Competition Records
Germany has won the World Cup three times, behind only Brazil (five titles) and Italy (four titles). It has finished as runners-up four times. In terms of semifinal appearances, Germany leads with 12, two more than Brazil's 10, which had participated in two more tournaments. In the last 15 World Cup tournaments, Germany has always reached at least the stage of the last eight teams. Germany has also qualified for every of the 17 World Cups it has entered – it did not enter the inaugural competition in Uruguay of 1930 for economic reasons, and could not qualify for or compete in the post-war 1950 World Cup as the DFB was reinstated as a FIFA member only two months after this tournament.
Germany has also won the European Championship three times (Spain and France are the only other multiple-time winners with three and two titles respectively), and finished as runners-up three times as well. The Germans have qualified for every European Championship tournament except for the very first European Championship they entered in 1968. For that tournament, Germany was in the only group of three teams and thus only played four qualifying games. The deciding game was a scoreless draw in Albania which gave Yugoslavia the edge, having won in their neighbour country.
Germany played in the FIFA Confederations Cup twice, in 1999 (first round exit) and in 2005 (third place) as hosts.
See also East Germany and Saarland for the results of these separate German teams, and Austria for the team that was merged into the German team from 1938 to 1945.
Read more about this topic: Germany National Football Team
Famous quotes containing the words competition and/or records:
“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face,
And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone,
Like some last courtier at a gypsy camping-place
Babbling of fallen majesty, records what’s gone.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)