Inspired by Elaine V. Emeth and reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
After two "silent reconstructive years" of achieving a tenuous inner repose in the reclusive aftermath of being taken advantage of while trying to claim kinship and thus reverse the demise of her family; shortly before her child Sorrow's death which was preceded by her emergency home baptism of the hotly loved though inwardly spurned child, but a few months after the all-too-expected outcome of her stay with her "bogus kinsfolk"; well after settling in her mind that her home village would not be where she would be able to veil and outgrow her fate and at the age of 20 make a new start; again, through the arrangement of her mother, Tess Durbeyfield sets off for a neighboring county to the southeast of her Blackmoor Vale, Wessex roots. Tess "felt the pulse of hopeful life still warm within her; she might be happy in some nook which had no memories. To escape the past and all that appertained thereto was to annihilate it, and to do that she would have to get away." Yet is her taking off in fact her own choice or a reaction to tenets abroad at the time? Hardy drops a clue and considers her movements through semi-omniscient eyes. As she leaves her home once again and its nearby scene of her entanglement with the 'brut' lover, Hardy's narration gives the story a naturalistic overtone and her more settled mind is still rift with a troubled outlook and conflicted sentiments, in fact her whole train of rationalizing and perplexed thought is played off by the figure she forms upon the changing landscape--insignificant, only noticed by an alighting heron, only fleetingly called to mind by her family after her departure from her home village. This is Hardy juxtaposing the innermost feeling of his heroine against the fabric of village and rural life and letting it play out on the Wessex scene and therefore making his readers long for more of his writing.
In Hardy's words: Tess stood still upon the hemmed expanse of verdant flatness, like a fly on a billiard-table of indefinite length, and of no more consequence to the surroundings than that fly. The sole effect of her presence upon the placid valley so far has been to excite the mind of a solitary heron, which, after descending to the ground not far from her path, stood with neck erect, looking at her.
Flash association: Successfully ministering as an elder in the United Methodist Church while combatting the effects of multiple sclerosis, Elaine V. Emeth hits on similar sentiments of a spiritual journey in her poem "Dancing in the Dark."
"... having to crawl cautiously to an unfamiliar place,
testing the ground each step of the way.
What perils lie in my path?
Where am I?
What inner light can guide me
when I am lost
and cannot see at all?"
[Weavings, XVII: I January/February 2002, p. 23]
The difference here is spun by Hardy so that we know Tess is in a twin state of thoughtfulness and unreflected action which makes her countenance light up to the warm spring air of May in the less confining space of the new county's verdant expanse. However, there are clues dropped by Hardy that she is still not on her very own journey but had the prospects of work for the summer by dint of her mother's letter arranging the position. Another clue is how her emotional growth has gone from a very reclusive phase to one which is transmuted to optimism by the spring air - a sunny view and lack of thoughtfulness Hardy says is John Durbeyfield's character in her, to celebrate at the slightest of gains. I think her frame of mind is only a reprieve from the conflict she will face later. For now she is making a change, but the conflict remains below the surface and she hasn't formulated her response to this deeper theme and is not acting but, instead, reacting, making wrong turnings as she wends her way through new undiscovered country to the dairy and the forthcoming events which will take her precarious reprieve from her home and local village and her temporary delight in life she longs for but has as yet to earn and give it the next vexing spin.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
Christa Wolf speaking to massive crowd in East Berlin on November 4, 1989
On November 4, 1989, over 500,000 people gathered on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin to peacefully protest the East German regime. It was a culminating point in a series of events over several months, if not years, which led to German reunification.
Christa Wolf was one of several prominent public figures invited to speak. She gave a memorable ten-minute speech which I reproduce here in English to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the transformation and reunification of former West Germany and the GDR, never to be forgotten. In addition to all the German people I know played an important role in this, I thought Hungarian prime minister Miklós Németh was remarkably brave in helping "trigger" the transformation.
Original German: Christa Wolf footage of speech
We look on at the turncoats with amazement...
Dear fellow citizens,
Every revolutionary movement
also liberates language. What had
previously been so hard to say openly, now rolls right off our tongues. We are
amazed at what we had been thinking so long and we now shout out to each other:
Democracy now or never! And we
mean government by the people. We remember the bogged down or brutally
repressed approaches in our history and do not want to fail to seize the
opportunity in this crisis, it stirs all our productive powers. But we do not
want to rashly waste this chance either, or simply reverse the images of what the
enemy is.
