Germany's exit from Fifa World Cup brings back memories of the Cold War

The retrospective temptation for writers to make more out of sporting events than they merit is too strong to resist, but perhaps one is justified in this case

Germany’s stunning 2- 0 loss to South Korea on Wednesday resulted in the defending champions crashing out of the World Cup. A similar surprise loss was handed out to another German team in the 1974 World Cup — but the winners were also Germans. The East and West German teams faced each other in their first — and only — international match on June 22 that year. Recalling that match in 2006, the captain of that East German team, Bernd Bransch, told Der Spiegel: “It wasn’t so important that it was West Germany.” But this is far from the truth: