Wednesday, July 09, 2014

World Cup: This wasn’t about a Brazilian collapse… It was all about German engineering...

It’s seven games, you see. Just seven.

The World Cup takes a month to unfold, and with so many matchups, goals, subplots and twists, it’s easy to forget, from the first game to the final, it is only seven steps.

Germany, the team and its management, understood this in the precise, impactful way that matters, that makes winners. Prepare for each game separately, fashion a strategy specific to each one, then throw it aside and move on to a precision-engineered plan for the next. That’s how they destroyed Brazil in the semi-final.

Before the match, consensus was that it was a toss-up, the closest game on the betting-odds board this whole tournament. Brazil, without Neymar and Silva, was vulnerable. Ah yes, said the deep-thinkers with beard-stroking consideration, but the Brazilians have home advantage, passion and tons of raw talent. Besides, they can play agressively, with theatrical showmanship, to spook the opposition and the referee, if necessary. Gives them an edge.

Even Nate Silver favoured Brazil to edge it. The American statistician/writer, famous for his accurate, data-based predictions about baseball and election campaigns, said on his blog, “Even without Neymar and Silva, the team remains the leading contender to win the World Cup in our estimation. You may or may not agree with the math, but the intuition behind it is this: Soccer is a team sport, and Brazil is a very deep team.”

That, it turns, is so not true. You can keep your data, dude. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. Why are Bayern Munich having so much fun in the Bundesliga?
  3. Sir Alex Ferguson is a magician, says England boss Roy Hodgson...
  4. Lionel Messi never dives...
  5. La Roja: the roots of soccer's Spanish fury...
  6. Why Chelsea's victory over Bayern Munich is not every English fan's cup of...

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