I have difficulties with the
word Wende.(1) It brings to mind a sailboat; the captain
shouts out: “Get ready to change tack,” because the wind has shifted, the wind
is blowing in his face [applause], and the crew ducks as the boom sweeps across
the boat. But is this picture still an accurate one? Does it still fit a
situation that is being driven forward each day? I would describe it as
revolutionary renewal.
Revolutions start at the
bottom. The “bottom” and the “top” exchange places in the value system and turn
socialist society upside down. Major social developments are set in motion.
Never has there been so much talk, speaking with each other, in our country than has been seen these past few weeks, never before with this passion, with so much rage and sadness and with so much hope. We want to take advantage of every day, we do not sleep, or only a little, we become friends with new people and we argue in anguish with others. That is now called “dialogue” – we demanded it and now we can hardly stand hearing the word and still haven’t really learned what is meant by it. We stare, with a sense of mistrust, at certain hands suddenly extended toward us, into faces which had previously been so stony: “Mistrust is good, control even better” [applause] – we twist old sayings which once scorned and injured us and respond in kind. We are afraid of being exploited. And we fear rejecting an offer which is honestly meant. Our whole country is now in this Catch-22 dilemma. We know that we have to practice the art of not allowing these conflicting feelings to turn into confrontation: These weeks, these opportunities will be given to us only once – by our own selves. We look on at the turncoats (Wendehälse) with amazement. "Wendehals" is a German expression for a political chameleon who, as the dictionary says "quickly and easily adapts to a given situation, moves cleverly in such a situation, and knows how to gain from the situation." It is these people most of all who will block the credibility of the new political climate. We are not that far along yet that we can humorously shrug off the turncoats/Wendehälse – something we are already able to do in other cases. I can read “Fellow travelers – step down!” ["Trittbrettfahrer - zurücktreten!"] on banners. And demonstrators chanting at the police: “Change your clothes and join us!” – a generous offer.
In economic terms, we also
think: “If you have rule of law, who needs the StaSi (state security)!” (StaSi
was the GDR’s feared intelligence and secret police organization.)
And we are even willing to dispense with down-to-earth things:
And we are even willing to dispense with down-to-earth things:
“Fellow countrymen, turn your boob-tubes off! Join the Trabi motorcade!”
Indeed, the language sheds the bureaucratic and newspaper tone it was rolled up in and recalls words that have feeling. One of these words is “dream.” Therefore we dream with alert minds: Just imagine, there would be socialism and nobody went away!
Indeed, the language sheds the bureaucratic and newspaper tone it was rolled up in and recalls words that have feeling. One of these words is “dream.” Therefore we dream with alert minds: Just imagine, there would be socialism and nobody went away!
But we see the images of those who are fleeing even now and ask ourselves: “What can you do about it?” and we hear the echo in response: “Do something!”(2) The tasks (“Do something!”) begin now as the things we demand, rights, become obligations: investigation committees, constitutional tribunals, administrative reforms. A lot to be done, and all of it on top of our regular work.
Plus the newspaper too, and
eating! We won’t have any more time to go attend
adulatory military parades, prearranged popular demonstrations. This is a demo,
approved, non-violent. If it stays that way till the end, we will
again know more about what we are capable of and then we will insist on it. A proposal for May 1:
The leadership parades by in front of the people.
[crowd laughs in approval]
Unbelievable transformations. The “state citizenry of the GDR” takes to the streets in order to recognize itself as the people. And to me this is the most important sentence of these last few weeks – the thousand-fold cry:
We – are – the - people!
A simple statement of fact.
This we should not forget.
(1) The term Wende, which means a new political beginning and reorientation, was introduced as a new phrase in German as die Wende and symbolizes the unrest, upheaval and revolutionary movement and "about-face" of 1989 in the German Democratic Republic. As elsewhere in this text, Christa Wolf refers to the repressive GDR regime and its official use of words or nomenclature. For example, “dialogue” is ironic (she says she cannot stand hearing it anymore) and refers to speeches given by Egon Krenz, the General Secretary of the SED and the GDR's last Chairman of the State Council of the SED party, in which Krenz used the term Dialog in a manipulative and inhuman way. Everybody at the demonstration was aware that with his use of Dialog, Krenz had falsely claimed the mass demonstrations were still controlled by the Central Committee or even desired by it, and thus amounted to so-called “dialog.” By using the phrase die Wende, Krenz also tried to usurp the people’s revolution for himself, the Central Committee and the politburo: “As of today, we will initiate a Wende, we will, in particular, regain the political and ideological upper hand (speech by Egon Krenz, October 18, 1989). In the meantime, the political sea-change (Wende), which we initiated has taken hold of all areas of our society (speech by Egon Krenz, November 3, 1989).” It is perhaps fitting that "Die Wetterfahne" ("The Weathercock") was set to music by Schubert, for it also means somebody who is fickle and flip-flops depending on the political winds, or in this case, romantic inclination. Further discussion of Wendehals is found on Deutsche Welle.
(2) Rhetorically the German question keeps the same words of “Was tun” because the phrase can mean both a) What can be done (about it)? A resigned tone indicating, no, you can’t help those who still don’t believe. The second time it means b) Get up and do something (bring about the collapse of the regime) so that those who still don’t believe and are fleeing/going away will see there is no point in driving through Czechoslovakia to the Hungarian border to Austria, as so many in fact, hundreds of thousands, did.
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Flying to South Dakota, April 2000
Flying to Dad’s Funeral
The unpleasant premonition
that we’ve walked this earth with less gusto
and a hollow ring to our sloughing steps.
Myself knelt down to survey
the treeless moldings
of snow-blasted, snow-softened
Greenland – or was it Prince Rupert Island?
My first Leif Erikson view
out above the clouds
which offer their blanket
to stark masses of untamed land.
A certain pang struck me
as rills of sub-zero groundswells
arched in fish-fin precision
over and against unsmuch’t whiteness
of inviting purity.
My gaze sought out a sign of spring -
a lifeline to thaw the taut expanse
to relax frozen kinks
of steel-gray shoulders.
I cast out for a lone ambling deer,
a sliver of melt streaking the face
of cold December
with April’s fledgling warmth.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
My English Soccer Prediction Group - very occasional remarks
For two seasons now, since 2013 or round about then I've been in a group that guesses the outcomes of matches in the three highest divisions of English football. Interesting. We do it by uploading spreadsheets containing our guesses. Many of the 8 to 10 involved have known each other since university days, so if you comment online, you might ignite some venom from an old grudge in the 1980s. Tread carefully. Their favorite teams from lower divisions are included, which helps keep interest high.
I am North American, so I simply get to tag along, which suits me, too, since I'm learning so much.
What I haven't done is come out of the secret footballer closet and say why my predictions are so abominable sometimes. Okay, I do check the odds and my gut instincts are pretty good by now, but sometimes I commit a clattering error. I'm informed of this the next time I'm down round the pub and two of the Predictathon players from Brighton and Birmingham who live with me on a Spanish island tell me as much, shaking their heads.
Take this weekend, for example. As a non-European, I have had to bone up on what affects the final outcome of a game you predict. That's me: someone who at age 40, 11 years ago, had virtually no knowledge about the sport. Yes, I have very vague memories of standing in a European living room of some Irish/English guy named Ken Cronin in 1990 or 1992 or 1994 or 1996 or 1998 or so thinking: wow that young English guy IS good. Beckham or something. Or seeing about 3 of the key matches when France "went through" in 1998. Wow, Zinedine Zidane, amazing. Whatever. I was a long-distance runner and enjoyed basketball and baseball. But I essentialy knew nothing about tactics and close to nothing about what the rules really were. Away win, diving, relegation playoffs.
By 2004 and 2006 all that had changed.
In 2004 the Greek restaurant owner and his staff and family downstairs from our flat in Hamburg went running out of their tavern, screaming, dancing, ecstatic, becuase their motley crew had won the European Championships under a German manager. All done as complete underdogs. Okay, of course I remember how Denmark did that long, long ago in the mid-1990s, too. But I was so disinterested, I did little more than glance for seconds at some newspaper headline on the subway and thought, okay, fine. Good for them.
In 2006 Germany hosted the whole World Cup and finished 3rd and I was caught up in this amazing display of national allegiance to the team, love of sport, international understanding, Australians streaming to their game being held in Hamburg, all laughing, in a great mood, supporting their continent. And I really began to catch onto what was going on with the game. I knew what kind of timing, pace and intelligence it takes for David Odonkor to be "released" for a forward sprint and send in the deft cross or even score himself vs. Poland, what midfielders were best at vying for physical (rebound) position and control the flow of the game around the midfield stripe. The triangle-shaped one-touch passing of the Spaniards to befuddle opponents and twist legs into knots. Playing long balls over good defenders to neutralize their physical prowess, a concept now popular in Germany as "Anzahl überspielter Gegner" (number of defenders overtaken by a pass). I was becoming a football nerd in Europe.
Now to my most recent predictions and one or two interspersed sentences to explain the thought process behind them.
