~ FIFA World Cup 2014 [June 12 - July 13] ~

[MysteRy]

Germans revel in first World Cup win in 24 years



Jubilant Germans celebrated in the streets on Sunday night, lighting fireworks, embracing strangers, honking car horns and reveling in their first World Cup win in 24 years.

Roars of delight soared from Berlin's massive fan zone, stretching 1.3 kilometers from the Brandenburg Gate, where 300,000 fans had braved torrential downpours and thunder storms to endure an agonizing 113 goalless minutes before a Mario Goetze volley gave Germany a fourth World Cup crown.

"This is such an awesome feeling. I'm overwhelmed. The team kept us waiting for that goal, but we won in the end and that's what matters," said 23-year-old Marcus Angrick from Bernau, outside Berlin.

"This team is so good, we won't have to wait another 24 years to win again."

Thousands of fans streamed down West Berlin's famous Kurfuerstendamm, waving flags and umbrellas after watching Germany become the first European team to lift the World Cup on South American soil.

On neighboring streets, cars revved loudly and honked horns, while girls in wigs with Germany colors and flags hung out of windows and rode on car roofs.

Others climbed lamp posts, toasting Germany's victory with beers and chanting, "Germany, Champions, Hallelujah!"

"1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 -- we fought hard for our fourth win and it was totally deserved. Congratulations," tweeted Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert, referring to Germany's four World Cup titles. He had traveled with the chancellor to Rio de Janeiro for the final.

'TREMBLING AND SHAKING'

Crowds whooped with delight as they watched Merkel, nicknamed "Mutti" or 'mummy' in Germany, embrace each German player after the match.

"Yes, yes yes!!! Jogi you did it!! Huge compliment to Argentina but the best team won the 2014 World Cup!" tweeted U.S. coach Juergen Klinsmann.

Klinsmann was Germany's manager during the 2006 World Cup, when current manager Joachim Loew, affectionately known as 'Jogi' in Germany, was his assistant.

"I'm really delighted," said 49-year-old Berlin nurse Simone Sieg, grinning because her name means 'victory' in Germany.

"I remember the last time Germany won the World Cup in 1990. I was watching at home in East Berlin. Germany hadn't even been reunited then.

"So much has changed about how we celebrate - it is wonderful."

Soccer and the success of the national team since the World Cup Germany hosted in 2006, is credited with allowing Germans to take pride in their nation and wave flags and paint their faces with unprecedented ease.

Previously Germans had been highly uncomfortable at any display of nationalism because of the country's history.

"It was an anxious game. I was trembling and shaking," German President Joachim Gauck, who had also traveled to Rio, told German television.

"But now I'm thrilled," he added.

[MysteRy]

Germany's triumph was 10 years in the making: Loew



Germany's World Cup victory on Sunday was not just down to 50 days of good preparation for the tournament but was the culmination of a meticulously-planned long-term project, coach Joachim Loew said.

Loew, who took over from Juergen Klinsmann in 2006 after their third-place finish at the World Cup in Germany, said were it not for the team's first-round exits in earlier tournaments their fourth World Cup win may have been delayed.

"I think that we were 50 days together but this is a project we started 10 years ago," the 54-year-old said after his team Argentina 1-0 in the final.

"We started it with Juergen Klinsmann (after 2004) and then we continued it. Our biggest strength is that we improved throughout the years even if we missed taking that last step at tournaments."

Germany made at least the semi-finals in the last two World Cups and European Championships after failing to get past the group stage at Euro 2000 and 2004.

"We knew we would take that last step and we believed in it and today it finally worked," he said.

Those setbacks led to the creation of a national plan to invest in youth centers for the sport with many players in Loew's current team, including 22-year-old Mario Goetze who scored the extra-time winner against Argentina.

"We were disappointed at times in the past but today there was only deserved winner. This team. It is a special moment because it was not just these days here but the entire 10 years," he said.

