Official Euro 2008 Grp. B - CRO, GER, POL, AUS

[Sleepy]

Poldi might be a numb nut, but he's a great player. When it's all said an done, he might be Germany's record player of all time.

Poldi: 23 years old, 49 caps, 27 goals.

Matth

[AdamTheGreek]

FT 2-0 to the Germans. Still haven't seen a match yet where both opponents score in the same game. Something tells me that will change tomorrow.

[El Turco]

props to Germany for beating Poland with Polish players.

[WHAT_DA]

props to Germany for beating Poland with Polish players.

[magik9113]

good second game. Croatia has been overrated since beating England...since the 98 world cup really. they haven't been nearly as good since then

[Slava]

I expected Podolski to score goals and scoring he does!

[Captain_Obvious]

:wordyo:

[Basti]

props to Germany for beating Poland with Polish players.

it could have been 3:0 if Klose wouldn't have screwed it in the first minutes. it really looked like he didn't want to score. then he did a not so good pass to Gomez who wasn't fast enough to reach the ball.

anyway, I'm really satisfied because I prefer such a win over a well played game. dunno why but it tells me that we even win the bad games and winning the bad games is what separates the contenders from the pretenders

[Point forward]

Nice to see Germany play only about 60% and still convincinly win. I saw this in public viewing, and the Polish fans were pretty depressed -- they could have at least scored a goal if they had been a little more precise.

[wilt]

props to Germany for beating Poland with Polish players.

sorry, should propably just ignore it and quite honestly i don

[WHAT_DA]

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sorry, should propably just ignore it and quite honestly i don

[WHAT_DA]

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sorry, should propably just ignore it and quite honestly i don

[El Turco]

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sorry, should propably just ignore it and quite honestly i don

[BlackMamba]

germany during some periods of the game looks unstopable.

[Sleepy]

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This doesnt change the fact that they are polish. And therefore the op's point stands.

Uh... no. They are not polish. If they were, they would've been playing for Poland. They play for Germany, thus they are german. Not that hard to understand, I think.
Or are you saying that there are other criterias than their passports to determine their nationality? Do they look polish, act polish, think polish?
Be honest... if you think that point out, it becomes some kind of racists rambling, because you have to rely on some sort of inherent criteria to distinguish them from Germans. The only objective criteria (the passport) says that they are German, so good luck arguing the other side.

[El Turco]

uh, since when players or people are restricted to one nationality or one passport?

nobody is saying that they are not German national nor should not be playing for German NT but that doesnt change the fact that he was born Poland and unless for some reason(i am not aware of) Polish government decided to revoke their citizenship with or without their request, he still holds dual citizenship. I dont think anybody here knows whether or not they still have polish passport but even if If they dont, if they didnt have any use of polish passport when they were 2 years old that hardly justifies anything. Not to mention from what i understand they have no problem with being associated with their birthplace and their family heritage.

Overzealous attempts to claim multi-national people for one country is quite ridiculous, imo.

[Sleepy]

Overzealous attempts to claim multi-national people for one country is quite ridiculous, imo.

I'm doing the exact opposite.
This whole nationality point is so mood (cause there are no valid criterias) that saying he's polish or he's german doesn't work.

There's just one way to determine the nationality of a player, and that's his passport. Anything else leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Because arguing that somebody feels or thinks like (for example) a Pole means that this distinguishes him from somebody that feels/thinks german. That's rubbish. Todays world is multicultural, and it should be easy to accept that cultural traits (let's just say that I don't like the word heritage in this context) don't work to determine ones nationality.
Sports are probably the last resort of the nationality related thinking, just because a player can't play for two nations at the same time. So, the only criteria is the passport that he choose. Nothing else is important...




If this guy sports a german passport, he's as german as Michael Ballack or Oliver Kahn. Same goes for Poldi; or Klose; or Eugen Polanski, Marko Marin, Baris

[fc_dinamo]

The question is, did they grow up in the Polish culture? Growing up in a culture has nothing to do with where one is from and everything to do with their household. IDK if you guys heard, but the broadcasters said that Klose and Podolski talk to each other in Polish on the field.

Klose's parents were both athletes and played for Poland. His mother on the Handball team and ironically - his father on the soccer team. When asked by the Polish coach, Klose blew him off, saying something like "I have a passport blah blah Rudi Voller blah blah blah"

Ok dude, yaaa Germany is ALOT better than Poland and ya, Germany are always a favorite to win every tournament they enter and as a player, if you manage to stick around for a few tourneys you'll probably win one. But was it the right thing to do? No, I don't think so. It was definitely a slap in the face to his culture.

As for Podolski, let me ask...why didn't he celebrate his goals? Out of respect or out of guilt. Because I don't know of any player who doesn't celebrate goals scored for his national team at this kind of a tournament. To be fair though, the Polish coach was a jerk at the time, underrating his importance. Maybe he'd have played for Poland if they'd have approached him in a different way...who knows. But it sure seemed like he had a guilty conscience.

But w/e...they made their choice. And Germany certainly is not denigrated or penalized because it accepted non-German players on it's national team.

[Sleepy]

The question is, did they grow up in the Polish culture? Growing up in a culture has nothing to do with where one is from and everything to do with their household. IDK if you guys heard, but the broadcasters said that Klose and Podolski talk to each other in Polish on the field.

But how are culture and nationality linked? Even if Podolski and Klose are connected to the polish culture (whatever that exactly is), how does it affect their nationality? That's the question, not whether their grandmas read them german or polish fairy tales.

Ok dude, yaaa Germany is ALOT better than Poland and ya, Germany are always a favorite to win every tournament they enter and as a player, if you manage to stick around for a few tourneys you'll probably win one.

You think so? Well, Germany SUCKED beyond your imagination between 1998-2006. That even includes the WC in Japan&Korea, where they got really lucky.

But was it the right thing to do? No, I don't think so. It was definitely a slap in the face to his culture.

Stop mixing culture and nationality up. They choose the german nationality, that doesn't say jack about their culture.

As for Podolski, let me ask...why didn't he celebrate his goals? Out of respect or out of guilt. Because I don't know of any player who doesn't celebrate goals scored for his national team at this kind of a tournament. To be fair though, the Polish coach was a jerk at the time, underrating his importance. Maybe he'd have played for Poland if they'd have approached him in a different way...who knows. But it sure seemed like he had a guilty conscience.

Should every club player who scores against his old club have a guilty conscience? I think so, because they just thrashed something they once rooted for... so what? What does that tell us in international games between countries?

But w/e...they made their choice. And Germany certainly is not denigrated or penalized because it accepted non-German players on it's national team.

Is that even in question....

[El Turco]

This whole nationality point is so mood (cause there are no valid criterias) that saying he's polish or he's german doesn't work.

your own quote:

They play for Germany, thus they are german.

which is completely false. They maybe choose to play for Germany but that doesnt mean they are not also Polish. Sports and nationality are two separate entities, under what jersey they kick the ball hardly the ultimate indicator of their nationality. Vice versa nobody can claim they are "just" Polish. It has nothing to do with distinguishing characteristic Poles or German, but it has something to do with the fact that they were born in Poland, raised in Polish family and embrace the Polish culture as well as German. Nobody knows under which condition they chose to play for Germany-there are lot of players that receive dual citizenship just to play in high level international competitions-but either way playing for German national team do not make them "just" German, it makes them Polish-German players playing for German football team, nothing more nothing less.

Also, passport argument doesnt hold much argument in today s world. I have both Turkish and American passport s and if i was to play for Turkish NT, i would still get to keep my American passport thus it wouldnt decide my nationality in no definitive way.