a lil bit late... but

the day before greece was about to play france, i was telling my colig what a no brainer it was..that france would win..because what i tot and i had observed in some other mathces is that a few bright stars in the team is what one need to make the difference..but we were wrong and greece went on against all odds to get the cup.

our ambassador at large contributed a good article today in ST on lessons from euro 2004. in short,

lesson no 1: size is not destiny.
the five largest European countries in the tournament - Germany, France, England, Italy and Spain - failed to qualify for the semi-finals. it was the small European countries which triumphed over the Big Five.

lesson no 2: superstars do not guarantee victory
the presence of superstars in a team does not guarantee its victory and, contrariwise, the absence of superstars in a team does not doom it to failure.

lesson no 3: the team is greater than the sum of its parts
in other words, the strength of a team could be greater or less than the combined strength of the talents of the individual players.

lesson No 4: the coach as teacher and strategist