Loew said during that time German players had to learn not to rely only on what he said were the traditional German virtues of working hard and battling until the very end.

Young players had to learn more skills to be able to compete with foreign clubs and national teams.

"The Bundesliga has a big part in this with its training centers," he said.

"In 2000 and 2004, German football was at the very bottom. But we took action to invest in training, to become technically better.

"The German virtues were not enough any more and we had to improve our skills."

The first signs were visible at the 2010 World Cup when Loew fielded their youngest team in 76 years and their attractive attacking style won over many fans.

"The clubs also have their share in this because they got younger and younger players into the first teams. They are doing great work and I have to thank them for that," he said.

[MysteRy]

Argentina 'lacked efficiency' in front of goal



Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella heaped praise on his team after Sunday's 1-0 World Cup final defeat by Germany on Sunday, saying they gave their all but lacked cutting edge in front of goal during an even game.

"They played a fantastic World Cup. There's nothing to blame them for," a drained-looking Sabella said at a news conference after Mario Goetze's extra time volley sunk his team.

"Today we had our chances but we just lacked efficiency. In general terms, though, I am very proud. Beyond the pain of defeat they can look each other in the eye, and look in the mirror, and know they gave their all for Argentina."

Striker Gonzalo Higuain missed Argentina's best chance when a careless header towards his own goal by Germany's Tony Kroos put him put him clear with only Manuel Neuer to beat, but he dragged his shot wide.

Messi saw plenty of the ball but got few breakthroughs, only escaping his markers once but angling a shot wide.

"This was a very even match. They (Germany) are a great team. The match had its ups and downs. Germany had greater command of play and possession. Our games are very similar and when there are chances, you have to convert," Sabella said.

"Then in these big games, if you make a mistake and let a goal in, it's very difficult to come back. But the only thing I can do is congratulate my players, they did an extraordinary job, and congratulate Germany for the title."

Sabella, whose agent has said he would stand down after the World Cup final, declined to discuss his future.

"The future for me in this moment is to be with the players, to be with the coaching staff, to be with my family, to rest a bit. About the future, I can???t really say anything," he said.

PRAISE FOR MESSI

Asked if Messi had missed a chance to join the world's greats by not winning the World Cup, Sabella said the Argentina captain and Barcelona forward had already answered that debate.

"I think Lionel reached the pantheon of the greats a while back," he said, adding that Messi fully deserved his "Golden Ball" award for best player. "He played a great World Cup to get us where he did. I think it's very deserved."

The coach described the mood among his charges in Argentina's dressing room as somber.

"It is the silence of the warrior because they were warriors. They left their skin out there, their last drop of sweat on the pitch," he said.

"The players are very bitter. We had a great dream. We wanted to win the final. To be perfect, we had to be more efficient. I'm sad like the players. On the one hand, it's a normal pain to have not won. But on the other, I'm satisfied because the group gave their all, they're a marvelous group."

Argentina should be praised and remembered for reaching their first final since 1990, he said.

"I leave with a double feeling the frustration of not achieving the dream, but also the satisfaction of having fulfilled our duty to give 100 percent."

Midfielder Javier Mascherano summed up the players' disappointment.

"We gave what we could and we are sorry for the people who came and for the people in Argentina," he said.

"Unfortunately the pain is going to be for life because this was our opportunity. That's what we felt. Football is like that. We'll have to lift our heads to try and bear the pain."

[MysteRy]

Goetze is Germany's wonder boy, says coach Loew



Germany forward Mario Goetze, who plundered the extra-time winner in the World Cup final against Argentina, is a wonder boy with immense qualities, coach Joachim Loew said on Sunday.

Substitute Goetze, who until the final had had a disappointing tournament, struck the only goal seven minutes before the end of extra time to clinch Germany's fourth World Cup.

"I told him 'you go out there and show the world that you are better than (Argentina captain) Lionel Messi and that you can decide the game tonight'," Loew told reporters.

