National football team of the GDR (U-18 juniors)

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GDR
Logo of the DFV
Association German Football Association
confederacy UEFA
FIFA code GDR
statistics
First international game
GDR 3-1 France ( Neukirchen-Vluyn , Germany ; April 11, 1954) Germany Democratic Republic 1949German Democratic RepublicFranceFrance 
(As of communications came into effect on 20th November 1990 the DFB in. )

The GDR U-18 national soccer team was a selection team of soccer players from the GDR . As the older junior team, it belonged to the German Football Association and represented it internationally at the U-18 level . In addition to friendly matches against the national teams of other national associations when selecting joined UEFA youth tournament and later the U-18 European Championships and in 1967 at the annual football tournament of youth competitions of friendship to. The team was able to play both the UEFA youth tournament (1965 and 1970) and - in this special case asU-19 competing - win the Junior European Championship (1986).

Company name

Until the mid- 1980s, the name "junior national team" was common for the team. In the course of a gradual expansion of the structures, which went hand in hand with the establishment of further selection teams, a distinction was also made increasingly between a U-18 and a U-17 representation among the juniors, the latter also being nicknamed `` younger junior selection '' . The U-16s , which had been in operation for a long time, and the U-15s who were added later , were not listed under the juniors category, but were listed in the DFV association organ fuwo - the new football week, as a rule, as older and younger youth selection before the fall of the Berlin Wall .

premiere

After the GDR became a full member of FIFA on July 24, 1952, the junior national team made its international debut at the FIFA international youth tournament in the Federal Republic of Germany. The first success was achieved against the counterpart from France in front of 8,000 spectators in the Klingerhuf arena:

11 April 1954 UEFA youth tournament preliminary round GDR - France 3-1 in Neukirchen-Vluyn .
GDR: Heinz Marciniak - Peter Kalinke , Karl-Heinz Brandt , Seeland - Manfred Hansen , Hilmar Ahnert - Friedrich Schwerdtfeger, Hans-Joachim Otto , Günther Niewand, Horst coal , Heinz Gebhardt . Goals: Niewand (3).

Until April 1954, the youth tournament was organized by the world football association FIFA , from 1955 UEFA , founded in June 1954, took over the direction. At their premiere in West Germany, the GDR juniors also met Argentina (0: 2). After completing their five games (two wins, one draw and two defeats), the East German team, which was supervised by Gerhard Bönig and Fritz Belger , finished 7th out of 18 nations.

UEFA youth tournament

Between 1954, the debut of a youth team in this competition, and 1980, when the country hosted the tournament, the GDR took part in 18 UEFA youth tournaments.

According to the GDR media, participation in 1955 and 1961 as well as in 1963 was refused due to a NATO decision. This happened for the fourth and last time in 1964, when the Allied Travel Office of NATO again did not issue travel visas to East German footballers, this time for the issue in the Netherlands.

In the tournament qualifications, the junior selection failed in 1972 and from 1976 to 1979 four times in a row. The UEFA youth tournament won the GDR selection in 1965 and 1970 with the following line-ups:

25 April 1965 UEFA youth tournament final GDR - England 3-2 in Essen .
GDR: Jürgen Croy - Frank-Rainer Withulz , Peter Sykora , Volker Benes - Peter Müller , Roland Krauss - Rainer Schlutter , Hans-Jürgen Kreische , Jürgen Sparwasser , Klaus-Peter Stein , Roland Nowotny . Goals: Sparwasser, Nowotny, Screeching.
25 May 1970 UEFA youth tournament final GDR - Netherlands 1-1 after extra time in Glasgow (drawing of lots for GDR).
GDR: Bernd Jakubowski - Albert Krebs - Detlef Enge , Konrad Weise , Wolfgang Filohn - Gerd Kische , Jürgen Pommerenke , Frank Richter , Joachim Fritsche , Reinhard Häfner - Klaus Decker ( Rainer Rohde ), Joachim Müller . Gate: Decker.

