The Art of Celebrating Goals

6 more days to go... and Germany has just finished its training camp with an impressive 3:1 vs Bosnia Herzegovina. It was an exciting victory, not so much because of the result against an opponent that was not in best physical condition. It was impressive because the "Mannschaft" actually demonstrated something in the second half I haven't seen  from a German team for a long time: A pure joy of playing. Short-pass combination football finally worked out, and although the defense was struggling now and then, the offense potential of this young team is very promising. Going to South Africa without their injured grey wolf, captain Ballack, Germany actually seems to follow the naïve idea to simply shoot one goal more than they will have scored against them. Exciting for fans - and bad for my nerves!

Speaking of goals: Scoring goals also means celebrating goals. Gone are the days when it was enough to throw your hands in the air. Goal celebrations have become an own art form. Players perform special goal celebration rituals as personal branding or use it as messaging platform, knowing that the eyes of the world (and all TV cameras) will be on them.

Obviously you need to practice stuff like this upfront... Volkswagen has taken this seriously (or ironically) and set up a viral video training camp for everyone who still needs to learn. My favorite of the "Goal Celebration Camp" is (well, what a surprise) the "Rockstar Celebration." Really hope the German team has seen this ;-)