Germany Fans Disappointed with Second Place

The following comments reflect the views of DW-WORLD.DE readers. Not all reader comments have been published. DW-WORLD.DE reserves the right to edit for length and appropriateness of content.

I must say that the performance and the display of soccer by the German team were boring. What a waste to not show up for a final with billions of people watching. There was enough talent on the bench to have a better result at the end of the game. The captain (who was injured) should not have played in the first place. Germany's highly prized players looked like players from the second division of the Bundesliga. I bet Bayern Munich would have done a better job. -- Fred, Canada

I am a great fan of Germany and Ballack but both disappointed on June 29th. They were nowhere in the game until the 90th minute. -- Viplav Ray, India

Captain Ballack played despite an injured calf

It's a pity that we lost the trophy. I guess I predicted wrongly. The good thing is that we reached the finals and that only maintains our credibility as the fathers of football. Indeed Spain played better than we did. Fortunately we didn't concede more goals; that would've been very disappointing. -- Kawuma Faisal, Uganda

I think there were plenty of bad decisions and poor judgments during the entire game. If overexcited trainers can be sent to the stands, why not biased, non-performing, inattentive referees? -- CEP, Switzerland

I was rooting for Germany all along. It is the country of my birth and I have never stopped being proud of that fact. This tournament has again convinced me that after living in Canada since 1954 and loving my new homeland, the pride of being of German "Herkunft" is well based. This German team has proven that after losing to Spain by one goal, one which I think Spain deserved, they came off the field like true sportsmen. -- Adolf Stadelmann, Canada

I was overjoyed to be able to see most games. Adrian Healy and Andy Reid were great. The games could not have been better. -- Ed Roach, US

In defense of the Swiss hosts

The Swiss were indeed great hosts, argued one reader

Wolfgang van Kann writes in "UEFA Biggest Loser in Euro 2008" that "While the Germans had opened their doors and hearts to guests from around the world, the Austrians and Swiss withdrew into their own four walls and observed the whole spectacle with suspicion." This is not true. There were thousands and thousands of people who offered their flats/rooms for guests, but the interest from abroad was very low -- only 10 percent of the offers were used. And many fan camps that were especially constructed and built up all over the country for the fans from abroad had an occupation of only 5-15 percent. In 2008, only 40'000 Germans travelled to Vienna for the Final against Spain. So, who is staying at home after all? And don't tell me, it's because of the public viewings. We've have public viewings in Switzerland during every single World or European Championship since at least 1994 -- but still a lot of people from this comparably small and allegedly football-uninterested country travel to these events abroad. The weather cannot be underestimated: in Switzerland, the attendance in the fan zones rose a lot once the sun came out -- even though the home team was already out. -- Lukas Stocker, Switzerland