After overcoming the ever resilient Chile Team, Germany, winners of the just concluded 2017 Confederations Cup returned to their country proudly displaying the prestigious cup. They cared less that the Confederation Cup enjoys a lot of criticism from here and there. Mail reports that the Confederation Cup has detractors – those who view it as a minor tournament, little more than a World Cup dress rehearsal. You won’t find them among the Germany squad, the looked at it as one cup that must be in the German cabinet. That they did in Russia without opologies.
The Germans – featuring mostly fringe players, with several of their biggest names injured or unavailable – beat Chile 1-0 in Moscow at the weekend (Sunday July 2, 2017) to win the competition for the first time. Flying back into Frankfurt airport by national air carrier Lufthansa, Germany treated their homecoming in not too dissimilar fashion to how they returned from Brazil two years ago, having won the World Cup.
The players all wore matching white t-shirts over their clothes, bearing the word ‘Champions’ in gold capital lettering. There was also the traditional posing on the airport steps for photographs, with stand-in captain Julian Draxler – player of the tournament in Russia having taken the armband from the absent Manuel Neuer – holding the cup. Having posed with the main trophy, Draxler passed it on to his team mates to pose with while he retrieved his best player gong from the plane. He was not the only one making sure of their personal trinkets, with striker Timo Werner clutching his Golden Boot for tournament top scorer.
Manager Joachim Low wore a white Champions trophy along with his players, as he now begins preparations for returning to Russia next summer, aiming to retain the world’s highest footballing honour. Germany impressed throughout the Confederations Cup, topping a group featuring Chile, Cameroon and Australia, beating Mexico 4-1 in the semi-final before beating the South American champions once again in the final.
