It´s been one week since Germany lost against Italy in the 2012 European Cup semifinal. It has taken me this long to somehow recuperate and gather the strength to write this blog entry. Time and again, I, as a German living abroad, had to explain to outsiders how the common German relates to soccer. Over and over, I had to break it down to raised eyebrows and disbelievingly nodding heads that – yes, indeed, if Germany looses the semifinal, for us, it doesn’t mean, our team did well. It’s a catastrophe and for at least one month newspapers and TV talk shows will discuss, analyze and scrutinize what happened, why it happened and what this tragic loss means for the German society. You think I am kidding, even exaggerating? And this is exactly why you need to read this blog entry.

First, we have to go back, waaaaaay back in…