With the Nationalmannschaft now safely in the mix for next year’s feast of football in Poland and the Ukraine, and I have now switched into another gear in the hope of having a number of key sections of this site complete well in time for the big kick-off.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have completed the narrative for the “Das Duell” section covering all of Germany’s matches against England; the only things that need to be updated are the photographs, as I have now managed to get hold of match tickets from the Spain 1982 second phase match and the Italy 1990 semi-final. Over the next couple of weeks I have – in between other tasks – be proof-reading all of the text to polish of what has been a very enjoyable section to research and write.
Another small area of the site that is almost complete is the small section devoted to former Nationaltrainer Jupp Derwall, who now has a separate page of his own. Although the original plan was to cover everything in depth from the tenure of Franz Beckenbauer onwards, I noticed that I had written quite a bit on Derwall and concluded that it would not be a major leap to create a separate page for the man popularly known as Häuptling Silberlocke.
This past weekend I have updated the Excel fixtures chart and teamlists to include all of the games played during the Derwall era, and these will be added shortly.
Having written the page on Jupp Derwall, I am now tempted by the thought of completing the Nationaltrainers section by creating individual pages for all of the past coaches – I may put aside a few days to expand on the potted biographies, before arranging a couple of weekends to update the teamlist charts which probably present the biggest challenge as they require a high degree of concentration in order to ensure that the content is all accurate and that all of the figures match up.
The main thrust now however will be the match reports, with the biggest emphasis being placed on the event that is just around the corner, the UEFA European Championship. I will be working backwards in writing the match reports, starting with Euro 2008; the mission is to produce a report on every Euro finals match involving the Nationalmannschaft going back to the opening game of Euro 1988 against Italy – a total of twenty-seven matches.
I’d like to think that I could do one match a day, but it’s not as simple as adding things up in blocks of ninety minutes; writing up on a match requires constant pausing, rewinding, and breaks for real life stuff – to the point where the ninety minutes quickly becomes three times that or more. Working flat out I could finish the section by the end of October; more realistically, I’m looking at the end of the year as a benchmark.
Of course, I will keep you all up to date on here as to the ongoing developments – next week I will be looking at next year’s finals, the group draw, and a discussion of the permutations and possible opponents…
Bis Gleich!