Participation in UEFA youth tournaments

EnglandEngland 1948 no participation
NetherlandsNetherlands 1949
AustriaAustria 1950
FranceFrance 1951
SpainSpain 1952
BelgiumBelgium 1953
Germany BRBR Germany 1954 7th place
ItalyItaly 1955 Refusal of entry
HungaryHungary 1956 Preliminary round
SpainSpain 1957 Preliminary round
LuxembourgLuxembourg 1958 Preliminary round
BulgariaBulgaria 1959 4th Place
AustriaAustria 1960 Preliminary round
PortugalPortugal 1961 Refusal of entry
RomaniaRomania 1962 Preliminary round
EnglandEngland 1963 Refusal of entry
NetherlandsNetherlands 1964
Germany BRBR Germany 1965 winner
Yugoslavia Socialist Federal RepublicYugoslavia 1966 Preliminary round
TurkeyTurkey 1967 Preliminary round
FranceFrance 1968 Preliminary round
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 1969 Second
ScotlandScotland 1970 winner
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia 1971 Third
SpainSpain 1972 not qualified
ItalyItaly 1973 Second
SwedenSweden 1974 Preliminary round
SwitzerlandSwitzerland 1975 Preliminary round
HungaryHungary 1976 not qualified
BelgiumBelgium 1977
PolandPoland 1978
AustriaAustria 1979
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 1980 Preliminary round

U-18 European Championships

Between 1984 and 1988, the GDR took part in three finals of the European Junior Championship. In the first three editions of this new competition, the East German footballers missed the entry into the final tournament. At the finals premiere in the Soviet Union, despite players like Andreas Thom , Ulf Kirsten , Thomas Doll , Matthias Lindner , Heiko Bonan and Olaf Marschall, it was already in the preliminary round. The final round could not be reached in the last competition participation, but before that the selection had won medals twice.

In 1986 the selection of the European Championship title , which was briefly known as U-19 , was achieved with the following list in the final:

15 October 1986 UEFA European Youth Championship final GDR - Italy 3-1 in Subotica .
GDR: Holger Hiemann - Karsten Neitzel - André Barylla , Thomas Ritter - Dirk Schuster , Jörg Prasse (89th Hendrik Herzog ), Rico Steinmann , Marco Köller , Stefan Minkwitz - Axel Kruse (68th Uwe Jähnig ), Matthias Sammer . Goals: Kruse, Sammer, Köller.

Participation in U-18 European Championships

Germany BRBR Germany 1981 not qualified
FinlandFinland 1982 no participation
EnglandEngland 1983 not qualified
Soviet UnionSoviet Union 1984 Preliminary round
Yugoslavia Socialist Federal RepublicYugoslavia 1986 Winner (as U-19 )
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia 1988 Third
HungaryHungary 1990 not qualified

For the U18 European Championship in 1992 , the GDR was drawn into qualification group 3 with France, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal in December 1989. In the course of German reunification and the integration of DFV / NOFV into the DFB , the team was withdrawn from the competition.

Youth competitions of friendship

Up until 1989, the GDR junior selection took part 21 times in the football tournaments of the friendship youth competitions , which were held by the Eastern Bloc countries from 1967. Only in 1974 and 1982 and probably also in the final event in 1990 did the DFV refrain from participating. The country hosted three editions (1971, 1978 and 1989). As a rule, the coaches used the competition held in the summer at the start of a new season to prepare the older junior selection for the UEFA youth tournament and later for the U-18 European Championship as well as the necessary qualifying games in addition to the battle for the title .

Under coach Frank Engel, the GDR won the competition in 1983 with the later national players Andreas Thom , Matthias Lindner , Sven Koehler , Ulf Kirsten , Heiko Bonan and Olaf Marschall in Cuba.

September 17, 1983 youth competitions of friendship, final: GDR - KDVR 1: 1 a.m. Elfm: 5: 4 in Havana .
GDR: Detlef Hartmann - Frank Mappes - Udo Gobel , Torsten Wude , Udo Fankhänel - Matthias Lindner , Sven Köhler , Heiko Bonan - Ulf Kirsten (60th Lutz Wienhold ), Andreas Thom (95th Sven Förster ), Olaf Marschall . Goal: Lindner.

The selection took second place four times. For the last time, the GDR juniors won the silver medal in North Korea in 1986 - after two wins against KDVR I and Bulgaria, three draws against Hungary, KDVR II and the CSSR and one defeat against Poland.

