5 Things we learned during the International Break
By: Jan | March 28th, 2008
1. Hamburg are missing out.
Just look at that photo. Though, Croatia didn’t really impress in their friendly against Scotland (1-1) and neither Dortmund’s Mladen Petric nor Bremen’s Ivan Klasnic could put their names on the score sheet. I’m still a bit sad, that Bilic won’t be coaching a Bundesliga side next season. Though, news just came in from the Netherlands. Louis van Gaal won’t stay at Alkmaar and will look for a new club in the summer…
2. Germans are party poopers.
Germany beat Austria 3-0 back in February with a poor performance. Germany now beat Switzerland 4-0 with an improved performance. Both games damped the euphoria in both host countries ahead of the big tournament. What’s the use of that? And what value did those games have for Jogi Löw? Other tournament favourites like Spain, Italy or France opted to play, on paper, big names, who - maybe except for England - would have punished obvious weaknesses in Germany’s defence. The one area, where I’m currently not too enthused going into the final Euro preparations. Everything else gave more than enough reason to be optimistic. Especially Germany’s strike force should be among the best Euro 2008 will offer.
3. Shao Jiayi lost a stare down contest.
Shao managed an impressive draw against Lukas Podolski recently, but he bottled it where it really matters: penalty kicks. China were awarded a late penalty in their match against Australia. The golden opportunity to take the lead and possibly clinch all three points. Yet, Australia’s goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer prevailed and kept his country on top of the Asian WC qualifying group of death.
4. How the Portuguese spell Stuttgart.
It’s Estugarda. VfB Estugarda. Something I noticed when checking out Portugal’s squad list for their friendly against Greece. A quick research session in the Portuguese version of Wikipedia revealed that Hertha BSC Berlin are called Hertha BSC Berlim, Bayern Munich are called Bayern Munique, Hamburg are called Hamburgo and Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth are called Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth. Fascinating stuff.
5. Estugarda’s players did pretty well.
Except for their Portuguese captain. Fernando Meira had to endure yet another Greek tragedy as Portugal lost to Greece for the third time in a row. Sami Khedira meanwhile scored a hat trick for Germany’s U21, Pavel Pardo converted a match-winning penalty for Mexico, Ciprian Marica scored the first goal for Romania against Russia, Mathieu Delpierre got his first cap for France against Mali and Mario Gomez is Mario Gomez.
Category: 1. Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund, Energie Cottbus, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, International, National Team, VfB Stuttgart, Werder Bremen
Tags: 1. Bundesliga, Austria, Borussia Dortmund, Ciprian Marica, Energie Cottbus, Fernando Meira, Germany, Hamburger SV, Hertha BSC Berlin, International, Jiayi Shao, Mario Gomez, National Team, Pavel Pardo, Portugal, Sami Khedira, Slaven Bilic, Switzerland, VfB Stuttgart, Werder BremenSubscribe
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My favorite random translations are German translations of Italian cities and vice-versa. Monaco di Baviera, indeed…
Posted from
United States
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‘Fascinating stuff.’
Take it as a cultural exchange or something.
Football is very much an international sport by itself already.As Mandarin is my second language, I had even found out how some of the Bundesliga clubs are being called in Mandarin (I occassionally read the Chinese-language newspaper my mother read and I just turn to the sports section immediately :P). It’s pretty interesting when I tried to pronounce some of those out loud myself. For a while, I even had to ’struggle’ how to pronounce Jogi’s surname, in Mandarin! Klinsmann’s was easier actually.
In Chinese-language football reports (at least from what I know), the surnames are being used only.I know it’s the norm in the western world where surnames are being placed after the given name but in the Chinese language Jan, the reverse is true. At times it’s weird for me reading ‘Jiayi Shao’. They don’t call it that way in China. Heck, I even have a Chinese surname and given name myself (given of my Chinese ancestry) but then again, the people I know all call me ‘Diana’ (unless it’s my past Chinese teachers back in school who call me by my Chinese name). It’s on my birth certificate even.