Liverpool: I am parochial, I know people who went there and did well, like Didi Hamann, great player, great sense of humor. But I also remember former Dortmunder Nuri Sahin being placed out of position by Brendan Rodgers, and it made no sense to me. I know Rodgers is good, but I don't particularly like his brand of coaching. It is fine, sure, but there are folks like Simeone at Atletico who just grate on my nerves. So I just come out and predict against their manager, not their players, not always, whenever I can, but not against the odds. Young Moreno, and a Henderson. Gerrard, Super Mario Balotteli, Raheem Sterling. That includes quality, and though people fear they are impotent up front, I think they will win, if only by one goal.
I will go down to the pub for the 4 p.m. game and hope Aston Villa appears on one of the screens. Chelsea were tame last time, and I always dislike players like Oscar if they haven't got energy, vigor and only play in a flashy manner, so that is why, though Villa are strong away, I can't see them hurting Chelsea without Christian Benteke recovered from injury, not to mention badly injured Kozak coming back to deftly dribble and also score.
Another guess I made was based on my not liking the form, shape or style of Tottenham Hotspur. Especially if hustling players (think Ivica Olic) like Lewis Holtby don't get enough playing time. The Kyle Walker bravado kinda guy, that is the Tottenham fit. Too bad he's out, but he is a kind of over-muscled chugga player who will run out of steam too soon in a fast-paced match. A pure team player with style like Holtby, that is not the brand of player which does well in the Premiere League. Thank goodness Lewis Holtby is back in Germany, to strengthen hapless Hamburg.
Same for Kagawa. There is something strange about a "team" which cannot integrate such a great player like him, which Manchester United failed to do. There you go, can't change it. And now to the guesses.
Who will ever know what little fact made me say "2:1" - after looking at recent form on soccerbase.com, I often think that had I followed my gut instinct, it would have turned out better.
One correct guess = 3 points, getting the result = 1, and wrong guesses = 0.
It's a past-time and nothing more, but makes for good talk and cheer among us, even with me as a relative newcomer welcomed by Rob to join Penny, Graeme, Simon, Bob, sometimes Graham.
What an accomplishment. Based on exact score outcomes, I was named runner-up and wear the silver medal with pride.
I am North American, so I simply get to tag along, which suits me, too, since I'm learning so much.
What I haven't done is come out of the secret footballer closet and say why my predictions are so abominable sometimes. Okay, I do check the odds and my gut instincts are pretty good by now, but sometimes I commit a clattering error. I'm informed of this the next time I'm down round the pub and two of the Predictathon players from Brighton and Birmingham who live with me on a Spanish island tell me as much, shaking their heads.
Take this weekend, for example. As a non-European, I have had to bone up on what affects the final outcome of a game you predict. That's me: someone who at age 40, 11 years ago, had virtually no knowledge about the sport. Yes, I have very vague memories of standing in a European living room of some Irish/English guy named Ken Cronin in 1990 or 1992 or 1994 or 1996 or 1998 or so thinking: wow that young English guy IS good. Beckham or something. Or seeing about 3 of the key matches when France "went through" in 1998. Wow, Zinedine Zidane, amazing. Whatever. I was a long-distance runner and enjoyed basketball and baseball. But I essentialy knew nothing about tactics and close to nothing about what the rules really were. Away win, diving, relegation playoffs.
By 2004 and 2006 all that had changed.
In 2004 the Greek restaurant owner and his staff and family downstairs from our flat in Hamburg went running out of their tavern, screaming, dancing, ecstatic, becuase their motley crew had won the European Championships under a German manager. All done as complete underdogs. Okay, of course I remember how Denmark did that long, long ago in the mid-1990s, too. But I was so disinterested, I did little more than glance for seconds at some newspaper headline on the subway and thought, okay, fine. Good for them.
In 2006 Germany hosted the whole World Cup and finished 3rd and I was caught up in this amazing display of national allegiance to the team, love of sport, international understanding, Australians streaming to their game being held in Hamburg, all laughing, in a great mood, supporting their continent. And I really began to catch onto what was going on with the game. I knew what kind of timing, pace and intelligence it takes for David Odonkor to be "released" for a forward sprint and send in the deft cross or even score himself vs. Poland, what midfielders were best at vying for physical (rebound) position and control the flow of the game around the midfield stripe. The triangle-shaped one-touch passing of the Spaniards to befuddle opponents and twist legs into knots. Playing long balls over good defenders to neutralize their physical prowess, a concept now popular in Germany as "Anzahl überspielter Gegner" (number of defenders overtaken by a pass). I was becoming a football nerd in Europe.
Now to my most recent predictions and one or two interspersed sentences to explain the thought process behind them.
