This is to some extent a psychological quiz – I’m asking you to match a brief statement about the personality of a football coach to the name of that coach. See if you can do it..
To which managers, all present at the 2006 World Cup, have each of the following statements been applied? (No googling, and no prizes beyond kudos).
So, who did each one of the following refer to? I’m making it harder by not telling you which statements have been babelfished out of an original tongue and I’m not telling you where the statements were each published. It’s all about identifying the character of the coach from your own observations and knowledge of their career, then matching that to the statements. Answers in the comments, please:
- 1.His strong character has earned him a controversial reputation of encouraging a violent behaviour on the part of the players (though he is more often quoted scolding referees for not stopping violence).
- 2.Others point that (name’s) insistence in using the same players over and over, regardless of current form, ends up being prejudicial for the team.
- 3.His character.. is often seen as a good point, instead of a drawback, because he tries to keep the players (and himself) free of external pressures
- 4.His… character was very beneficial to the (name) national team, which had a tradition of talented players but never won anything because of excessive intervention from the federation, the clubs and the player’s agents, as well as a lack of a true “team spirit”.
- 5.(Name) is famous for his temper and for his histrionic “performance” by the field while the match is going on, reacting strongly to both the best and the worst moments of his team.
Now, some clues. All of the coaches made it at least as far as the second round. Klinsmann and Van Basten are excluded, so that only leaves you to find five names from fourteen coaches. I’ll even list those fourteen, so that there’s a measure of “multiple guess” about this.
Lars Lagerback (Sweden); Jose Pekerman (Argentina); Ricardo Lavolpe (Mexico); Sven Goran Eriksson (England); Luis Suarez (Ecuador); Luis Filipe Scolari (Portugal); Marcello Lippi (Italy); Guus Hiddinck (Australia); Jakob Kuhn (Switzerland); Oleg Blokhin (Ukraine); Carlos Alberto Parriera (Brazil); Ratomir Dujkovic (Ghana); Luis Aragones (Spain); Raymond Domenech (France).
Skill and judgement time. See how you get on. I’ll post the answers in a few day’s time.