When the final whistle was blown after Ghana's 2-1 victory over the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the quarter-finals of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, the entire capital of Accra erupted into unseen scenes of jubilation and pure joy. Observers noted that the levels of civic pride displayed by the Ghanaians, inside and outside the stadium,  boded well for the future.

One of the first nations to experience the impact a winning team exerts on civic pride was Germany at the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Just a few years after the horrors of World War II, Germany, as a country, had essentially ceased to exist, being occupied by the victors and divided into four zones.

In short, the nation was divided and defeated in so many ways that people were no longer keen to identify with being German any more. That is until the evening of July 4, 1954, when the final whistle was blown with West Germany holding a 3-2 lead over a team that, at the time, was just as feared as Brazil is today. An entire nation went berserk. “People didn’t say that the national team players were world champions”, recalls Horst Eckel, a member of that championship team. “They said: ‘We are world champions.’ The feeling of togetherness of the Germans was suddenly there again.”

'History has shown that in sports, miracles do happen – they may be few and far between, but anything is possible'


But going into the final, the Germans were hopeless underdogs. Just a few days earlier in the group phase, they had lost to Hungary by the embarrassing score of 8-3. And Hungary had not lost a single game in 30 international matches until that fateful final.

It looked bad for the Germans at the beginning, with the Hungarians shredding the German defence for two early goals. But the game quickly turned when Germany equalised before halftime. The second half was a rainy, muddy battle with the Hungarians mounting attack after attack on the German goal. But six minutes from time it was finally West Germany's turn. Radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann captured the action in the most famous play-by-play ever uttered in German:

“Headball! Blocked! Rahn has to shoot from the background. Rahn shoots! Goooaal! Goooaal! Goooaal! Three two for Germany . . . You may think I’m crazy! You may think I’ve cracked! But even football players should have a heart.”

But what did it mean? “We really had no idea how important it was or what was waiting for us back in Germany,” reports Eckel. “We only realised that when we crossed the border.” The team was mobbed. The train could hardly continue after the first stop after the border with so many people on the tracks cheering the players. In Munich, hundreds of thousands turned out for a gigantic party on the central square. The same frenzy repeated itself over and over again until the team finally managed to make it to Berlin for the biggest party of them all.

Soon after the Miracle of Bern, Germany found its economic footing and the so-called Economic Miracle got under way. Many today see a direct connection between the two. And even between 1954 and the successful, modern democracy Germany has become today.

According to public opinion, it will take a miracle for Bafana Bafana to win the 2010 World Cup. Currently ranked 77th in the FIFA world rankings (and only 17th in Africa), the South African team did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, crashed out of the first round of the African Nations Cup the same year and have just suffered the same fate for the third time in a row.

However, history has shown that in sports, miracles do happen – they may be few and far between, but when a winning attitude and a never-say-die belief penetrate the team and the nation, anything is possible. Not only did the West German team in 1954 attest to this, but more recent events are proof that hope truly dies last:

In 1980 the US ice hockey team, composed of college and amateur players, performed what was to become known as the ‘Miracle on Ice’, beating the star-studded Soviet team, which had won the gold medal at all four previous Olympic Games, and  were expected to win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments.

In 2004, despite not havinh won a single game throughout the history of the European Championships, the Greek team beat hosts Portugal twice to become European Champions.

In 2007, without having a functional national league and the country being ravaged by war, Iraq clinched the Asia Cup, proving to the world, according to their Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira, that “the Iraqis are special people with special powers."

And at about the same time, it was a South African team that performed in miracle-like fashion and earned the second highest honour at a soccer World Cup. The Transnet School of Excellence won silver at the 20th Under-14 World Schools Championships that were staged in Santiago, Chile, in April 2007. Their biggest scalp was beating Brazil 3-0 in the semi-final of the 24-team tournament. According to School of Excellence captain Lindeleni Mudau, "because we are much smaller and faster we played a quick passing game and it worked for us."

This puts to rest the many calls that blamed Bafana’s average size for the poor performance in Ghana. Maybe we should take a leaf out of the Under-14 book and compete on speed and quick passing rather than waiting for a new generation of tall players.

The author of the best-selling book “Brand Ovation: How Germany won the World Cup of Nation Branding”, and the sequel “The Hero’s Journey: Building a Nation of World Champions”, Dr Nikolaus Eberl holds a PhD from the Free University of Berlin and a Postgraduate Diploma from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Dr Eberl’s research study on Germany’s Nation Branding Success Story during the 2006 FIFA World Cup was featured extensively by Carte Blanche (viewers’ choice, July 1 and 5, 2007), and he is currently engaged in Internal Branding for the 2010 World Cup.

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