Liverpool: I am parochial, I know people who went there and did well, like Didi Hamann, great player, great sense of humor. But I also remember former Dortmunder Nuri Sahin being placed out of position by Brendan Rodgers, and it made no sense to me. I know Rodgers is good, but I don't particularly like his brand of coaching. It is fine, sure, but there are folks like Simeone at Atletico who just grate on my nerves. So I just come out and predict against their manager, not their players, not always, whenever I can, but not against the odds. Young Moreno, and a Henderson. Gerrard, Super Mario Balotteli, Raheem Sterling. That includes quality, and though people fear they are impotent up front, I think they will win, if only by one goal.
I will go down to the pub for the 4 p.m. game and hope Aston Villa appears on one of the screens. Chelsea were tame last time, and I always dislike players like Oscar if they haven't got energy, vigor and only play in a flashy manner, so that is why, though Villa are strong away, I can't see them hurting Chelsea without Christian Benteke recovered from injury, not to mention badly injured Kozak coming back to deftly dribble and also score.
Another guess I made was based on my not liking the form, shape or style of Tottenham Hotspur. Especially if hustling players (think Ivica Olic) like Lewis Holtby don't get enough playing time. The Kyle Walker bravado kinda guy, that is the Tottenham fit. Too bad he's out, but he is a kind of over-muscled chugga player who will run out of steam too soon in a fast-paced match. A pure team player with style like Holtby, that is not the brand of player which does well in the Premiere League. Thank goodness Lewis Holtby is back in Germany, to strengthen hapless Hamburg.
Same for Kagawa. There is something strange about a "team" which cannot integrate such a great player like him, which Manchester United failed to do. There you go, can't change it. And now to the guesses.
Who will ever know what little fact made me say "2:1" - after looking at recent form on soccerbase.com, I often think that had I followed my gut instinct, it would have turned out better.
One correct guess = 3 points, getting the result = 1, and wrong guesses = 0.
| Sat 27th September, 2014 | Liverpool | 2 | 1 | Everton | ||||
| Chelsea | 2 | 1 | Aston Villa | |||||
| Crystal Palace | 1 | 2 | Leicester | |||||
| Hull | 1 | 2 | Man City | |||||
| Man Utd | 2 | 1 | West Ham | |||||
| Southampton | 1 | 0 | QPR | |||||
| Sunderland | 1 | 1 | Swansea | |||||
| Arsenal | 3 | 1 | Tottenham | |||||
| Bolton | 2 | 1 | Derby | |||||
| Bristol City | 2 | 2 | MK Dons | |||||
| Coventry | 1 | 2 | Preston | |||||
| Exeter | 0 | 1 | Bury | |||||
| Sun 28th September | West Brom | 1 | 0 | Burnley | ||||
| Mon 29th September | Stoke | 2 | 1 | Newcastle |
It's a past-time and nothing more, but makes for good talk and cheer among us, even with me as a relative newcomer welcomed by Rob to join Penny, Graeme, Simon, Bob, sometimes Graham.
Update from 2019
We continued on into the Predictathon's 16th year. It is my 7th season. My great moment (so far, mind you) was tying with the season winner Simon on the last day of the 2015-16 season.What an accomplishment. Based on exact score outcomes, I was named runner-up and wear the silver medal with pride.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Prodigal Son Shinji Kagawa Returns to Dortmund with a Bang
I have an inkling: Having a Daily Fit, very very costly Angel di Maria and Marcus Rojos and their teammates might all bow out of Europa League contention, of course yielding to upstarts like Aston Villa, while the new coach is nearing an irreversible flood stage of "River of Talent" Blindness in the wake (get it?) of seeing Shinji Kagawa's return debut in Germany yesterday.
Okay, enough stream-of-consciusness. The plain facts.
After a two-year walk through the wilderness with the very occasional oasis, the services of long-suffering Shinji Kagawa were finally re-acquired by BVB and the Japanese national made his home stadium debut yesterday at Borussia Park to neatly slot in a goal for the traditional coal-mining region club. He also added a butter-soft, beautifully timed and deftly executed assist in the Dortmund club's 3-1 win over Freiburg. Kagawa had demonstrated that kind of presence and brilliant passing on the ManU summer US tour http://tinyurl.com/qywfarb and in the Premiere League but only when given an unqualified, no strings attached chance to. Short-term memory: his pass late in the Real Madrid game on August 2 to Chicharito was fabulous, and Hernandez knew it, giving Shinji all the credit. For one thing: ManU only needed to play and integrate Kagawa for more than 2 matches in a row (shortsightedness) and they would have never finished in that now deserved "only" 7th place spot - leaving them fuming that they have only "two shots at silver" after only a few weeks of their 2014-2015 campaign.
