On Sunday in Germany, Joachim Löw was everywhere all at once. In the Frankfurt airport, his frown was plastered across nearly every paper on the stand. The Frankfurter Allgemeine, a burly broadsheet not unlike the the Wall Street Journal in this country, featured an illustration of his face on its front page, crumpled and then flattened, dappled with distress. "Celebrated too early," its caption began. "A week ago we were enamored with [Löw]. He was a star. Since last Thursday's 2-1 result against Italy we now know that he didn't get everything right, but rather, he actually got a whole lot wrong …. Grrrr."

In Hannover, a mustachioed man with a bookshelf of a belly stepped into the dining car of a train headed for Berlin with the Bild, perhaps Germany's most infamous tabloid, folded under his arm. "Another Final Without Us," the first half of its headline read. "Can one still believe in Jögi?" He pored over a post-match breakdown the entire way to the capital city, hunched over and frozen, breaking away only for another wheat beer. He had four in just over an hour.

In late March of this year, Barcelona and AC Milan played in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. The first leg, held at Milan's San Siro, saw the Spanish and Italian sides draw, 0-0. Barcelona subsequently lodged a formal complaint about the "state of AC Milan's pitch."

This past weekend, Spain played Italy in one of the marquee matchups of the Euro 2012 Group Stages. The match was held in Gdansk, Poland. It ended in a draw, 1-1, and Spain has subsequently started complaining, albeit informally, about the state of the Arena Gdansk pitch.

Manchester City Is Throwing It All Away

That might sound a bit hysterical, but listen, all y'all, it's a (self) sabotage. What are these guys doing? Coming out of Christmas, the title was City's to lose. But if Sir Alex Ferguson has taught us anything (aside from how to creatively use a hairdryer) it's that your team needs to hit its stride right after the new year, when the finish line finally comes into view.