a écrit le 31 juillet 2013 à 18h09 Their new game was dubbed 'concept football' and would inspire a whole group of young soon-to-be coaches. (Among them the men responsible for how Germany played at the 2006 World Cup.) Of course, it wasn't entirely new. Arrigo Sacchi's Milan had set a precedent. But Freiburg tried to make it work without Baresi, Maldini, Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten - and held their own.
The man who, next to Finke, was most responsible for this sensational success story saw none of it. Achim Stocker, president since 1972, couldn't stand the tension of watching the games and preferred to follow them via teletext. Pretty much like Billy Beane in Moneyball, who 'couldn't bear to watch and carried around a little box that received a satellite feed of live baseball', as Michael Lewis wrote.
This, I promise, is the last but one time I mention Moneyball. Like I said last week, the book only reminded me of the Freiburg story, that's all. You can't really compare two games and, above all, you certainly can't compare US sports to European sports. For instance, the worst that could have befallen the Oakland A's during their experiment was losing games and money. It's not as if they had to fear being demoted to Triple-A ball or whatever. But in football, that's what can happen.
The man who, next to Finke, was most responsible for this sensational success story saw none of it. Achim Stocker, president since 1972, couldn't stand the tension of watching the games and preferred to follow them via teletext. Pretty much like Billy Beane in Moneyball, who 'couldn't bear to watch and carried around a little box that received a satellite feed of live baseball', as Michael Lewis wrote.
This, I promise, is the last but one time I mention Moneyball. Like I said last week, the book only reminded me of the Freiburg story, that's all. You can't really compare two games and, above all, you certainly can't compare US sports to European sports. For instance, the worst that could have befallen the Oakland A's during their experiment was losing games and money. It's not as if they had to fear being demoted to Triple-A ball or whatever. But in football, that's what can happen.