ManU fans are constantly harping on their prayer wheel that Rooney gives it everything he has for the team. Hmm. That is too undifferentiated. He also gives it less when it would help the team, but - ahem - strengthen a player vying for a deserved No. 10 spot, even if his team suffers for it. Just analyze the video when Valencia was on the pitch with Kagawa: how often did the two hook up and give the ball back and forth?
How many times not?
Neutral voice: "Kagawa could be open all day right in front of Rooney and more times than not Rooney will attempt a much more difficult pass." http://tinyurl.com/o4xmo88
With a little team support and endurance on the part of the trainer team, he would be a headline player sometimes, and a deserved regular almost all the time.
Change to the Continent: Now all signs so far indicate he will be a valuable marquee player, a substitute sometimes, too, no doubt, but will have the space to fulfill his promise and expectations in the right context - in the good hands of Jürgen Klopp, master trainer. If this doesn't happen, it would surprise me.
Of course you can say the mix was wrong, or you can say Manchester United were profligate or hanging onto old stars, or favoring Rooney, as always, or whatever. Rebuilding? Or you could just watch for a few hours and comment like Lucille Ball: "Ricky, they play like a bunch of ballerinas, they dive and cheat their way to victory, and the coach hasn't got that kind of behavior under control. Ricky, if the captain, doesn't get, how should the team get it - it's just like your band, right?" Wonder when that culture will change.
If you see Max Kruse and his playing style, you might also wonder, despite all that he does, whether he will ever mix in with a team like the Nationalelf. He was the dominant player on a star-studded Borrussia Mönchengladbach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borussia_M%C3%B6nchengladbach#Current_squad side yesterday, but nevertheless, somehow it is the chemistry which counts. With Lucien Favre, Max Kruse is in good hands and a threat with his mobility, selfless passing and good scorring. Will he be given a twin-attacking role by Joachim Löw, like the beautiful pairing he now is with Raffael? One would hope this is possible.
With Moyes and with Alex Ferguson, Shinji Kagawa was without a doubt in less than good hands.
Okay, enough stream-of-consciusness. The plain facts.
After a two-year walk through the wilderness with the very occasional oasis, the services of long-suffering Shinji Kagawa were finally re-acquired by BVB and the Japanese national made his home stadium debut yesterday at Borussia Park to neatly slot in a goal for the traditional coal-mining region club. He also added a butter-soft, beautifully timed and deftly executed assist in the Dortmund club's 3-1 win over Freiburg. Kagawa had demonstrated that kind of presence and brilliant passing on the ManU summer US tour http://tinyurl.com/qywfarb and in the Premiere League but only when given an unqualified, no strings attached chance to. Short-term memory: his pass late in the Real Madrid game on August 2 to Chicharito was fabulous, and Hernandez knew it, giving Shinji all the credit. For one thing: ManU only needed to play and integrate Kagawa for more than 2 matches in a row (shortsightedness) and they would have never finished in that now deserved "only" 7th place spot - leaving them fuming that they have only "two shots at silver" after only a few weeks of their 2014-2015 campaign.
ManU fans are constantly harping on their prayer wheel that Rooney gives it everything he has for the team. Hmm. That is too undifferentiated. He also gives it less when it would help the team, but - ahem - strengthen a player vying for a deserved No. 10 spot, even if his team suffers for it. Just analyze the video when Valencia was on the pitch with Kagawa: how often did the two hook up and give the ball back and forth?
How many times not?
Neutral voice: "Kagawa could be open all day right in front of Rooney and more times than not Rooney will attempt a much more difficult pass." http://tinyurl.com/o4xmo88
With a little team support and endurance on the part of the trainer team, he would be a headline player sometimes, and a deserved regular almost all the time.
Change to the Continent: Now all signs so far indicate he will be a valuable marquee player, a substitute sometimes, too, no doubt, but will have the space to fulfill his promise and expectations in the right context - in the good hands of Jürgen Klopp, master trainer. If this doesn't happen, it would surprise me.
Of course you can say the mix was wrong, or you can say Manchester United were profligate or hanging onto old stars, or favoring Rooney, as always, or whatever. Rebuilding? Or you could just watch for a few hours and comment like Lucille Ball: "Ricky, they play like a bunch of ballerinas, they dive and cheat their way to victory, and the coach hasn't got that kind of behavior under control. Ricky, if the captain, doesn't get, how should the team get it - it's just like your band, right?" Wonder when that culture will change.
