PREVIEW: 2014 Football European Championships – Team Germany

“..although they have been a stronger team in the past few tournaments, the Germans must not underestimate the teams from the North!”

Everyday this week AFI will be bringing you an introduction to each country represented in this year’s 2014 Eat the Ball Football European Championship taking place in Austria from May 30th to June 7th. Game venues in the preliminary round will include Graz and St. Poelten, while the final games of the championship will be held at the Ernst Happel- Stadium in Vienna.

Today:

GERMANY

Reigning European champion and title defender, Germany has made it to the final game at every one of the last four European Championships. Apart from its titles in 2001 and 2010, Germany also won silver twice (’87, ’00) and bronze four times (’83, ’85, ’89, and ’93). The German National Team is one of the 2014 favorites in the race for the gold and one of the for one of the open spots in the Stockholm 2015 World Championships!

THE DETAILS

Team Germany has been in camp in Frankfurt since Sunday, doing two a days and will be traveling to Austria on Thursday. They have had little preparation as group apart from an international friendly against Japan a few weeks ago, the German-Japan Bowl.

The Germans open up the tournament with a Group A game against Finland on Friday, May 30th. They then a few days off before battling Sweden on June 3rd. Both games with be played in St. Poelten, Austria.

 WHO WILL QB?

The Germans return 27 of 45 players from the 2011 World Cup, when the Germans represented the top European team in their third World Cup appearance back in 2011. This might seem like a large number, but there might be some key roles still up in the air.

From journalist Nicolas Martin:

This is always difficult in a football national team. It’s going to be the first tournament in ages where Jo Ullrich is not the starting QB for Germany. Talent coming up at the position, Marco Ehrenfried will be starter I assume, more competition to come at the position in the next years.

KEYS FOR GERMANY

The Germans must get into rhythm early in the tournament to compensate for lack of preparation compared to other countries. And although they have been a stronger team in the past few tournaments, the Germans must not underestimate the teams from Sweden and Finland, who have put together strong teams for the 2014 Eat the Ball European Championships!

First with Finland, no other pairing has been played more often at the European Championships then German versus Finland. This is the seventh time the teams have met here, each team winning three of the previous six meetings. Germany won most recently at the 2010 European Championships. The Finns are returning many players from that matchup for years ago, all four years strong and wiser and seeking revenge. This is sure to be a great match-up!

 TEAM GERMANY 45 MAN ROSTER

Number	Name	Club	Position	Height (m)	Weight (kg)
18	Aurieus Adegbesan	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	WR	205	98
33	Baris Atakan	Berlin Rebels	WLB	190	95
12	Donnie Avant	Cologne Falcons	CB	190	100
76	Oliver Beeck	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	C/G	188	127
56	Hendrik Bleier	Cologne Falcons	SLB	190	120
7	John Brenner	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	H	193	100
88	Cedric Clark	Frankfurt Universe	DT	207	121
75	Kevin Dorn	Wiesbaden Phantoms	T	196	126
8	Marco Ehrenfried	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	QB	196	101
13	Manuel Engelmann	Dusseldorf Phanter	QB	193	100
65	Robin Fensch	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	G/T	190	120
22	Fabien Gaertner	Munich Cowboys	RB	184	94
54	Simon Gavanda	Dusseldorf Phanter	DE	190	108
21	Patrick Geiger	Stuttgart Scorpions	RB	178	102
6	Leonard Green	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	CB	185	86
71	Robert Hager	Berlin Rebels	T	197	130
85	Dominic Hanselmann	New Yorker Lions	WR/LS	180	90
87	January Hilgenfeldt	Dresden Monarchs	WR/K	182	88
50	Kerim Homri	New Yorker Lions	MLB	180	101
26	Falk Horn Kiel	Baltic Hurricanes	SS	185	88
92	Lars Imberg	Rhein-Neckar Bandits	DT	194	123
73	Hannes Irmer	New York Lions	C/G	188	115
20	Gerhard Jäger	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	FS	172	80
9	Joseph Joyner	Franken Knights	WR/KR	183	86
81	Gregor Lietzau	Berlin Rebels	WR/P	182	85
11	Enrico Martini	Tirol Raiders	CB	178	80
58	Nelson Mokwena	New Yorker Lions	DT	193	120
4	Paul Motzki	Saarland Hurricanes	CB	180	82
23	Danilo Naranjo Gonzales	Berlin Adler	WR	192	103
43	Mario Nowak	Berlin Adler	MLB	186	105
44	Thomas Rauch	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	DL	193	105
47	Sven Rieger	New Yorker Lions	NT	197	132
84	Niklas Romans	New Yorker Lions	WR	192	95
69	Christian Rothe	Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns	G/T/C		130
64	Sascha Sauer	Kiel Baltic Hurricanes	G/C	196	145
41	Mark Scherenberg	Cologne Falcons	SS	183	90
27	Mario Schmitt	Berlin Adler	CB	180	85
31	Ivo Schoenberner	Dresden Monarchs	FB	180	113
3	Sebastian Schönberg Broich	Dusseldorf Phanter	FS	187	87
89	Benedict Schumann	Basel Gladiators	TE	194	120
30	Phillipp Stursberg	Lübeck Cougars	SLB	193	115
77	Matthias Urmes	Freiburg Sacristans	G/T	196	126
2	Danny Washington	Rhein-Neckar Bandits	RB	175	95
90	Wild Maximilian	Munich Cowboys	DT	193	110
96	Robert Zernicke	New Yorker Lions	DE	188	115