Lessons from South Africa
11.07.2010
Let me start with a boast. I am quite proud of myself for not writing about football during the past month of the World Cup.
But now that it is over, and Spain are the world champions for the first time, I would like to reflect on five lessons that the championship has taught us about teams, leaders and success:
- Superstars, on their own, are no guarantee of success. Before the tournament, all the talk was of the three genuises who were going to beguile us. Their names, in case you have forgotten, were Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney. But their performances were goodish, so-so and miserable, respectively.
- Ex-superstars do not necessarily make good leaders. The clearest example was Argentina's Maradona. A brilliant player in his time — though one who wasn't ashamed of cheating — he proved to be a useless trainer. He chose the wrong players and the wrong tactics, failing to get the best out of his superstar, Lionel Messi.
- Age is not critical for success. Much nonsense was talked about how Germany were so successful because they had built a team around younger players. But as soon as Germany met a decent (and older) team — Spain, in the semi-final — they were found wanting. Germany weren't goodish because they were young, any more than England were bad because their players were older. In fact, England's best player was the oldest in the tournament (David James, 39).
- Good teams can survive rough periods. The best example here was Spain. Brilliant in 2008 at the European Championships, they struggled for long periods in South Africa, including losing their first game to Switzerland. But Spain were a real team, made up of many very good players, though no superstar. They hung together and rode out the rough period before giving an excellent performance against Germany in the semi-final.
- Finally, Europe should not be underestimated. A lot of tripe was spouted about how this would be South America's or Africa's tournament. Wrong again. Yes, some old European giants did go home early in disgrace (France, Italy, England), but three of the four semi-finalists (and the champions) were other old European giants: Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
Prahlerei
(Fußball-)Weltmeisterschaft
sinnieren über
alle sprachen nur von
betören; hier: begeistern
Darbietungen
ganz gut
soso lala
miserabel
beziehungsweise
sich nicht schämen, geschummelt zu haben
von zentraler Bedeutung
anständig; hier: anständig spielend
Halbfinale
ließen zu wünschen übrig
harte Zeiten überstehen
sich abmühen
überstehen
unterschätzt werden
Unsinn
verzapft werden
mit Schimpf und Schande
ihren Unsinn kolportieren
Stuss
Vorhersagen
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COMMENTS
Why listen to the predictions of different football or business experts? Octopus Paul rules now.
Personally, I used to watch football before, but rather with the purpose to discuss the players’ appearances, their behaviours etc. However, this year we had a very good SWC coverage in Ukraine, with very good comments, and with the detailed discussion of each moment, using 3D equipment. Due to this, now I know the rules of this game, as well as the rules of fair play. And must say, that the latter, despite being widely advertised, were often ignored during this event. Therefore, too many questions are raised to the team, which appeared to be the best at this championship.
1. Spain v Portugal. The goal was scored from 22cm offside. This goal can be viewed in 3D graphics (showing the positions of the linesman and the referee) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqhrr0tnYLQ
You would be right if you say, that it is very easy to spot a 22cm offside with the help of some equipment, and it is much more difficult to do this in real time, on the field, with no playbacks. Anyway, this goal is among the other two, which FIFA has now recognised to be faulty.
2. Spain v Paraguay. The disallowed goal by Valdez has been scored from a clear onside. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0rMSsiFmv8&feature=related
3. Spain v Germany. Well, nothing to object to this particular match. The only question is, why has Mueller been given a yellow card in the game versus Argentina, and therefore had to miss the next match? Great doubts are, whether his foul really deserved that yellow card.
4. Spain v Netherlands. The corner kick in favour of the Netherlands...
This is not to mention the punch into the Honduras player, which is left unnoticed by the referees, with no disciplinary measures following this incident.
Anyway, I liked this championship very much, and mostly I am thankful to the German Machine, the teams of Uruguay, Ghana, Netherlands, and Paraguay, for letting me have fine time while watching them.
Maybe you should also avoid peddling your own drivel. Here are my comments on your 5 points:
1. Fair enough.
2. A useless trainer????! Quarter finals of the World Cup, one of the best performers in the tournament until that fateful game. If that's useless, I'll take that any day of the week. Overly harsh criticism there, which suggests you just look at the results.
3. This doesn't really make any sense at all. Why did Italy not succeed despite winning it in 2006 with that same manager? Simple. Too old. Germany were fresh and full of ideas. In Spain they met a team with more experience (that's the key word) and understandably lost. To say age plays no role is ridiculous.
4. I guess I can't really argue with you there.
5. Once again your assessment is far too extreme. I know you need to use new expressions in your blogs, but try to keep them relevant and fair. People who quoted the old statistic about no European team ever having won outside Europe clearly forgot that this is the first tournament in Africa, where the climate is suited to the Europeans. Secondly, the smaller South American teams were excellent in this tournament. Only Brazil and Argentina failed to live up to expectations. Let's see how your European teams do in Brazil in 4 years time...