If you see Max Kruse and his playing style, you might also wonder, despite all that he does, whether he will ever mix in with a team like the Nationalelf. He was the dominant player on a star-studded Borrussia Mönchengladbach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borussia_M%C3%B6nchengladbach#Current_squad side yesterday, but nevertheless, somehow it is the chemistry which counts. With Lucien Favre, Max Kruse is in good hands and a threat with his mobility, selfless passing and good scorring. Will he be given a twin-attacking role by Joachim Löw, like the beautiful pairing he now is with Raffael? One would hope this is possible.
With Moyes and with Alex Ferguson, Shinji Kagawa was without a doubt in less than good hands.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
How one German paper analyzed the World Cup Final (Germany vs. Argentina) in 2014
A Tactical Look at the World Cup Final
by Tobias Escher and this blogger
[paraphrase translation and own reflections]
How did things play out in the 2014 World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro at the legendary Estádio do Maracanã.
The blend of veteran and upstart was intriguing: One pairing: 33-year old Martín Demichelis started as a veteran defender for Argentina. Miroslav Klose, 36, started for Germany. The German striker participating in his fourth consecutive semi-final or final at World Cups. A man-of-steel achievement. But Demichelis had also survived the "downsizings" to his own surprise, making the 30- and 23-man cuts and eventually getting an upgrade to the starting 11 from the quarter-finals forward. Having been teammates at Bayern München from 2007 to 2010 made it unlikely that Klose and Demichelis would surprise each other.
[Tobias Escher]
Argentina was willing to let Germany dominate possession and the South Americans set up their two back lines of four defender/midfielders within their own area.
If the Germans hadn't been wary and tried only short passes in one area, leaving the ball in one place would have invited zone pressing and ultimate loss of the ball. Argentina was hoping for counter-attacks, lurking in hope of a mistake. But Germany kept switching sides on their attack (those trademark 35-yard blooping passes from one flank to the other) while tending to attack from Müller and Lahm's right side. This tactic kept the number of times the ball was lost near midfield to a minimum, and kept Argentina from mounting too many counterattacks.
Once Germany did give up possession, it was often at a point "geographically" the farthest away from where Lionel Messi was. The choice on the attack affects the other team's options. This tendency by Germany made it more time-consuming to "feed" Argentina's strong Messi side of the attack on its right.
In a nutshell, Germany kept thwarting a swarm zone defense - and in the Brazilian climate, that tactic made players tired for Argentina. And, if Argentina did regain possession, to make things go faster, they relied on long (hoofed) passes. These passes worked pretty well, even surprisingly so, but the defenders Höwedes, Schweinsteiger and Hummels kept taking turns (co)badgering Messi.
After half-time, the Argentinians switched Messi to the playmaker "10" position, with Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuain as two strikers ahead of him. The Germans gradually responded to this system change, positioning André Schürrle wider, near the touchline to spread out Argentina's 3 midfielders, creating more space to attack the Gauchos. In a low-scoring or 0-0 game, the weak spots aren't noticed quite so soon. Schweinsteiger began to work the wings, orchestrating the German offense, leaving aside defensive responsibilities for others. Germany had mobile players shifting and funneling through - a winger would suck his defender out of an area where a key pass would occur. This was what happened a number of times as Germany tried to force a winning goal rather than wait out extra time for penalties. In the 113th minute, the tactic worked. Götze picked up a great cross snaked through two Argentina defenders covering Schürrle, the new "Super Mario" controlled the inbound pass with his chest and converted the left-footed volley with panache past the outstretched arms of Romero, an iconic goal.
[own analysis]
Funnily enough, when defending a Messi thrust into the German penalty area, Schweinsteiger also made a calculated risk to go over and try to block the pass coming only a few yards away from the goal line, as Argentina did against Schürrle from closer to the touch-line, but Schweinsteiger was never going to let that ball through to the surging Messi.
By contrast, Argentina's defenders let the ball through to Götze. Tired legs. Trophy won. But, to me, much glory must go to Jerome Boateng, who was Man of the Match and, in a finally tally, alongside Hummels, certainly better than Messi in the tournament overall.
But defenders are never singled out for commendation in formal terms - only goalies and strikers. It is the way of the world.
In summary, [Tobias Escher] Germany had an answer to the flow and style of play its opponent put on the pitch in every phase of the game. [own analysis now] Having said that, the tactic used by Argentina to hope to release Lionel Messi - if only one deadly time throughout 120 minutes - was fairly conservative. Why not get Sergio Agüero on the pitch sooner - a man who scored in 53 percent of the games he played at Man City? And had Germany not responded with its balanced but attacking style and fallen into a similarly guarded mode like Holland in the semi-final (how stultifying and uncreative), the final would have become plodding. Instead it became a shrewdly but absorbing game, with its protagonists really playing football and tackling and attacking in the air and on the ground for the planet's most coveted team sport trophy.