July 28th, 1986 youth competitions of friendship, game 6: GDR - CSSR 0: 0 in Pyongyang .
GDR: Ingo Saager - Matthias Maucksch - André Adler, Hendrik Herzog , Jens-Uwe Zöphel - Marco Köller , Ralf Hauptmann , Heiko Wick - Michael Schwarz (41st Heiko Nowak ), Sven Baum (51st Andreas Machowski / 71st René Tretschok ) , Rocco Milde .

In the presumably final participation in 1989, held in the early summer in the local district of Gera , the East Germans competed with two teams: While the selection GDR II around Heiko Gerber came ninth (and penultimate), the representation GDR I with Angelo Vier , the in the third place match after being substituted on twice, and Sven Ratke won the bronze medal.

Participation in youth competitions of friendship

BulgariaBulgaria 1967 10th place
HungaryHungary 1968 Third
Korea NorthNorth Korea 1969 10th place
PolandPoland 1970 6th place
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 1971 Second (DDR II: 6th place)
RomaniaRomania 1972 5th place
Soviet UnionSoviet Union 1973 7th place
CubaCuba 1974 no participation
Korea NorthNorth Korea 1975 5th place
BulgariaBulgaria 1976 8th place
HungaryHungary 1977 4th Place
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 1978 Second
PolandPoland 1979 4th Place
Korea NorthNorth Korea 1980 Second
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia 1981 7th place
Korea NorthNorth Korea 1982 no participation
CubaCuba 1983 winner
HungaryHungary 1984 7th place
BulgariaBulgaria 1985 Third
Korea NorthNorth Korea 1986 Second
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia 1987 6th place
PolandPoland 1988 9th place
Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR 1989 Third (GDR II: 9th place)
RomaniaRomania 1990 still to research

Conclusion

Including some games from the U-17 team , especially in the mid and late 1980s, the GDR juniors played more than 500 international matches by 1990. The exact number of international matches has not yet been precisely determined by the daily print media or in later book publications, as not all games have been reported in detail , i.e. with lineups, goalscorers or even minutes for hits or substitutions. This applies in particular to the games in the youth competitions of friendship, which took place overseas (Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam), and to many games of the younger junior selection.

Compared to the successes of the A-selection, which were often viewed as sparse, and were only represented once at a world championship and could not qualify for any of the European championships, the GDR juniors were among the top Europeans in some years. The solid and targeted training, especially in the football clubs and at the same time belonging to the children's and youth sports schools, ensured a high international level. After reunification, Bundesliga clubs and DFB representations also benefited from the footballers trained in the eastern part of the country.

Junior national player

Between 1954 and 1990 about 1,100 players were used in the junior selection. Most of them later played in the GDR Oberliga and some made their way into the youth representatives, the Olympic team or even the senior national team. Gerd Weber from Dynamo Dresden is the record national player of the GDR Juniors with 51 appearances. Detlef Helms leads the list of goalscorers of the junior national team with 21 goals.

Record player of the junior national team
player Club Calls Years
Gerd Weber SG Dynamo Dresden 51 1971-1974
Jürgen Pommerenke 1. FC Magdeburg 44 1969-1971
Andreas Rath BFC Dynamo 43 1979-1981
Dieter Kühn 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 40 1969-1974
Detlef Helms 1. FC Union / BFC Dynamo 39 1976-1979
Eckhard Kreutzer FC Forward Frankfurt 38 1972-1974
Matthias Liebers 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 36 1975-1977
Detlef Enge 1. FC Magdeburg 35 1967-1970
Thomas Dennstedt 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 35 1975-1977

Junior selection coach

The longest-serving coach of the GDR junior national team is Rudolf Krause . Before he took over the junior team in 1968, he was a goal-scoring league player with Chemie and Lok Leipzig and was twice in the senior national team. He coached the juniors for nine years and led the selection to victory in the UEFA youth tournament in 1970. From 1982 to 1983 Krause was the coach of the senior national team. At the end of the 1970s, Werner Basel also looked after the U-18s in the GDR. Also for several years (1980-1983) was the long-time second division player from Unity Greifswald and Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt, Günter Rosenthal , selection coach of the East German juniors. He was followed by Frank Engel , who looked after the junior team until 1988. He began his coaching career with the GDR youngsters, was briefly responsible for the senior national team with Manfred Zapf and Heinz Werner in 1989 and later worked for various clubs in the 2nd Bundesliga. Most recently, he was DFB national coach in the youth field.

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