[kictanet] Germany scours university data for tips to beat Brazil, coach says

Wed Jul 9 10:42:50 EAT 2014

Much as I love Big Data, Analytics and such..Surely you guys are not suggesting that is what beat Brazil? :) 

Ali Hussein

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Twitter: @AliHKassim
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"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert Einstein

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> On Jul 9, 2014, at 10:31 AM, "S.M. Muraya via kictanet" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> 
> Article notes Germany has beaten all the teams they have played at the 2014 World Cup except Ghana who they drew with.  Suspect they did not bother studying the African side as much as they did Brazil.
> 
> Your recommendation to involve/invest in smart/ethical students to secure Kenya is very sensible to persons who challenge our youth to improve by demonstrating courage/ethics or competence/expertise.
> 
> Think about how data analytics can be applied to study patterns linking  terrorist entry into Kenya or drugs smuggling through Kenya to certain public officials at our customs and/or immigration departments.
> 
> We rarely succeed locally in getting anyone (in IT, Sales, Marketing or Corporate Governance) to invest in Data Analytics.
> 
> We have heard it is too "expensive" to invest in data analytic tools/skills if it costs the same as 4WDs popular with public officials and corporate hot shots. 
>> On Jul 9, 2014 9:58 AM, "Ngigi Waithaka" <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:
>> I like this ...
>> 
>> “We’re very, very well-prepared and we’re looking forward to playing Brazil,”
>> 
>> The one team everyone would be wary of meeting is the one team they would *love* to meet, and when they do, they thrash them totally...
>> 
>> Victory loves preparation....
>> 
>> 
>>> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 12:49 AM, S.M. Muraya via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>> About Data Analytics :)
>>> 
>>> http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0FC1I620140707?irpc=932
>>> 
>>> Germany scours university data for tips to beat Brazil, coach says
>>> 
>>> Mon, Jul 07 11:02 AM EDT
>>> 
>>> By Erik Kirschbaum
>>> 
>>> SANTO ANDRE Brazil (Reuters) - That no European team has won any of the previous six World Cups in Latin America is not a daunting prospect for Germany as they head into Tuesday's World Cup semi-final against hosts Brazil, according to assistant coach Hansi Flick.
>>> 
>>> Three-times World Cup winners Germany are confident that two years of meticulous university research combined with their own scouting and preparations for the conditions will give them an edge against five-times winners Brazil on their home turf.
>>> 
>>> “We’re very, very well-prepared and we’re looking forward to playing Brazil,” Flick told reporters when asked about how Germany planned to ended the dominance of Latin American teams when playing in their own region.
>>> 
>>> “We’ve been working on this project for the last two years and our entire system has been built up for that.”
>>> 
>>> Germany are undefeated in Brazil but haven't had to face a Latin American team yet: their four wins were against Portugal, the United States, Algeria and France with a draw against Ghana.
>>> 
>>> Major European rivals such as Spain, Italy and England have already been beaten or knocked out by South American teams.
>>> 
>>> Flick said to get ready for South American teams Germany have benefited from a giant data base put together by a team of about 50 students at Cologne’s sport university over the last two years.
>>> 
>>> That information, combined with scouting reports, has been used for detailed analyses of Brazil and their players.
>>> 
>>> “The sports students in Cologne have been studying in great detail our opponent and put every play they’ve run, every newspaper article on them, and everything about them out there under the microscope and made all that data available to us,” Flick said at Germany’s base camp on the Atlantic coast in Northeastern Brazil.
>>> 
>>> “We’ve got this enormous data base to draw upon and, together with our scouts, we’re able to take a close look at our opponent and make our plans for the match. It’s a project we’ve been working on intensively for the last two years. We’ve been able to cull some very high quality information from all the data from the students. It’s very much helped us prepare.”
>>> 
>>> Germany have been turning to the student researchers at the Deutsche Sporthochschule Koeln increasingly over the last decade. Former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann first began tapping the data accumulated by the students, most of whom are soccer enthusiasts and thrilled to be working on a project that could possibly help, even in a small way, to win the World Cup.
>>> 
>>> While the students are sworn to secrecy about their intelligence gathering, their Professor Juergen Buschmann headed the project has been quoted in German newspapers saying the students use an eclectic variety of sources to chronicle such things as how players react in pressure situations, what are their preferred routes, how do they react when fouled, what gets under skin and how do they sprint for the ball?
>>> 
>>> He said the one trend that he was at liberty to reveal was that top teams change their tactics frequently but provided no further details - not surprising but tantalizing nevertheless.
>>> 
>>> The intelligence has come into special focus for the World Cup in Brazil in part because Germany has never won here on the continent with their three World Cup titles won in Switzerland (1954), West Germany (1974) and Italy (1990).
>>> 
>>> (Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum, Editing by Nigel Hunt)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Waithaka Ngigi
>> Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod Building
>> T + 254 (0) 20 2333 471 |Office Mobile: +254 786 28 28 28 | M + 254 737 811 000
>> www.at.co.ke
>> 
>> 
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
> 
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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