'Schland Gets the Bronze!!! Germany's World Cup Glories (and Agonies)

The young German team's excellent performance at World Cup 2010 in South Africa came to a halt playing against the Spanish team in what the Germans called "Achtfinale". Whilst it was heartbreaking to the Germans and German national team fans around the world to see them lose, it was not without forewarning. For example, the Oberhauser Zoo's Octopus the Paul had predicted the results just as well as what one can deduce from the game statistics of the Spainards since the European Championship --- not a single goal against them. It was also not difficult to see that average technique of each individual team members was at a higher level than their German counterparts.

Nonetheless, the German team has earned themselves the third place in World Cup 2010 while upkeeping some excellent record-breaking numbers. Here and there, media complied world cup statistics and here are a few about the German team that is worth sharing:

1. Average age of the 2010 German team is 25.0. It is the 2nd youngest team amongst the 16 finalists, second only to Ghana in their group, group D, which has an average of 24.1.
2. Thomas Müller has earned himself a 100% goal accuracy, scoring 5 goals in total during the world cup. An impressive record. Thomas Müller, currently at age 20, is the only 20 year old to score than many goals in the history of world cup, following Pele, in 1958, then at 17, to score 5 goals only in 8 international tournaments!
3. Germany's coach Joachim Loew didn't stop wearing his "lucky blue sweater" until the playoff for 3rd place through out the world cup games.
4. Germany scored a total of 16 goals in the world cup.
   
5. Expectation for Mesut Oezil grew since his goal shot the German team into the final 16s. A local newspaper has once published a digitally modified photo of the German team with all players' bodies topped with his face! All 11 or so of them. This showed a great deal of trust in this young 21 year old Bremer midfield player that had showed no fear in the latest games against some very experience players such as Messi from Argentina.
   
6. The Germany team did not have one single goal against them in the 2nd half in the world cup till the game for 3rd place against Uruguay.
7. The German squad's nickname is Die Mannschaft, which means, literally, the Team, in English. Not much of creative genius.
   
8. Adidas has been their longstanding sponsor since 1954. Considering that Adidas is a German brand (founded by Adolf Dassler in 1924) , this makes sense. Argentina, Mexico and Japan are also sponsored by Adidas.
   
9. Between 1950 to 56, Germany had 3 National teams, namely West Germany, East Germany and Saarland. Now there is, of course, only one.
   
10. Germany has won the World Cup 3 times. They beat Hungary 3-2 in Switzerland, 1954. They edged the Netherlands 2-1 in Germany, 1974. And they defeated Argentina 1-0 in Italy, 1990. They have won runner-up 4 times and 3rd place now the 4th time.