Online Betting Guide Weblog

With its long and successful history since 1908 the German national football team is one of the regulars at the Fifa World Cup. Unlike other big teams such as England or Holland, the German squad has managed to qualify for the the most important tournament in the world every single time. Only in 1930 and 1950 the Germans were unable to take part in the qualification stages at all and as such did not participate in the subsequent World Cup.

Germany has progressed to more World Cup and European Championship finals than any other team in the world. To date they have acquired three World Cup titles in 1954, 1974 and 1990 as well as three European Championship titles in 1972, 1980 and 1996. Add onto that a total of seven times in which they made second place. Generations of German football fans as such grew up with the firm belief that a German national soccer team would always make it into the finals of a major tournament. A belief equally backed by many punters in the world cup betting markets.

More World Cup titles have so far only obtained by Brazil with five and by Italy who celebrated four successes - they lost against Brazil in the finals in 2002 and against Italy in the semi-finals in 2006. Particularly noteworthy is that while other teams such as Argentina, Spain, Holland or England mostly featured international superstars, Germany celebrated multiple successes through a balanced and disciplined team performance. This lead to one of the team's many nicknames: 'The Tournament Team'.

For 2010 the DFB-Eleven are staying true to that name. Staffed with many young talents such as Mesut Özil and Jerome Boateng the Germans made it through qualification without a loss, beating Russia twice and qualifying first in their group. National coach Jogi Löw who replaced Jürgen Klinsmann as the head coach after the 2006 World Cup has in the last couple of years continued to structure the team with a mixture of young and old. In the Euro 2008 this allowed the team to reach the finals where they only narrowly lost 1-0 to Spain.

Led by their superstar Michael Ballack (33), who plays for the Chelsea FC in England, the DFB-Eleven are now fully focused on reaching the World Cup final in South Africa. For Ballack it will probably be the last major tournament. First however they need to succeed in a group with some talent which includes Ghana, Serbia and Australia - compared to some of Germany's other groups in past World Cup tournaments this one is not without bite. None-the-less the Germany World Cup Match Odds the bookies are posting look exceedingly promising.

The group matches of the Germans:
Sun 13.06. 20:30 Germany - Australia, Durban
Fri 18.06. 13:30 Germany - Serbia, Port Elizabeth
Wed 23.06. 20:30 Ghana - Germany, Johannesburg