999 international matches, so many moments, countless facts: Before the German national team’s game number 1000 against Ukraine, it’s worth taking a look at the greatest victories, bitter defeats and top scorers. And who was actually the most successful DFB coach and the youngest goalscorer ever?
It all started with a beer. Back in 1908 in Basel, four world championship titles, three victories at European championships and global fame were probably not yet talked about. Even the “disgrace of Cordoba”, terrible “ZSMMN” hashtags and the two consecutive preliminary round knockouts at the world championships in 2018 and 2022 didn’t see the kickers coming at the beginning of the 20th century. Doesn’t matter. On April 5, 115 years ago, after breakfast and a visit to the zoo, the German national team sat together for the first time over a freshly tapped beer and swore to the DFB’s international premiere. 998 should follow, tonight is the big anniversary in the game against Ukraine (6 p.m. / ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de).
The first game against Switzerland was lost 3:5, probably because there was no coach on the sidelines and the footballers weren’t even able to warm up together (there was a fee of 20 marks for that). Nevertheless, the game marked the beginning of an extremely successful history – with formative players, great moments and bitter defeats.
So now the 1000th game. Sportingly unimportant, it will be one of the most political in the history of the association. Bernd Neuendorf mainly recognized one signal in the game on Friday. “It has a very special meaning. We play more with Ukraine than against Ukraine,” said the DFB President before the sporting peace summit in Bremen. Because of Russia’s war of aggression, the game is “an important sign of solidarity and the support of the population in this country”. Among others, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected in the stadium.
Before the “1000”, Neuendorf raved about the “incredible history” of the national team, because so far only England, Brazil, South Korea and Argentina have broken “this sound barrier”. Unforgotten in this history are highlights such as “The Miracle of Bern” in 1954, the 223rd DFB international match, and the next two World Cup titles with captain Franz Beckenbauer (1974) and team manager Franz Beckenbauer (1990). The success of Joachims Löw’s men in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 as the first European team on the American doubles continent was also monumental.
Added to this were the European Championship titles in Belgium in 1972 with top scorer Gerd Müller, in Italy in 1980 thanks to a Horst Hrubesch brace in the final and in England in 1996 with a golden goal in the final and the cup handover by Queen Elizabeth II and always failed before the final in the last four major tournaments – there had never been a similar negative series for the DFB men before. If the DFB team had not failed again in the preliminary round at the World Cup in Qatar and at least made it to the semifinals, the “1000” would have been reached in 2022.
Derwall most successful DFB coach
Overall, the DFB-Elf has won 578 games in the previous 999 games, drawn 207 times and had to leave the field as losers after 214 games. The national team had to go into extra time 18 times and even went to penalties eight times – where the team had the upper hand six times. There were defeats in the very first DFB penalty shoot-out in the 1976 European Championship final against Czechoslovakia, when Uli Hoeneß threw the ball into the sky over Belgrade and Antonin Panenka legendaryly lobbed the decision against Sepp Maier.
The most common result after a maximum of 120 minutes was a 1-1 draw (91 times), the most common match day being October 11 (16 times). While Hansi Flick celebrated eight wins in his first eight games, that was not enough for the longest winning streak: It began on May 2, 1979 and lasted twelve games until June 14, 1980, before ending 0-0 against three days later Greece ended. It went through seven bankruptcies in a row from 1912 to 1915.
Right from the start there had been four defeats in a row, including a 0-9 loss to England in March 1909 – before the first on April 4, 1909 in two international matches played on the same day with different teams with a 3-3 win against Hungary in Budapest A draw and a 1-0 win over Switzerland in Karlsruhe – still without a coach.
In addition to the historic slap against England, the highest victory to date, a 16-0 win against Russia in July 1912, also took place without a coach. Overall, the DFB team was on their own for the first 58 games. Of course, the bosses on the sidelines then joined in. In the beginning one was more legendary than the other, a little later some were no longer quite as successful. There were eleven in all and there was no woman among them. They were all Germans and, with the exception of four (Otto Nerz, Erich Ribbeck, Joachim Löw and Flick), were also former internationals. Interestingly, not a single men’s coach has been fired in the 115-year history of the DFB. Of the DFB coaches, this fate has only happened to Steffi Jones for women.
The most successful coach was Jupp Derwall, who won almost 66 percent of games between 1978 and 1984. Berti Vogts (64.71) and Helmut Schön (62.59) follow. The statistically worst national coach was Erich Ribbeck, who from 1998 to 2000 was only able to decide just under 42 percent of the games for himself and his team and was the only one responsible for more defeats and draws than victories. Ribbeck also ended the series that every national coach or team boss since Herberger has won at least one European or World Championship title. Since then, only Joachim Löw has managed to do that.
