

The first U-23 international match took place on June 25, 1955 on Bornheimer Hang in Frankfurt am Main and ended in a 3-3 draw against the U-23 selection from Yugoslavia. The line-up:

Manfred Orzessek - Werner Vigna , Hans Eder ( Gerhard Faller ) - Günter Rehbein , Rudolf Hoffmann , Werner Mayer - Walter Dächert , Engelbert Kraus , Berthold Buchenau , Ernst Wade ( Vitus Sauer ), Jürgen Sanmann

The goals for the German junior selection - they sat from the Oberliga West (Orzessek from Schalke 04 and Vigna from Fortuna Düsseldorf); the Oberliga Süd (Hoffmann from Viktoria Aschaffenburg, Buchenau and Mayer from FSV Frankfurt; Kraus and Wade from Kickers Offenbach; the Oberliga Südwest (Rehbein from Eintracht Kreuznach, Faller and Dächert from Phönix Ludwigshafen); the Stadtliga Berlin (Eder von Union 06 Berlin) and the two players from the amateur camp, Sauer from SV Mainz-Gonsenheim and Sanmann from Concordia from Hamburg, together - in the game directed by referee Fauquemberghe from France, Kraus (2) and Sanmann scored.

The German national soccer team with national coach Sepp Herberger had won the soccer world championship in 1954 with a 3-2 victory against Hungary in Bern on July 4, 1954, but one year later the DFB created a new springboard for talented young soccer players by installing the junior national team U 23 that should prove themselves internationally among the A-team. After the B national team - debut on April 14, 1951 - and the amateur national team - debut on May 14, 1952 - it was the third DFB selection, which was created as a "training path" and foundation for the A national team. Due to the sporting slump of the reigning soccer world champions - in the period from September 26, 1954 (Brussels, 2-0 defeat against Belgium) to November 25, 1956 (Dublin, 3-0 defeat against Ireland), the German senior team suffered in 17 Internationals 12 defeats - but there was no intensive, temporal and personnel development work with regard to the U 23 youth team within the DFB in the next year and a half. The second international match of the juniors U 23 did not take place until December 19, 1956 in Liège against Belgium. No player from the debut game on June 25, 1955 in Frankfurt against Yugoslavia was part of the squad. In the 3-2 success in Liège, however, the later senior national players Hans Tilkowski , Walter Zastrau , Alfred Pyka , Rolf Geiger , Aki Schmidt and Helmut Kapitulski made their debut and thus the team lived up to the hoped-for claim to view and promote the senior national team to contribute.

In the 1957/58 season, there were two B internationals as well as U 23 internationals for a broad screening before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. First, on December 21, 1957, a double game day of the youth teams, each against Hungary, was played. The B-Elf competed in Budapest with goalkeeper Günter Sawitzki and the attackers Engelbert Kraus , Richard Kreß , Ulrich Biesinger and Michael Pfeiffer and reached a 2-2 draw. With the two-time goalscorer Willi Koslowski it was enough for the juniors to draw in Braunschweig, the game ended 3: 3. With the three attacking leaders Koslowski, Uwe Seeler and Hans Cieslarczyk , the U 23 won on February 26, 1958 in Wuppertal with 4-1 goals against Belgium. The second international game of the B-Elf, however, on May 1, 1958 in Luxembourg against the selection of the Grand Duchy, brought national coach Herberger with a 1: 4 defeat an embarrassing setback. This despite the DFB internationals Sawitzki, Zastrau, Karl Mai , Rudi Hoffmann , Kreß, Pfeiffer, Biesinger and Willi Schröder . In the 18-man squad for the World Cup tournament in Sweden, the players Hans Cieslarczyk, Aki Schmidt, Uwe Seeler and Hans Sturm had stakes in the junior national team, with the four players on call, this also applied to Rudolf Hoffmann and Hermann Nuber .

In the game year of the 1962 World Cup in Chile, three U-23 international matches were played. In the 1-0 success against Denmark in Odense on September 20, 1961 , three later senior national players made their debut in the DFB youth team: Josef Piontek , Jürgen Kurbjuhn and Lothar Ulsaß . In the spring of 1961, the talents Günter Bernard , Helmut Haller , Jürgen Schütz and Jürgen Sundermann had already achieved this. The international blitz career of the World Cup goalkeeper of the tournament days in Chile, the Ulm second division player Wolfgang Fahrian , started with the 5-0 success against Poland on October 8, 1961 in Gelsenkirchen . But teammates Stefan Reisch , Karl-Heinz Thielen and Werner Krämer also later became senior national players. From the formation of the third international match, on May 6, 1962 in Aachen against France, Horst Trimhold was appointed to the A-Elf on September 30, 1962 and Bernd Patzke for the first time on March 13, 1965. Of the debutants in the junior national team in 1961 and 1962, the 1962 World Cup squad in Chile included the three players Wolfgang Fahrian, Helmut Haller and Jürgen Kurbjuhn.