Four-times world player of the year Messi was looking for a first World Cup victory that would place him among the world's greatest players.

But Goetze stole the show.

"That's what I told him and I had a good feeling," said Loew, who brought on the attacking midfielder two minutes before the end of normal time for striker Miroslav Klose.

The 22-year-old paid back his coach's trust, volleying in his second goal of the tournament after spending the past few games on the bench.

"Goetze is a wonder boy who has these immense abilities, this outstanding skill," Loew said. "He can always decide a game and he scored a great goal today."

For man-of-the-match Goetze, it had not been an easy tournament after initially failing to live up to expectations.

One of Germany's most talented and promising players, he scored in the group game against Ghana but then was not used much.

"It was not an easy year, not an easy tournament for me," said the softly-spoken Goetze.

"But I am just happy that the team won this title with me. I kept training with the team and every player here deserves it," said Goetze.

[MysteRy]

Scolari fired as Brazil manager, newspaper reports



Brazil have sacked manager Luiz Felipe Scolari just hours after the end of a home World Cup in which they suffered two of their worst defeats in the tournament's history, one of Brazil's leading newspapers reported on Monday.

Scolari's Brazil were favorites to win the tournament but were demolished 7-1 in a semi-final defeat by eventual champions Germany. To compound their misery, they then lost the third-place playoff 3-0 against the Netherlands.

Scolari, who led Brazil to the last of their record five World Cups in 2002, said after the game he would make a report to his bosses at the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and only then would his fate be decided.

But O Globo reported Scolari was fired late Sunday night. The paper said an official announcement would be made on Monday.

There was no confirmation from the CBF.

Scolari took over the post in November 2012 and lost just five of his 29 games in charge.

If his departure is confirmed, early front runners to replace him would be Tite, the man who led Corinthians to the Libertadores Cup and Club World Cup in 2012, and Muricy Ramalho, the current boss of Sao Paulo.

However, there will also be calls to hire a foreign manager for the first time in Brazil's history.

The CBF have always resisted that idea, with reports that Pep Guardiola was rejected before he joined Bayern Munich.

[MysteRy]

World Cup was biggest social media event ever: Facebook



Brazil's World Cup was the biggest social media event on record involving 350 million Facebook Inc users worldwide, the company claimed on Monday, as it made strides into the so-called "real-time" market dominated by Twitter.

People increasingly are using social networking to comment on global events seen on television, like the month-long soccer tournament won by Germany on Sunday.

Figures obtained by Reuters showed that the 350 million users generated a record Facebook "conversation" with 3 billion posts, comments and likes.

"We knew the World Cup was going to be big, but this level of engagement is remarkable," Nick Grudin, Facebook's director of global media partnerships, told Reuters.

"It was the highest level of conversation around a single event that we have ever measured."

Audience is crucial for companies like Facebook, which make money by selling ads to advertisers interested in reaching its 1.28 billion monthly active users.

Facebook's record traffic around the World Cup suggested the Menlo Park, California, company was increasingly used as a platform to discuss events in real time, a segment pioneered by microblogging website Twitter Inc.

The widespread use of mobile phones that have made social media seemingly ubiquitous helped explain Facebook's record numbers.

Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday was the most commented match of the tournament, with 88 million users and 280 million interactions, the company said.

Brazil's star Neymar led the ranking of most talked about player, followed by Argentina's Lionel Messi, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Uruguay's Luis Suárez.

And with 26 percent of all World Cup interactions, Brazil was the strongest voice in Facebook's biggest conversation ever. The United States accounted for 10 percent of the posts, comments and likes; Indonesia 6 percent; Mexico 5 percent and Argentina 4 percent.

"Facebook was the global stadium for the 2014 World Cup," said Facebook's Grudin.

[MysteRy]

Messi didn't deserve Golden Ball award: Maradona



Diego Maradona has declared that Lionel Messi did not deserve to be chosen as the best player of the 2014 World Cup, suggesting the Argentina forward won the award for marketing reasons.