Speaking of the win rate: right behind Ribbeck is the legendary Beckenbauer with only around 51 percent of games won. But: One of his 34 victories was the 1990 World Cup final against Argentina, which gave Germany its third title and made Beckenbauer the “coach” world champion after his player title in 1974. Only Mario Zagallo had previously done that with Brazil and since then only Didier Deschamps with France.
England, always England
The English are also something of a nemesis of the Germans, but this is seen the other way around on the island thanks to memorable penalty shootouts. The Three Lions have won 17 times more than any other team against the DFB-Elf with 13 defeats and 76:49 goals. The goal difference of minus 27 is also a negative record for Germany, as is the 9 defeats to zero – which otherwise only happened against France. Aside from England, only seven other teams have more wins than losses against Germany, including top teams Brazil, Argentina, France and Italy. There were only five German victories against record world champions Brazil, but 13 defeats. The bitterest was the 0-2 in the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama, for which Germany got revenge in an epic way: with the 7-1 victory of the century in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The most DFB victories came against Switzerland with 36, against which Germany also played more often than against any other team with 53 duels. The second most wins were against Austria (25), the second most duels with the Netherlands.
Argentina was the opponent most often in World Cup tournaments. The seven games included three finals: 1986 (2:3), 1990 (1:0) and 2014 (1:0 aet). At the European Championships, Portugal and the Netherlands are something of a permanent German opponent with five duels each. Against Oranje, the DFB record is nominally balanced with two wins and two defeats in a draw. One of the defeats was of course the painful 1:2 semi-final knockout. at the home European Championship in 1988 – after which Holland’s captain Ronald Koeman wiped his butt with Olaf Thon’s jersey. Against Portugal there are three wins, one draw and only one defeat – which, however, at 0:3 was the highest German European Championship defeat ever, sealed the elimination of the preliminary round and led to Erich Ribbeck’s resignation.
From Klose to Müller
Of course, great victories require a lot of goals – 2,250 in total, with 1,174 goals conceded – and legendary goalscorers. And with world-class strikers, the DFB-Elf has come up trumps again and again over the past century. Miroslav Klose scored the most goals with 71, of which he scored 16 goals at world championships – a world record. However, Klose needed a total of 137 games for his 71 goals. Second in the ranking is Gerd Müller, who scored an incredible 68 goals in just 62 games. Joachim Streich is in third place with 59 goals if you include the GDR games. They are followed by Lukas Podolski (49 in 130 games) and Jürgen Klinsmann and Rudi Völler with 47 goals each.
The youngest goalscorer made his mark in the history books in his third year of international history: Marius Hiller (17 years, 241 days) has not been beaten since 1910. And while a striker can spend a lifetime chasing a hat-trick, six DFB debutants scored three goals: Otto Dumke (1911), Josef Pöttinger (1926), Fritz Walter (1940), Heinz Strehl (1962), Dieter Müller (1976 ) and Serge Gnabry (2016). Gerd Müller scored four times – but in his second game. Thomas Helmer, Arne Friedrich, Oliver Kahn and Mats Hummels scored twice from 31 own goals.
“Shame of Gijon”
In addition to bitter own goals, there were also dramatic defeats. This is about the final defeat at the 1966 World Cup against England with the Wembley goal. At the 1978 World Cup, Austria defeated the reigning world champion with the “disgrace of Cordoba”. In the middle of the summer fairy tale of 2006, the Italians burst in extra time in the semifinals. And you don’t need to write much about the last two world championship tournaments. In 1982, again against Austria, a win was added to the list of low points. The ‘Shame of Gijon’ excited the footballing world as Germany’s 1-0 ball slide saw winners and losers progress to the next round at Algeria’s expense.
In the 999 games so far, 968 players have played. Record national player is Lothar Matthäus with 150 games, whose DFB career stretched over 20 years. Matthäus made his debut on June 14, 1980 in a 3-2 win against the Netherlands, and he played his last game on June 20, 2000 in a 3-0 loss to Portugal, which also sealed the end of the German preliminary round.
Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski are in second and third place, followed by the Bayern trio Bastian Schweinsteiger (121), Thomas Müller (121) and Manuel Neuer (117), of whom the last two could still make up places. Matthäus is also the captain’s record holder – he wore the armband 75 times, which has only existed since the 1960s – and at 39 years and 91 days he is the oldest DFB kicker ever. The youngest player since 1908 is Willy Baumgärtner (17 years, 104 days).
And last but not least, that’s also part of football: Whether it’s rumble football under Ribbeck or power attacks à la Löw, the Germans sometimes got it right. A national player was thrown off the field 26 times. But the opponents were even tougher, there were 46. Thomas Berthold, Jérôme Boateng, Carsten Ramelow and Christian Wörns were sent off twice.