First opponent

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From the German point of view, the first opponent in the history of football is a term for a special sport-historical relationship between German and Swiss football .

Origins

After the establishment of the German Football Association , Germany's first official international match took place in Basel on April 5, 1908 . Opponent was Switzerland , who won the game 5: 3. Switzerland had already played its first international match in 1905.

After the First World War

In 1917, during the First World War , neutral Switzerland offered Germany a friendly game, which, however, refused. The game then took place in Zurich in June 1920. At this point in time, Germany, which had lost the war and, in the opinion of the victorious powers, was solely to blame , was an isolated state on the international stage that was mostly shunned by other states. The friendly against Switzerland - which, despite vehement criticism, was held mainly from England and Belgium - enabled Germany to return to the stage of international sport years before this could also be achieved at the diplomatic level (e.g. by joining the League of Nations ).

After the Second World War

Even after the Second World War , Germany was outlawed in sports politics worldwide. Again it was Switzerland that offered to break this isolation; the first post-war international match took place in Stuttgart on November 22, 1950, after Switzerland had obtained the lifting of the game ban imposed on Germany. Furthermore, it was Switzerland that was most committed to the re-entry of the DFB into the world football association FIFA . After reunification in 1990, Switzerland was the third international opponent, but the first opponent in which former GDR players ( Matthias Sammer and Andreas Thom ) played.

Women's national team

After the founding of the German national soccer team for women , following tradition, it also played its first international match against Switzerland. Germany won the match on November 10, 1982 5-1.

Situation today

To this day, Switzerland is the country against which the men's national team of the DFB has played the highest number of international matches: So far, 51 official matches have taken place between the two teams (the last one on May 26, 2012), of which Germany won 36 , Switzerland whose nine, while six games ended in a draw. In games between the two neighbors, the German media in particular regularly reminds of the tradition of the “first opponent”.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Torsten Haselbauer: Switzerland against Germany in Basel. In: Friday. of the Freitag Mediengesellschaft, March 20, 2008, accessed on December 18, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Hardy Greens: Anniversary: ​​First international post-war game in 1950. In: FußballGlobus. November 22, 2010, accessed December 18, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Udo Muras: How FIFA pardoned Germany after the war. In: The world. Axel Springer AG, September 22, 2010, accessed on December 18, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Match balance -. In: dfb.de. Gesellschaft für DFB-Online mbH, accessed on August 17, 2015 .
  5. ↑ sid: DFB-Elf against Switzerland in duty. (No longer available online.) In: N24.de. N24 Gesellschaft für Nachrichten und Zeitgeschehen mbH, March 25, 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 18, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.n24.de