Mannschaft
mannschaft is a common german word meaning team in sports or crew in seafaring.

contrary to popular belief, this is not a nickname for the german soccer national team, but can be used for any sports team or crew of a ship.

* the US football team - die US-footballmannschaft

* the chinese table tennis team - die chinesische tischtennismannschaft

* the german soccer team - die deutsche nationalmannschaft

* the crew of the USS nimitz - die mannschaft der USS nimitz

* the crew of a large ass freighter - die mannschaft eines saugroßen frachters ;)

the word is rarely, if ever, used outside of sports or seafaring.

for example, a team of scientists is not a mannschaft von wissenschaftlern, but simply a team of them, just like in english.

likewise, a team of terrorists will never be called a terroristenmannschaft, but simply a terroristenteam.

the crew of aircraft is usually called besatzung instead of mannschaft, both can be used and will be understood, but besatzung is more common.


the performance of the german soccer mannschaft seems to be completely random.