The 1962/63 season was dominated by the introduction of a new central performance class in the DFB, the Bundesliga from the 1963/64 season. In the last year of the old first-class league system with the squadrons of the football league south , southwest , west , north and the city ​​league Berlin , a junior international match against France was played in Lyon on October 24, 1962. The goalscorer from TSV München 1860 made his debut with Rudolf Brunnenmeier , Thielen and Trimhold completed their second international junior game. The other players Horst Kirsch , Werner Walter , Friedel Rausch , Matthias Hemmersbach , Hans Eisele , Theo Hoffmann , Werner Ipta , Manfred Greif and Rolf Kahn could not make their way into the senior national team in the next few rounds.

From June 25, 1955 to October 24, 1962, the DFB had played 16 international matches with its U 23 junior team. The B national team even paused completely from 1960 to 1964. During the screening, national coach Herberger relied more on his training courses, games with various DFB national teams against club teams, the representative games of the regional selections and also kept a core of top performers in the national team for years firmly. The junior selection as well as the B-Elf ran in the "second row".

Under the banner of the Bundesliga, 1963 to 1973

The first international match of the U 23 juniors under the sign of the Bundesliga took place on September 25, 1963 in the Karlsruhe Wildpark Stadium against Bulgaria. In the new single-track performance class with 16 clubs, five match days were completed and 1. FC Köln and FC Schalke 04 were each leading with 9: 1 points, ahead of 1. FC Nürnberg with 8: 2 and Hamburger SV with 7: 3 points , the table. In addition to the players from the Bundesliga - Manfred Manglitz , Josef Piontek , Hans-Jürgen Becher , Rudi Entenmann , Hans-Dieter Diehl , Peter Kaack , Wilhelm Sturm , Alfred Heiß , Hans Rebele , Rudolf Brunnenmeier , Diethelm Ferner - there were also those from the DFB two regional league players Gerhard Elfert from SV Arminia Hannover and Werner Görts from Bayer 04 Leverkusen have been nominated. Since the senior national team played their 289th international match against Turkey in Frankfurt on September 28th, national coach Herberger made their debut with national coach Herberger with Werner Krämer , Reinhard Libuda and Wolfgang Overath, three of the outstanding talents directly in the senior team. In the three remaining games in 1963/64 against England (November 27, 1963; 1: 4), Turkey (March 4, 1964; 1: 2) and on April 29, 1964 in Karlsbad against Czechoslovakia (1: 0) The talents Horst-Dieter Höttges , Klaus Gerwien , Hartmut Heidemann and Günter Netzer were able to attract attention in particular . In the 1964/65 season, the DFB only played one U-23 international match. On May 25, 1965, England was defeated 1-0 in Freiburg. The players Volker Danner , Holger Dieckmann , Theodor Redder , Ludwig Müller , Hans Reich , Dieter Kurrat , Horst Gecks , Hans Schulz , Sigfried Held , Hannes Löhr and Horst Wild were able to score the two clear 1: 4 defeats against the English professionals from 15 March 1961 and November 27, 1963 to make up for it. In the world championship year 1965/66, national coach Helmut Schön concentrated entirely on the senior national team and the DFB did not hold a junior international match.

From the 1966/67 season, junior international games were again on the DFB's schedule. In the three matches against Turkey (3: 0), Romania (1: 1) and Czechoslovakia (3: 1), Norbert Nigbur , Berti Vogts , Klaus Fichtel , Michael Bella , Willi Neuberger , Heinz Flohe , Horst Köppel , Bernd Dörfel , Rudolf Nafziger , Herbert Wimmer , Jupp Heynckes and Gerd Müller a dozen outstanding talents in the U-23 selection. This existing reservoir and the qualifying matches of the senior national team, once in 1967 for the European championship in 1968 and the second in 1968/69 for the 1970 world championship in Mexico, prompted the DFB to reduce the junior appointments again. In 1967/68 there were two international matches for the U-23 team against Romania and England, but in 1968/69 and 1969/70 only one international game was played with this junior national team. The focus was only on the U-23s again in the 1970/71 season: The DFB took part in the competition for the 1972 European Championship with the junior team and therefore had to play qualifying games against Albania, Poland and Turkey.

Due to the two DFB teams of the amateur national team and the U-23 team in the form of DFB coach Jupp Derwall , which were looked after in personal union from the spring of 1970 , on October 18, 1970, the special feature was that the 2-0 away win in Ankara against Turkey in the European Championship qualification group 8 of the junior competition is listed in the statistics of the DFB as a game of the amateur national team, and is not listed in the sequence of the junior international games of the U23. On October 14th the U-23 lost another game in Leicester with 1: 3 goals against England and four days later the complete amateur national team - Bradler, Semlitsch (Slodczyk), Hollmann, Haebermann, Egon Schmitt, Hoeneß, Beichle, Edgar Schneider - joined (Hammes), Nickel, Kalb, Stegmayer - in Ankara and won 2-0 after goals from Friedhelm Haebermann and Georg Beichle . In February (16th), April (24th) and June (11th) 1971 three more European Championship qualifiers were played. The juniors won all three games against Albania (2-0), Turkey (3-0) and also the second leg in Heilbronn in front of 9,000 spectators against the "Skipetaren" after goals from Uli Hoeneß and Arno Steffenhagen 2-0, but in Kicker clearly addressed deficits. Editor-in-chief and ex-national player Hans Fiederer formulated his criticism and demand after the Heilbronn game in the following words:

