Some Numbers from the German National Team

Hello, all. Those to whom this addressed probably know who they are; if you read the comment sections of recent posts, you'll know for sure. Some figures to consider:

- The German national football team has won 21 of its last 24 competitive matches outright.

- Over the course of these 24 competitive matches, Germany has scored 68 goals and conceded 23 (an average of 0.9583 allowed per game).

- During this period, Germany has clean-sheeted the following opponents: Argentina, Portugal, Turkey, Kazakhstan (twice), Belgium, and Ghana.

- The 3 non-wins are as follows: a 1-0 loss to eventual champions Spain at the World Cup (a match in which Müller was out due to suspension), a 2-1 loss to Italy at the Euros, and a 4-4 draw with Sweden yesterday (a match in which Hummels, Khedira, and Gomez were all out due to injury).

I don't know where this standard of "we can never lose a game" is coming from. Jürgen Klinsmann never won any tournaments. Rudi Völler never won any tournaments. Beckenbauer did win a tournament - the 1990 World Cup. But in the qualification campaign, he won only 3 of the 6 matches played (being held by Netherlands twice and Wales once). If you want to bring Klinsy back, I encourage you to watch a few minutes of USA vs. Jamaica. That will disabuse you of that notion in a hurry. The team currently sits in first place in its qualifying group, with 10 points from 4 matches and a +9 goal differential. It's hard to see how we could be in better position than that.

Actually ... no, I guess it's easy to see how. We could have 12 points from 4 matches, if we'd won every match. So, that's the standard that has been set. We MUST win every match, or it's time to panic and fire the coach. Is that what we should understand here?

Anyway, I have no problem with people leveling criticisms - whether at Löw or anyone else. I don't censor comments unless they're profane, threatening, or attempts to return after being banned. But sometime in the future, you guys might be wishing I that I did delete more comments. Because when Germany wins the World Cup, I'm going to have all this bookmarked for quick reference. And if you try to come back here and try to be like "the greatest team ever!" ... "that Löw is a genius!" ... "Ah, Philipp Lahm, what a great captain!" and any other such bandwagon-jumping talk, your words from the last 18 hours are going to be staring you in the face.

Fortuna preview coming tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for reading.