alexandros
Youth Team
I've been thinking recently that football is maybe the only collective sport worldwide were national characteristics (even if they are clihes) are shown with so much frequency. In other words,national teams more than usually play according to the nation's (supposed) mentality.
Some good examples might be the hard-working and devoted germans,the great fighting spirit of british and irish,the sophisticated and delicate french,the samba-dancind brazilians and Argentina with the great history of artist and people with a real fighting spirit, just to mention some of the stronger footballing nations.One might as well refer to e.g. the greek team,which reflected almost every positive and negative aspect of greek people-a bit lazy and unwilling to work hard,easily drown when a supposedly easy game turns tough but also great fighters when emotionally touched and motivated.No wonder why Greece lost the only Euro 2004 match where they were supposed to be favorites(against Russia).
The list might be larger including almost every nation on earth-and for those who might "sniff up" a hidden racism,just to note that I don't use those "cliches" to rate nations,but only to spot some differences shown in mentality and expressed on the pitch,as well as other aspects of life.
Some good examples might be the hard-working and devoted germans,the great fighting spirit of british and irish,the sophisticated and delicate french,the samba-dancind brazilians and Argentina with the great history of artist and people with a real fighting spirit, just to mention some of the stronger footballing nations.One might as well refer to e.g. the greek team,which reflected almost every positive and negative aspect of greek people-a bit lazy and unwilling to work hard,easily drown when a supposedly easy game turns tough but also great fighters when emotionally touched and motivated.No wonder why Greece lost the only Euro 2004 match where they were supposed to be favorites(against Russia).
The list might be larger including almost every nation on earth-and for those who might "sniff up" a hidden racism,just to note that I don't use those "cliches" to rate nations,but only to spot some differences shown in mentality and expressed on the pitch,as well as other aspects of life.