Under 21s

When the young German eleven beat Italy 1-0 in the semifinals of the event on Friday, June 26, they moved a step closer to making history.

Germany may be a soccer powerhouse, but the record of the U21 national team is anything but stellar. Incredibly enough, they've never won a major tournament - a blot that coach Horst Hrubesch currently wants to rectify in Sweden.

Still, after needing a nervy draw against England to qualify for the knock-out stage, Hrubesch isn't exactly jumping for joy.

"The only thing I'm happy about is making the semis," the coach told dpa news agency after the England match. "I'm not at all satisfied with how we did it -- it was way below our ambitions."

With the German U17 and U19 teams having won their European titles, this could be the year for Germany's youth teams.

But would it signal a glorious future ahead for the adult German national team? Probably not.

Here today, gone tomorrow

Germany's footballing reputation is one of solidity and consistency rather than mercurial brilliance so you might expect the national soccer association, the DFB, to bring up players gradually through the various levels.

But the opposite is the case. Goalkeeping legend Oliver Kahn and super striker Miroslav Klose never played in the youth ranks, going straight into the main national team.

And while most of the current national squad did take the pitch for the U21s, very few of the real stars -- Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger or Lukas Podolski, for example -- made more than a handful of appearances, before being promoted up to the big league.

The UEFA U21 championship has only been in existence in its current form since 1978, and it took some time for Germany to take them seriously. Even into the 1990s the DFB eleven were playing with a sweeper.

As a result, Germany have always gone home empty handed while Italy have won Europe five times, and even England -- never a national side known for tournament successes -- have hoisted the trophy twice.

Ones to watch

Given the German U21s' history, the players most likely to play roles in the top squad are those who have already been called up by national coach Joachim Loew.

Diminutive forward Marko Marin hasn't been able to make much of a mark in Sweden, but Leverkusen's Gonzalo Castro, Stuttgart's Sami Khedira and Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer have performed well.

And the star of the show has been Mesut Oezil, who normally plays on the wing for his club Bremen but who has shone in a striker role for Hrubesch, setting up both of goals in Germany's 2-nil win over Finland in the group stage.

And the breakthrough player of the squad is defender Jerome Boateng. Boateng usually serves as right back and has struggled to keep a position in the starting line-up for his club Hamburg.

But he's drawn high marks in all his matches for the young Germans playing as a central defender -- a role for which Hamburg might consider him when he returns from Sweden.

Those names point to an unmistakable trend within the German national team -- the growing prominence of players who were born outside Germany or who come from an immigrant background.

Klose, Podolski, both Polish born, have established themselves as mainstays in Germany adult national team -- and they've recently been joined by Piotr Trochowski.

In the U21, eight of the current 24 members of the squad come from multi-national backgrounds.

So if Germany continues the tradition of integrating younger players quickly into the main men's team, some of Hrubesch's charges could play a role at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Author: Jefferson Chase

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar