Satis Shroff

Commentary: German Waltz versus Argentinian Tango



Posted: Friday, July 02, 2010

by Satis Shroff

Stop the press. Germany, this historically disciplined and merciless soccer nation, that shot a penalty to the sky during a world championship since 1974, has overrun England with 4:1. Podolski, even though born in Poland, scored against the Brit team. Joachim Löw is in cloud seven (German: Siebte Himmel), thanks to Podolski, a great lad with an infectious smile and a stunning left leg.

The German team fought not only like lions but used their heads to perform an excellent combination football, a football that made your heart beat higher. The British team was more for man-to-man fights, tacklings and kick-and-rush tactic which bore fruit only once in the entire game. Lempard’s goal was so fast that no referee or linesman was able to register it. The camera did. But what actually counts on the field is what the referee sees with his own two eyes. And his fifa linesmen saw only the last sequence of the ball bouncing and the German goalie clearing it.

‘God Save the Queen’ sang the British audience and players with their hands over their hearts. The Queen is safe but Britain doesn’t feel well. During the game I wondered what headliners the Daily Mail and the Times would come out with the following day. Perhaps ‘British Pansies run over by German Panzer?’ That comes from reading too many Battler Briton comics in the Grammar and Comprehensive schools in which the Germans, who invariably bear names like Hans, Fritz and Joachim and keep on repeating only the three words ‘Achtung, Halt and Jawohl.’

World War II is long over and new generations of friendly, sympathetic, travelling and intelligent Germans have long taken the place of the Germans of yesteryears. And yet boulevard and even serious English newspapers and journals still promote the cliches of yesterday, which is a shame. As far as the yellow press is concerned it’s still: blitzkrieg, tanks and krauts. It was a confrontation dripping with history as in the case of Leon in 1970 when Sir Alf Ramsey, for some reason or other, took out Bobby Charlton thinking that the semifinal place had already been assured. It wasn’t.

One on-looker even displayed proudly his cloth German Messerschmidt plane, another cliché of the Second World War. No sir, it wasn’t the hackneyed cliché that won the day but a young, talented, sovereign team with dream passes that shone today. Löw’s boys showed us the delights of soccer and team-play.

Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Klose, Özil and Müller as well as the whole compact German showed what team-spirit is. It was dream football for Germany and a disappointing and traumatic experience for Britain. That the fighting spirit alone doesn’t suffice in soccer was a bitter experience for trainer Capello, who had a munity in his British Bounty. Against Slovenia the three British Lions showed their prowess and capabilities in man-to-man duels. England beat the Slovenians 1:0 through Jermain Defoe of Tottenham Hotspurs. Whereas other teams make use of vuvuzelas when their teams attack, English fans prefer to sing. The match England versus Germany was on the whole fair, the number of yellow cards was kept to a minimum, and the flow of the game was allowed by referee Stark.

‘We’ve won the game with our heads,’ said Capello in their second last game. But our German lads more of the Kampfgeist, strategy and tactics, wasn’t it? They worked hard, ran, fought, had discipline, team-spirit and endurance. Özil, Klose, Podolski, Müller et al were at their best, especially Podolski and Klose who in reality weren’t in form in their respective clubs but rose to the occasion and thanked trainer Löw with unforgettable goals. As the last 45 minutes ticked away David Beckham’s countenance became a granite mask. The fact that he’d patted his colleagues and spoken words of courage in the intermission hadn’t helped a bit. Good old Rooney wasn’t his old self either. The Guardian called it ‘an ignominious defeat.’ Another found the English team’s performance ‘an abysmal display.’ Alas, Mueller buried England’s World Cup dream: Three Lions Muller-ed by Germans and the ref.

Maradona’s Agentinians have won a decisive 3-1 battle against the Mexicans. Ah, what a promising match. I don’t want to conjour up memories of the Falklands, but it’ll be a German waltz versus Argentinian tango. Which team might win? Your guess is just as good as mine. I pead for more of the ratio and less of the emotio. The better team shall prevail.

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