Rest assured western names are still being called like Slaven Bilic for example when I read sports reports here. It’s only when it comes to Chinese footballers, surname before the given name.
Jan, in Italian, they call Bayern Munich - Bayern Monaco. Yeah. That was what I found out when I was just checking out the Spain-Italy squad list (given Luca Toni was being called up by Roberto Donadoni for the friendly match) - http://italy.worldcupblog.org/group-e/italy-vs-spain-no-del-piero-no-raul.html
No. 5 reminds me of something. I only managed to watch the France-England friendly starting from the second-half (it was shown at where I am around 4am on Thursday, thanks to the time difference) and when it began, showing the scoreline and when I realised it’s Ribery…my mind was thinking later on (after finding out how he scored the goal) - a Bundesliga-based player scoring against England, through a penalty! By the way, I had to switch channels every now and then given the Switzerland-Germany friendly was on another pay-TV channel. Just imagine what I was doing on an early Thursday morning…
A little off-topic a bit…I actually find it kind of interesting how Singapore is being called in German.
Singapur. It took me a while before realising something. Add in an ‘a’ and that is how it’s being called in Malay (our national language, not to be confused with official language where English is one of those here) - Singapura.Posted from
Singapore -
Regarding No. 2…I was reading The Offside’s sister blog for Euro 2008 and saw this - http://euro2008.worldcupblog.org/news/good-times-are-over-for-the-german-national-team.html
But what really caught my attention was the link to the original article in which the headline says - ‘Loew lays down the law in quest to win Euro 2008′ (http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/3/28/sports/20772410&sec=sports). Ever since Fabio Capello became the new England manager, this headline ahead of England’s friendly against Switzerland in February stands out for me especially - ‘Gerrard made England football captain as Capello lays down the law’ (http://news.sg.msn.com/sport/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1227349).
Okay, maybe I am a little sensitive (in a good way) whenever I see this phrase ‘lays down the law’. But when I saw it being used for Jogi, one person just sprung into my head at once - Fabio Capello (with his reputation as a disciplinarian). Speaking as someone who also follows the England national team, that is my thought. Just saying.
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Singapore -
“It’s only when it comes to Chinese footballers, surname before the given name.”
Thanks for pointing that out.:-) I’ve updated the posts accordingly.
Interesting point about Singapura/Singapur/Singapore. I often wondered how some cities like e.g. Köln and München ended up having a dedicated English name, while others maintained their original name.
Posted from
United States -
No problem, Jan.
I was also being reminded of how my father had a mistaken identity of sorts on a working trip in London few years back. He was attending a meeting there and when he returned back home, he told me that they mixed up his name. That is, his given name first and surname being placed last when he was checking his name on the attendance list. And ended up his British counterparts calling him differently. It’s also the reason why I’m having an English name. No mistaken identities.
My father’s idea (he gave me this name) given it will be easier for people if they are calling out for me (he does not have one though and ended up like for example at work, he explained his colleagues call him by surname, not his given name).‘while others maintain their original name.’
By the way, we call ‘Cologne’ and ‘Munich’ over here. The English-language version. We are one ’stubborn’ bunch. Until I found out Bayern is actually Bavaria in German, I didn’t know it stands for that. Given Bayern Munich…I tried to say it in the English-language version once. Bavaria Munich sounds too weird.And, sometimes it annoys me when how the newspapers spell Jogi’s surname here. Sometimes with an ‘e’ in between and sometimes, not. The English version is ‘Loew’. Talk about consistency being one of our trademarks over here… Unless I copy and paste, I will have to type the surname in the English version.
I will be looking out how the newspapers are going to report over here come this summer when Euro 2008 is in full swing. There’s going to be coverage on the pay-TV here and so there is no reason why the newspapers are not going to talk about it given England’s not in the tournament.Posted from
Singapore -
I’m assuming that English-speakers use Köln’s French name, as Cologne really doesn’t sound like an English origin.
Posted from
United States
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