Lessons from the World Cup 2006 semi-final Germany vs Italy
I had a germ of an idea before the match and I had to share it with my husband who is very analytical (dare I add "too"?) and here it is.
What can we learn from Germany and their run-up to the semi-finals? They are text-book examples of preparation, preparation and then preparation. I bet if they needed to and they had to play England, they would have factored in getting the press to cover the WAGs (English Wives and Girlfriends) even more so as to distract the English team further. To what extent and detail were the Germans prepared to go to ready themselves for the World Cup? Somebody please tell Popular Bookstore, the assessment book behemoth that poor Singapore considers a bookstore that the Germans are the ultimate assessment book writers. I mean the goalkeeper Lehman had access to notes he referred to detailing the individual penalty shots that each Argentinian player was likely to deliver! His notes, we are told after the match, are the result of 2 years' worth of scouting the enemies' training habits! He had the Two Year Series and chapters and model answers on each player! How does anyone beat that kind of opponent?
Well,apparently Italy can and did with a decisive 2 goal win.
So how did they did they do it? Actually, we should rephrase the question: what fired them to beat Germany before a fearfullly partisan 65000 strong German crowd when at home the Italians are facing a corruption scandal that has even prompted some of their peers to attempt to take their lives? It wasn't German complacency as they are never unprepared; it wasn't German arrogance as Germans know full well it comes before a fall. It was some little residue of German racism that reared its head when some German newspaper offensively referred to the Italians as "greasy" and "lazy". To his credit, coach Jurgen Klinnsmann disapproved of it.
Here i have to digress - to share a bit of my humble past. Plenty of educators and well-meaning parents heap plenty of praise on their kids, all in the name of motivation. I belong to the old school and I say hell hath not fury like a race, or a person scorned. You call me "greasy" and "lazy" - well watch me beat the living daylights out of your nation's hopes. Some relative of mine many Chinese New Years ago, snidely told my Mum that if I had been 2nd in class in Primary 1 and 4th in class in Primary 2, I was clearly on a downward path. I did not have any World Cup semi-final to show my mettle, I had to study real hard that whole year and wait for the next Chinese New Year before I had the pleasure of declaring I was 3rd in class in Primary 3 and 1st in English. She did not say a word.
So to recap: you need to
a) engage in massive well-conceived preparation and
b) go find yourself an enemy to irk you into salvaging your pride.
Forget what I said about God being Italian - though after the latest 2-0 win over Germany, that is no longer such a silly joke - the truth is the Devil in others can urge you to do some good for yourself.
What can we learn from Germany and their run-up to the semi-finals? They are text-book examples of preparation, preparation and then preparation. I bet if they needed to and they had to play England, they would have factored in getting the press to cover the WAGs (English Wives and Girlfriends) even more so as to distract the English team further. To what extent and detail were the Germans prepared to go to ready themselves for the World Cup? Somebody please tell Popular Bookstore, the assessment book behemoth that poor Singapore considers a bookstore that the Germans are the ultimate assessment book writers. I mean the goalkeeper Lehman had access to notes he referred to detailing the individual penalty shots that each Argentinian player was likely to deliver! His notes, we are told after the match, are the result of 2 years' worth of scouting the enemies' training habits! He had the Two Year Series and chapters and model answers on each player! How does anyone beat that kind of opponent?
Well,apparently Italy can and did with a decisive 2 goal win.
So how did they did they do it? Actually, we should rephrase the question: what fired them to beat Germany before a fearfullly partisan 65000 strong German crowd when at home the Italians are facing a corruption scandal that has even prompted some of their peers to attempt to take their lives? It wasn't German complacency as they are never unprepared; it wasn't German arrogance as Germans know full well it comes before a fall. It was some little residue of German racism that reared its head when some German newspaper offensively referred to the Italians as "greasy" and "lazy". To his credit, coach Jurgen Klinnsmann disapproved of it.
Here i have to digress - to share a bit of my humble past. Plenty of educators and well-meaning parents heap plenty of praise on their kids, all in the name of motivation. I belong to the old school and I say hell hath not fury like a race, or a person scorned. You call me "greasy" and "lazy" - well watch me beat the living daylights out of your nation's hopes. Some relative of mine many Chinese New Years ago, snidely told my Mum that if I had been 2nd in class in Primary 1 and 4th in class in Primary 2, I was clearly on a downward path. I did not have any World Cup semi-final to show my mettle, I had to study real hard that whole year and wait for the next Chinese New Year before I had the pleasure of declaring I was 3rd in class in Primary 3 and 1st in English. She did not say a word.
So to recap: you need to
a) engage in massive well-conceived preparation and
b) go find yourself an enemy to irk you into salvaging your pride.
Forget what I said about God being Italian - though after the latest 2-0 win over Germany, that is no longer such a silly joke - the truth is the Devil in others can urge you to do some good for yourself.
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