A dejected Messi picked up Fifa’s Golden Ball for outstanding player of the tournament moments after Germany forward Mario Götze’s extra-time winner condemned Argentina to defeat in the World Cup final.

Messi had scored four goals in the group stages but failed to maintain his level of performance in the knock-out rounds, particularly against Germany and against the Netherlands in the semi-final, which Argentina won on penalties.

“I would give heaven and earth to Leo, but when marketing people want him to win something he didn’t (deserve to) win, it is unfair,” said Maradona, the winner of the Golden Ball when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986.
“I could see that he didn’t want to go up and collect it (the award).”

Barcelona star Messi is a prominent ambassador for sportswear manufacturer Adidas, also an official Fifa partner.

Speaking on the final edition of his World Cup television programme De Zurda, Maradona said Colombia’s James Rodriguez, who won the Golden Boot as the top scorer in the tournament, was his choice for the Golden Ball.
Germany have now beaten Argentina in each of the last three World Cups, thrashing a side coached by Maradona 4-0 in 2010.

But on this occasion, the former Argentina captain said there was little to choose between the two teams.
“We raised our flag high, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“Germany won due to a misunderstanding in the defence but at no point were they better than us. They showed us a lot of respect, and our lads earned that out on the pitch.”

[MysteRy]

Germany’s 12th Man at the World Cup: Big Data


Germany’s national team uses SAP 's Match Insight tool to help players make adjustments to position, ball handing and speed.

As Germany prepares for Sunday’s World Cup final against Argentina, it will have Big Data on its side.

To gain a competitive edge, the team partnered with German software giant SAP AG to create a custom match analysis tool that collects and analyzes massive amounts of player performance data.

The tool, called Match Insights, analyzes video data from on-field cameras capable of capturing thousands of data points per second, including player position and speed. That data then goes into an SAP database that runs analytics and allows coaches to target performance metrics for specific players and give them feedback via their mobile devices.

A focus for the German team this year was speed, said Nicolas Jungkind, SAP’s head of soccer sponsorships. Using Match Insights, the team was able to analyze stats about average possession time and cut it down from 3.4 seconds to about 1.1 seconds, he said. The tool allowed them to identify and visualize the change and show it to coaches, players and scouts. “That then goes into the game philosophy of the German team. What is apparent is the aggressive style Germany plays.”

That style of play was evident Tuesday in Germany’s 7-1 victory over Brazil, which included three goals scored in a span of 179 seconds. “Despite possessing the ball for 52% of Tuesday’s game, Brazil created barely a handful of chances,” the Journal’s Jonathan Clegg wrote. “In contrast, Germany passed the ball at full speed to create holes in the defense and clinically took advantage.”

The tool also allows coaches to determine performance indicators for individual players, which they can then send to teammates’ mobile devices. If a coach wanted to adjust Thomas Mueller’s speed, position or possession time, for example, he could send those stats and a video clip from that day’s game to Mueller’s cellphone. Players can also take a look at their performance data at a setup in the players’ lounge.

The tool is giving the German coaches in Brazil the ability “to crawl through complex video and make it simple for them to know what they need to win,” said Chris Burton, SAP’s group vice president for global sponsorships.

When it comes to positioning on the field, Match Insights can show the team virtual “defensive shadows” that show how much area a player can protect with his own body, Mr. Jungkind said. That can help them visualize and exploit weak links in an opponent’s setup.


SAP’s Match Insight can help players better understand and tweak their ball handling skills.

Soccer is among the growing list of sports being transformed by Big Data (Moneyball is probably an outdated reference at this point). The use of data and statistics to gain a competitive advantage has grown across a wide range of sports including basketball, tennis, and even, just a little bit, Ultimate Frisbee.