“ We must therefore demand again: DFB, don't treat juniors like stepchildren! From this circle, the forces should grow back that make the leap into the A-Elf. Of 13 candidates, none of them suggested themselves. One has to convene the circle of young talents more often for courses. The criminally neglected offspring must be burdened again and again. More international matches for the twenty-year-olds! "

Kicker editor Heinz Wiskow complained on page 46 about the preparation of the junior selection by the DFB and asked the question, "Does one of the largest football associations in the world not have enough money to be able to afford as many coaches as it needs?" The background was the double supervision of the amateur national team and the U-23 team by DFB coach Jupp Derwall. Derwall was responsible for the international match of the DFB amateurs against France in Vettel on April 21, competed in Heilbronn with the U-23 team against Turkey on April 24 and immediately flew to Tunis, as there the second international match of the amateur national team against Tunis took place. Sufficient time for targeted game preparation in playful and tactical terms or even for the almost constantly changing staff to play was not possible under these circumstances.

The final two group matches were played against Poland on October 9th in Lodz and on November 16, 1971 in Bremen. The German offspring prevailed just 1: 1 in the first leg and through the late goal from center forward Werner Weist in the 84th minute in the second leg with 1: 0, but did not convince. With a brilliant record of 11: 1 goals and 11: 1 points, the U-23 made it to the EM quarter-finals. Opponents in April and May 1972 were the Soviet Union, which had previously eliminated Spain (2: 1/1: 1). Again it did not work with adequate preparation in terms of time and content. As a "stopgap" on April 25, before the difficult first leg in Yerevan, two training games in one day had to be served: in the morning the juniors lost 1: 2 goals in the Frankfurt Waldstadion after two 30 minutes against the A-Elf, who were facing their European Championship -Quarter-final game against England in London and in the afternoon a test match against FSV Frankfurt (2 :) was played on Bornheimer Hang. In front of 25,000 spectators in Yerevan, coach Derwall tried to close the space for a successful offensive game with a four-man midfield of the team around star striker Oleh Blochin . But this only succeeded in the first half. After the goalless draw on May 11, 1972 in Duisburg in front of 24,000 spectators, the European Championship for the DFB Juniors was over. The DFB up-and-coming team without Breitner, Flohe and Hoeneß could not overcome the well-organized defense of the Soviet team with midfield Reiner Hollmann , Hermann Bitz and Horst Köppel . The Soviet Union prevailed against Bulgaria in the semifinals and only failed in the final second leg on June 30 in Ostrava due to the offspring from Czechoslovakia.

The last of 42 international matches of the U-23 national team took place on November 21, 1973 in Warsaw and ended in a 0-0 draw against Poland. It was the second leg in the European Championship qualification, where the first leg on September 5th in Essen was lost with 2: 3 goals - after a 2-0 lead - and the DFB-Elf therefore after the draw in the Legia Stadium in front of 12,000 Spectators in Warsaw failed to qualify. For Germany, the team under captain Heinz Flohe, which was supervised by DFB coach Jupp Derwall , played without Harald Konopka , Hermann Bitz , Dieter Herzog , Hans Walitza and Ronald Worm :

Norbert Nigbur - Rainer Bonhof , Gerd Zimmermann , Bernhard Cullmann , Herbert Hein - Dietmar Danner , Heinz Flohe , Uli Hoeneß , Christian Kulik - Reiner Geye ( Gerd Schildt ), Willi Reimann

The referee of the match was Mladenovic from Yugoslavia. The kicker summed up five days later:

“ The conclusion of a missed qualification for the DFB: The - already partially integrated - youngsters convinced against half of Poland's senior national team in Warsaw; The carelessness in Essen, however, destroyed a chance to get more serious exam opportunities for one or the other (Zimmermann, Nigbur, Danner) before the World Cup, if not directly in the A-team. "

The DFB no longer took part in the competition for the 1976 European Championship . Since 1974 he has not played any more international junior matches under the U23 and replaced the team with the new U-21 , which, however, only started playing in 1979.

statistics

  • Of the 42 international matches (against 15 national teams, most often (6 times) against England and Poland) 19 were won, 12 ended in a draw and 11 were lost; the goal difference is 77:51.
  • 261 players were used (most often Horst Köppel - nine times)
  • 050 players scored one or more goals (Willi Reimann scored the most - five times)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kicker Almanach 1989. Copress, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7679-0245-1 , pp. 55/56.
  2. ^ Matthias Weinrich: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 3: 35 years of the Bundesliga. Part 1. The founding years 1963–1975. Stories, pictures, constellations, tables. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-89784-132-0 , p. 24.
  3. ↑ Kicker Almanach 1989. P. 122 (80th international match of the DFB amateurs); German Football Association (Ed.): Football Yearbook 1981/82. Limpert publishing house. Bad Homburg 1982. ISBN 3 7853 1383 7 , p. 147.
  4. ↑ Kicker , No. 34, April 26, 1971, pp. 32/33.
  5. ↑ Foosball sports magazine. No. 96. November 26, 1973. p. 59.