Gorath:
I think it is pretty harsh to diss Klinsmann's performance, he did manage a third place in the WC with a young team
Now Germany is one of few countries that can afford to be dissatisfied with a third place in the World Cup, but with the exception of 2002 that's your best performance for quite some time. You even failed to pass the group stage in Portugal 2004.
You misunderstood me. I didn´t say something negative about him.
Klinsmann took over after Rudi Völler´s term proved that the organisational structure in place from the very beginning was no longer good enough to create a world-class national team. Then, thank god, the bosses of the DFB (German Football Association) accepted the reality and decided to allow a focused, uncompromising, ruthless guy like Klinsmann to take over. Imagine that - the world´s biggest national organisation for a single sport , with millions of members, allows a "dictator" to crush the old system and replace it with a bleeding edge new one. Everybody would have believed that´s unthinkable!
He broke up the old structures, redefined the way the national teams work, from youth to the main teams, replaced coaches, enforced football education standards for Bundesliga clubs, brought in external influence like motivation coaches, etc. He tore the whole thing apart. After the WC Klinsmann did the right thing: He left and handed the majority of his power over to Jogi Löw. It was right because Klinsmann used his sympathy bonus to push through the changes. While doing so he pissed a lot of people off, which is of course inevitable. He resigned at the top. Nobody here in Germany expected our team to be successful at the WC. We considered it a transition period. But Klinsmann motivated them perfectly and said from day one: "We want the title! That´s the mission. Concentrate, do your job, and no excuses." At a time when everybody else was happy if they somehow survived the group stage. It turned out Klinsmann was right. Then he left the building and took all the bad blood with him. His former assistant Löw took over, fine-tuned the system and has, AFAIK, the best results of all national coaches ever.
The 3rd place was considered a huge success, and most people here think it was the correct result.
EDIT: I'd actually argue that this EC has more weak teams than normal since the host countries are fairly weak. Together with Poland they are the only ones to not be at least high second tier teams...
Poland is a bit stronger than Austria and Switzerland. Yes, this time the tournament is a bit weaker than usual, but that´s part of the system. It´s good the smaller nations also get the chance to organize such an event.
