Ballack and Co. put seven past England All-Stars

There was a holiday mood in London on 2nd May, a traditional bank holiday, especially in the DFB All-Stars camp. The selection of ex-Germany internationals picked apart the England legends' team in a 7-2 win at West Ham United’s stadium. The occasion for the "Legends Match" was the 50-year anniversary of the 1966 World Cup final in Wembley.

Revenge - a word that came up numerous times last Monday in London. Revenge for 1966 would not have been worth saying though. After all, Germany have often made amends for the unfortunate 4-2 defeat to England in the 1966 World Cup. For example, in the 1972 European Championships quarterfinal Die Mannschaft recorded their first win on English soil and in the European Championships semi-final in 1996 Germany won the dramatic penalty shootout. Furthermore, no one can forget the World Cup qualification match in October 2000 in which Didi Hamann scored a long-range free kick to inflict a 1-0 defeat.

Another chapter of this remarkable success story was added by the DFB All-Star Team as they recorded a 7-2 win on Monday. “This was a great and meaningful victory for our All-Star Team,” said ex-Germany goalkeeper Dieter Burdenski, the manager of the squad, following Michael Ballack's lifting of the cup after the final whistle. The one-metre-high silver trophy underlined the importance of this rivalry to the English. “There is no friendliness against England from the first whistle to the last,” said Holger Osieck to his players in the team meeting.

Farewell Upton Park

The Legends Match was a goodbye of sorts to one of England’s iconic battle fields - West Ham‘s Boleyn Ground. Just around the corner from Upton Park there are statues of three great West Ham icons; Bobby Moore, the England captain in 1966, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, who scored the four goals in the final. In the next few months this could all be demolished to make way for residential housing. West Ham will begin playing their home games at the Olympic Stadium from 1st July.

There were 22,500 spectators at the farewell party, who witnessed the clash between the two legends teams led by former national captain Rio Ferdinand and Michael Ballack respectively. The match was broadcast in a number of countries in all five continents. This was confirmed by former Stuttgart man Fredi Bobic who received a text off his former team mate Giovane Elber, saying, "Great game from us, I am watching it at home in Brazil."

Balitsch and Rehmer on the scoresheet

Hanno Balitsch and Marko Rehmer bagged goals in the first half to give Germany a 3-0 lead, as the the Germans put in a convincing performance against ex-England stars such as Teddy Sheringham, the Ferdinand brothers Rio and Anton, Trevor Sinclair, Peter Beardsley, Dean Ashton, Darren Anderton and Graeme Le Saux. The England side fought back and had chances to reduce the deficit at the end of the second half but former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann pulled off a number of good saves to keep the Germany legends ahead. The DFB legends team included a number of players with a background in English football; Michael Ballack (Chelsea), Fredi Bobic (Bolton Wanderers), Jörg Albertz (Rangers) and Marco Reich (Crystal Palace) all played football in England and received a warm reception at Upton Park.

After goals from Oliver Neuville (2), David Odonkor and Reich, and ski-jump legend Sven Hannawald, Germany were able to put the game to bed. Jamaica’s national coach Winfried Schäfer got in touch with the DFB expert for internationals, Markus Widner, over e-mail: "they are showing your match here in Kingston on ESPN. Well done on your win and good wishes to my colleague Holger."

Dieter Burdenski summed the match up perhaps most fittingly: "this 7-2 was not only a big win, it was also a great boost of our team's image, and to a lesser extent that of German football as a whole."

DFB All-Star Team: Lehmann – Owomoyela, Rehmer (70' Herget), Nowotny, Albertz – Balitsch (60' Eilts), Heinrich, Ballack (73' Unger) – Odonkor (73' Hannawald), Bobic (35' Neuville), Reich. Trainer: Osieck.