Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
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The First International Match Ends With A Smack...!
On April 5, 1908, a German national soccer team played an international match for the first time...:
And we read in the sources that the "good old days" were not always just "good"!
Some of the players who were nominated first found out about this from the newspaper before they received the official invitation from the DFB a few days before the game...:
Most of the players only got to know each other on the train journey to Basel or directly before the game and had never even trained together in this composition. Only on the morning of the game did they meet in Basel for the team meeting, after all the players had traveled individually and at their own expense - the "German Football Association" (DFB) only provided 20 marks for expenses.
The Basel venue had only been decided two weeks earlier.
A Swiss chocolate factory financed a hasty erected extra grandstand for 700 spectators, on which the advertising slogan "Chocolade LUCERNA eats the whole world!" was emblazoned in large letters.
A total of only 3,500 spectators strayed into the stadium - the new sport of soccer was by no means popular at the time!
To make matters worse, players and spectators had to put up with a heavy hailstorm at the start of the game, followed by heavy continuous rain, which softened the ground and made it slippery.
Here are a few pictures of the match...:
The game ended with a big bang, because the selection of the German Empire lost against the national team of Switzerland - which incidentally also played their first international match - with 5:3!
The goal sequence:
0: 1 Fritz Becker (6th)
1: 1 Hans Fighter (21st)
2: 1 Ernst Jordan (28th, own goal)
3:1 dr Siegfried Pfeiffer (32nd)
3: 2 Fritz Förderer (52nd)
4:2 dr Siegfried Pfeiffer (57.) (No spelling mistake - a football player with a PhD!)
4: 3 Fritz Becker (69th)
5: 3 Hans Fighter (89th)
After the game, the dumbass, sorry, "experts" (yes, there was something like that before!) agreed:
“The Germans lost to their back team. Jordan was the weakest point.”
The painter and varnisher Ernst Jordan...
...who acted unselfishly at the last minute as defender instead his injured colleague Heinrich Riso (known as "The Rascal")...
... stepped in was unanimously made the scapegoat.
In 2008, to mark the 100th anniversary of the game, Post and the DFB issued a commemorative stamp showing the announcement poster from back then...:
Incidentally, the German national team has not played against any other country as often as against Switzerland - and vice versa to this day!
And this very first international match stayed - at least until today! - the first and only defeat against the Confederates...
On April 5, 1908, a German national soccer team played an international match for the first time...:
And we read in the sources that the "good old days" were not always just "good"!
Some of the players who were nominated first found out about this from the newspaper before they received the official invitation from the DFB a few days before the game...:
Most of the players only got to know each other on the train journey to Basel or directly before the game and had never even trained together in this composition. Only on the morning of the game did they meet in Basel for the team meeting, after all the players had traveled individually and at their own expense - the "German Football Association" (DFB) only provided 20 marks for expenses.
The Basel venue had only been decided two weeks earlier.
A Swiss chocolate factory financed a hasty erected extra grandstand for 700 spectators, on which the advertising slogan "Chocolade LUCERNA eats the whole world!" was emblazoned in large letters.
A total of only 3,500 spectators strayed into the stadium - the new sport of soccer was by no means popular at the time!
To make matters worse, players and spectators had to put up with a heavy hailstorm at the start of the game, followed by heavy continuous rain, which softened the ground and made it slippery.
Here are a few pictures of the match...:
The game ended with a big bang, because the selection of the German Empire lost against the national team of Switzerland - which incidentally also played their first international match - with 5:3!
The goal sequence:
0: 1 Fritz Becker (6th)
1: 1 Hans Fighter (21st)
2: 1 Ernst Jordan (28th, own goal)
3:1 dr Siegfried Pfeiffer (32nd)
3: 2 Fritz Förderer (52nd)
4:2 dr Siegfried Pfeiffer (57.) (No spelling mistake - a football player with a PhD!)
4: 3 Fritz Becker (69th)
5: 3 Hans Fighter (89th)
After the game, the dumbass, sorry, "experts" (yes, there was something like that before!) agreed:
“The Germans lost to their back team. Jordan was the weakest point.”
The painter and varnisher Ernst Jordan...
...who acted unselfishly at the last minute as defender instead his injured colleague Heinrich Riso (known as "The Rascal")...
... stepped in was unanimously made the scapegoat.
In 2008, to mark the 100th anniversary of the game, Post and the DFB issued a commemorative stamp showing the announcement poster from back then...:
Incidentally, the German national team has not played against any other country as often as against Switzerland - and vice versa to this day!
And this very first international match stayed - at least until today! - the first and only defeat against the Confederates...