Based on http://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/wm-2014/article130122638/Deutschland-wankt-nach-Argentiniens-Systemwechsel.html
by Tobias Escher and this blogger
[paraphrase translation and own reflections]
How did things play out in the 2014 World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro at the legendary Estádio do Maracanã.
The blend of veteran and upstart was intriguing: One pairing: 33-year old Martín Demichelis started as a veteran defender for Argentina. Miroslav Klose, 36, started for Germany. The German striker participating in his fourth consecutive semi-final or final at World Cups. A man-of-steel achievement. But Demichelis had also survived the "downsizings" to his own surprise, making the 30- and 23-man cuts and eventually getting an upgrade to the starting 11 from the quarter-finals forward. Having been teammates at Bayern München from 2007 to 2010 made it unlikely that Klose and Demichelis would surprise each other.
[Tobias Escher]
Argentina was willing to let Germany dominate possession and the South Americans set up their two back lines of four defender/midfielders within their own area.
If the Germans hadn't been wary and tried only short passes in one area, leaving the ball in one place would have invited zone pressing and ultimate loss of the ball. Argentina was hoping for counter-attacks, lurking in hope of a mistake. But Germany kept switching sides on their attack (those trademark 35-yard blooping passes from one flank to the other) while tending to attack from Müller and Lahm's right side. This tactic kept the number of times the ball was lost near midfield to a minimum, and kept Argentina from mounting too many counterattacks.
Once Germany did give up possession, it was often at a point "geographically" the farthest away from where Lionel Messi was. The choice on the attack affects the other team's options. This tendency by Germany made it more time-consuming to "feed" Argentina's strong Messi side of the attack on its right.
In a nutshell, Germany kept thwarting a swarm zone defense - and in the Brazilian climate, that tactic made players tired for Argentina. And, if Argentina did regain possession, to make things go faster, they relied on long (hoofed) passes. These passes worked pretty well, even surprisingly so, but the defenders Höwedes, Schweinsteiger and Hummels kept taking turns (co)badgering Messi.
After half-time, the Argentinians switched Messi to the playmaker "10" position, with Sergio Agüero and Gonzalo Higuain as two strikers ahead of him. The Germans gradually responded to this system change, positioning André Schürrle wider, near the touchline to spread out Argentina's 3 midfielders, creating more space to attack the Gauchos. In a low-scoring or 0-0 game, the weak spots aren't noticed quite so soon. Schweinsteiger began to work the wings, orchestrating the German offense, leaving aside defensive responsibilities for others. Germany had mobile players shifting and funneling through - a winger would suck his defender out of an area where a key pass would occur. This was what happened a number of times as Germany tried to force a winning goal rather than wait out extra time for penalties. In the 113th minute, the tactic worked. Götze picked up a great cross snaked through two Argentina defenders covering Schürrle, the new "Super Mario" controlled the inbound pass with his chest and converted the left-footed volley with panache past the outstretched arms of Romero, an iconic goal.
[own analysis]
Funnily enough, when defending a Messi thrust into the German penalty area, Schweinsteiger also made a calculated risk to go over and try to block the pass coming only a few yards away from the goal line, as Argentina did against Schürrle from closer to the touch-line, but Schweinsteiger was never going to let that ball through to the surging Messi.
By contrast, Argentina's defenders let the ball through to Götze. Tired legs. Trophy won. But, to me, much glory must go to Jerome Boateng, who was Man of the Match and, in a finally tally, alongside Hummels, certainly better than Messi in the tournament overall.
But defenders are never singled out for commendation in formal terms - only goalies and strikers. It is the way of the world.
In summary, [Tobias Escher] Germany had an answer to the flow and style of play its opponent put on the pitch in every phase of the game. [own analysis now] Having said that, the tactic used by Argentina to hope to release Lionel Messi - if only one deadly time throughout 120 minutes - was fairly conservative. Why not get Sergio Agüero on the pitch sooner - a man who scored in 53 percent of the games he played at Man City? And had Germany not responded with its balanced but attacking style and fallen into a similarly guarded mode like Holland in the semi-final (how stultifying and uncreative), the final would have become plodding. Instead it became a shrewdly but absorbing game, with its protagonists really playing football and tackling and attacking in the air and on the ground for the planet's most coveted team sport trophy.
Based on http://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/wm-2014/article130122638/Deutschland-wankt-nach-Argentiniens-Systemwechsel.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)