When not watching their own tapes during the World Cup, the German team was studying up on the performance of its competitors. “We also have a lot of qualitative data for the opposition available,” German team general manager Oliver Bierhoff said in an interview with ESPN this week. “Jérôme Boateng asked to look at the way Cristiano Ronaldo moves in the box, to use another example. And before the game against France, we saw that the French were very concentrated in the middle but left spaces on the flanks because their full-backs didn’t push up properly. So we targeted those areas.”

Before it walloped Brazil earlier this week, the German team had spent years working with university students to gather intel on the home team, Reuters reports. Working with sports students at a university in Cologne, they reviewed an extensive dataset that included how Brazil’s players reacted in pressure situations, their preferred routes and how they responded when fouled.

The Match Insights tool is exclusive to the German team right now, but SAP has plans to sell it more broadly in the future. “We are all about supporting our home team right now,” said Mr. Burton. “After this we’ll want to maximize what we think is a credible tool for sport.” There’s no public timeline, he said, but the tool “will become a product I’m sure in Q4.”

[MysteRy]

Blatter says 2014 World Cup was '9.25 out of 10'



The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was a '9.25 out of 10', FIFA President Sepp Blatter has said.

Germany bagged their fourth World Cup trophy on Sunday after defeating Argentina by 1-0 to end a tournament that featured a record of 171 goals and was reportedly described by some as the best ever.

Blatter said that they were calculating using all the computers and Facebooks, and then out of 10 they came 9.25, and the FIFA president marked the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as nine out of 10, The BBC reported.
 
The 78-year-old said that Brazil has improved since South Africa after the 20th World Cup concluded on July 13.

Despite pre-tournament fears surrounding security, transport and stadiums proving largely unfounded, the World Cup was successful as it saw a 5-1 thrashing of holders Spain by Netherlands and Germany humiliating the hosts Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals.

The tournament saw underdogs Costa Rica, Algeria and Columbia all impressing in the knockout stages and it also saw a controversy with Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez being banned for four months after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.

The next World Cup would be hosted by Russia in four years' time, the report added. (ANI)

[MysteRy]

Blatter surprised with Messi winning Golden Ball award in WC



FIFA President Sepp Blatter has said that Argentina's Lionel Messi being named the World Cup's best player left him a little bit surprised.

Blatter is of the opinion that Messi, who was awarded the Golden Ball after Argentina's 1-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup final, was given the award on the strength of his four goals during the group stage.

Even Argentina legend Diego Maradona felt that Messi had been a surprise choice and claimed that Colombia's James Rodriguez had performed better in Brazil, The BBC reported.
 
Maradona, who was named the best player when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986, said that the marketing people had chosen the wrong man and called the decision unfair.

Meanwhile, Messi said that he does not care about the prize right now, adding that he wanted to take Argentina to the World Cup for all the people.

FIFA's Technical Study Group, a 13-strong committee that analyses matches at international tournaments, decides The Golden Ball and other individual prizes, such as the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper, the report added. (ANI)

[MysteRy]

Germany printed World Cup victory stamps before final



Germany will this week issue a World Cup victory postage stamp, five million of which were printed before the final was even held, officials said.

“This year I dared to hope very early on that our team would take the title,” said Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday.

“It’s wonderful that the team turned this dream into a reality. I hope that this stamp will remind many citizens of the immense joy the team has given us.”

The 60-cent stamp, marked “Germany Football World Champion 2014”, will go on sale on Thursday after the first commemorative copies are presented to the coach, players and team staff.

Graphic designer Lutz Menze told DPA that the image shows footballers running, but not their faces in order to honour the whole team, not an individual.

Menze said that producing a stamp usually takes six months, but that he was only contacted by the government after the tournament had already started.

At a press conference on Monday, a journalist asked a finance ministry spokeswoman what would have happened to the print run if Germany had lost.

The ministry spokeswoman replied simply: “We always firmly believed the German team would win.”

She said she did not know how much had been paid to print the stamps but the news conference moderator noted that had the Germans lost, “their value probably would have gone through the roof”.