Alright, so today I wanted to dive into that legendary 2014 German World Cup squad for my football stats project. Started by grabbing my old notebook because I knew FIFA’s official site would’ve taken down those pages ages ago. First thing I did was sketch out the formation diagram on paper like we used to do back in school days.
The Squad Hunt
Remembered half the starting lineup off the top of my head – Neuer in goal obviously, Lahm and Boateng in defense. But man, trying to recall that fourth midfielder besides Schweinsteiger and Kroos? Totally blanked until I dug out my moldy 2014 Panini sticker album from the attic. Still smells like grandma’s house honestly.
Stats Nightmare
Wanted to show tournament-specific stats, not career numbers. Took forever cross-checking between:
- Scribbled notes from old Sports Illustrated mags
- YouTube highlight compilations (the pixelated ones)
- That sketchy football stats blog that always has pop-up ads
Kept finding different tackle counts for Höwedes everywhere! Finally settled on whipping up a simple table showing:
- Minutes played
- Pass completion rates
- Distance covered stats
Funny Bits
Almost forgot Mertesacker only played 18 minutes total the whole tournament! And discovering Götze’s winner against Argentina was his only shot on target that whole knockout stage. Wild when you think about it.
The final spreadsheet looked messy as hell with handwritten corrections everywhere, but hey – when your printer’s out of ink, you make do with pencil charts right? Next time I’ll just pay for that premium stats service instead of wasting three hours like today.
