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Daniel Brigham

Why Norwich can learn from the Germans (latest blog)

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[quote user="City1st"][quote user="PragmaticBlue"]"The reason you are playing us is because your team was so rank bad last season."[/quote]err, not so .. a point or two from staying up[/quote]Did you go to any games last season? The ''football'' was horrid and we were absolute sh1te.

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[quote user="Daniel Brigham"]Forget about passion, Norwich need to learn from the Germans to beat Ipswich. By Daniel Brigham 

For three years the image on my laptop screen hasn''t changed. 

Every word typed on there in that time – including most of these Pink’un witterings – have been set against a background of two of the most evocative images in Norwich City''s modest history. A split screen of two shimmering scoreboards: Norwich 4 Ipswich 1; Ipswich 1 Norwich 5. 

The contrast between the many faces in the two photos works as a study of football''s power to elicit opposing emotions. The uninhibited rapture of the men, women, children of Carrow Road above the incredulous, solemn Ipswich fans losing their religion at Portman Road.

For three years those images have been a reminder of two of the greatest days any Norwich fan will have experienced. You follow football hoping for late winners and giantkillings, but there is no feeling quite as exotic as a crushing win in a massive game. It is rare to have the surreal luxury of watching the opposition fans visibly sag deeper and deeper into their seats as goal follows goal, each one violently perforating their hopes. 

It is a situation never more vividly demonstrated than when Germany annihilated Brazil last month in Belo Horizonte. The hush of despair that started after 20 minutes had turned into a very public mourning by the final whistle. While on a very different level, it was hard not to think back to Portman Road, April 2011. Except, where Brazil had Christ the Redeemer shedding a tear for them, Ipswich had Bill Oddie. 

Those two moments remain so symbolic of Norwich''s rise, fuelled by Grant Holt’s goals and Paul Lambert’s mumbles, that part of me wishes Norwich never had to play Ipswich again for fear of corroding what happened four seasons ago. As the 5-1 win proved, sequels can occasionally improve on brilliant originals, but, as anyone who’s seen Police Academy 3: Back in Training can attest, it''s often best to leave it there. 

On Saturday, though, it is finally going to happen. After three years of having to settle for beating Manchester United and Arsenal in lieu of thrashing Ipswich, Norwich head down to Portman Road. 

As they travel, I hope they go with thoughts of Germany’s Brazilian pillaging. 

Brazil were a mess. In front of their home fans, they went into the match in a state of frenzy, whipped up by the loss through injury of their messiah Neymar. Their anthem was an overwrought display of tears, bellowing and sentiment. It was passionate, sure, but self-destructively so. Meanwhile, the Germans sung their anthem with minimal fuss. No tears, no histrionics. Where Brazil had passion, Germany had focus. 

Norwich need to keep this in mind. They need to be Clint Eastwood and Ryan Gosling: cool, unflinching and happy to get ugly with just their bare hands and a toothpick. They must leave the emotional stuff to Ipswich, a team desperate for revenge. And let’s not forget what happened the last time Ipswich were craving revenge against Norwich: they lost 5-1.

Let Ipswich and their fans treat this as their biggest games in three years. Let Luke Hyam fill the Steven Gerrard role of putting the rabble into rabble-rousing. Norwich, however, have to view it for what it is: 90 minutes against Mick McCarthy’s meat-and-potato team of ungainly giants; just one of 46 matches on their quest for an immediate return to the Premier League. No more or less important. 

Like Lambert was, Neil Adams has to be dead-eyed and unemotional. The great first touch, the defence-splitting pass, the perfectly timed tackle is down to focus, not passion. 

In other words, Adams has to get his players thinking like Germans. 

Daniel Brigham is features editor at The Cricketer. He tweets at @cricketer_dan[/quote]If you took your head out of the clouds you might realise that your Delia-loving missive is akin to fiddling while Rome burns. If you think that a derby victory is going to magically pull the club out of its present crisis and arrest the long term decline then perhaps you ought to stick to writing about cricket.

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"If you think that a derby victory is going to magically pull the club

out of its present crisis and arrest the long term decline then perhaps

you ought to stick to writing about cricket."sadly some down the A140 do believe this will happen however, you are right about the long term decline of our impoverished neighboursgates now barely half filling the groundseason ticket sales an almost massive 10,000 less than their wealthy neighboursincome falling year on year and likely to be half of what their wealthy neighbours will generate, excluding transfer sales and parachute moneya failing youth sytem with no money to progress to Cat 1and the continual dead weight of debt . somewhere not short of £100m when the 13/14 accounts are published ... with their training ground now owned by an offshore tax avoidance companyperhaps it is time to put the poor old donkey out of it''s misery

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A couple of deluded Ipswich trolls above. Both desperately trying to cling on to some form of hope for tomorrow.

 

We are stronger throughout. Their defence is shocking, up front poor. In the middle we can dominate and dictate when we keep our heads. They will come at us like a 3rd/4th tier team in the first 20 minutes in a FA cup game but will drain themselves. Depth and experience will win this one despite what their fans want to believe and try to talk up. They have a woeful team destined to be bottom 10 all season.

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Even keel? Crisis? Long term decline? Not sure who you are talking about with that rather ludicrous post, but with a snipe at Delia I have a feeling you are seriously delusional.

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Yes…the Delia snipe comes direct from the gutter.

I''d be angry if my club did nothing for 40 years but I wouldn''t embarrass myself by sinking to those depths.

Lets hope this is still running after we''ve kicked their butts yet again in their own back yard.

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Well I suppose I''ve missed all this Norwich vs Ipswich banter, it does bring back nice memories of our double promotions. And believe me, I do pity Ipswich in their current state - its obvious to all and sundry that City are in much better shape on and off the field. But! I don''t like the arrogant "can''t wait to see their faces when we beat them 5-1 again" comments, because as we all know football doesn''t always go the way it should on paper. Sometimes the better team plays poorly and the poorer team plays well and wins.. Let''s hope that doesn''t happen, but I don''t see the point in those posts, as you just end up with egg on your face if we lose. All I''ll say is well done Ipswich on your success in the past, but I know which fans are happiest with their clubs in the present day. Let''s hope for a great game, good refereeing and obviously another City win. But its not the end of the world if it doesn''t happen - theres another 40 odd games to win points in! OTBC.

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Thanks to our vastly bigger fanbase, higher more fashionable profile, Cat A academy and the impeccable way we''re run we''ll carry on growing while Ipswich shrink. We''ll steal potential fans and young players over the next few decades.

I won''t deny them their right to brag about what they accomplished in the 70''s but in 20 years time it will be laughable to compare the two clubs. We''ll be the east of Englands premier club, filling a 35000 seater stadium every week (Mostly in the top flight) while they fade into obscurity

Unless of course they start pulling together a respectable fanbase, but with us being so much more attractive to youngsters to support and their owner invested only in short termism and short term financial gain I''d say my prediction is pretty likely

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