German Soccer (Football) Is Becoming Stronger, Again

From 1954 until 1990, the West German national soccer program was the most successful program in the world.  Germany had won 3 World Cup Championships (equal to Brasil at the time) and had gone to the semi-finals in every World Cup except for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.

Starting in 1994, German soccer entered the dark ages.  It has been over 20 years since a championship, although in 2010 Germany had one of the strongest teams. That team was defeated by a Spanish team which employed an overly defensive and truly boring strategy to beat the Germans on a lucky corner-kick.

My theory for Germany's soccer problems from 1994 until recently is an economic theory.  I think that the more working-class guys a national team has, the better the team will be.  In the 90s Germany transformed into a middle-class country.  As the German economy got better and better and as Germans became more middle class, their national soccer program suffered.

Why are they doing well now?  I'm not sure. But two German teams will compete with each other for the UEFA League Championship on May 25th.

Here are a couple articles about the Dortmund vs. Bayern game. I have been a German soccer fan since I was a child, so I'm not sure which team to root (cheer) for.

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1944756.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/soccer-bayern-spurred-final-defeat-chelsea-heynckes-says-225152535.html