PYGMALLION EFFECT

Hello,

The task for this week is the Pygmalion Effect, basically it means a phenomenon in which the grater expectation placed upon people a better perform.

When we talk about Pygmalion effect we are talking about exceed the expectation and a wonderful example for that is the Greece national football team, who is the team who represented the country with the same name in international football, is controlled by the Hellenic Football Association.

The Hellenic team before 2004 have never been in the news on the international football insomuch as they didn’t do anything in the past, just one participation in the FIFA World Cup in 1994 and in 1980 in a UEFA, they both competition they had to came back home in the first round, this is the example of the Pygmalion effect and how a team that people didn’t expected nothing could won, thanks to motivation and that they believed that they could approached it, how a coach, Otto Rehhagel had faith in that team. Greece was nothing in international football until they crowned in 2004 as the best team in Europe, they won the UEFA European Championship.

After the UEFA European Championship in 2000, began the qualifying for the same competition in 2004 who was going to be played in Portugal; Greece started not too well losing their two first matches against Spain and Ukraine, both with a result 2-0, after that they won six matches in a row, inclusive the match against Spain in Madrid, then they qualifying to the UEFA as seconds in their group.

In Portugal they were one of the worse team in the cup, the bookmakers were giving odds of between 80-1 and 150-1 for them to win, in theory it was almost impossible for them to win, they were in the group A with Portugal, Spain and Russia.

The First strike that Greeks made was against the local team, Portugal, the beat them in the inaugural match, 2-1, then the draw with Spain, 1-1, and in the last match the lost it against Russia by 2-1, the results was that the Hellenic team classified to the next round.

For the next round they had to play against the last champion and the winner of the FIFA World Cup in 1998, it was against France. Then they made another surprise in this cup they beat them by 1-0. They were between the best 4 teams in Europe, for the next round they beat Czech Republic by again 1-0.

They were in the final and only they knew why they were in its position, they worked along three years they believed when nobody did before, they created expectation by the coach and they was making it.

For the last match they play against Portugal, actually the local team and of course the favourite team to win the cup, surprisingly Greece beat Portugal again, this time by a 1-0.

In consequence they won the cup by its first time, they not only win against the other team also against a lot of people including Greeks who didn’t believed in them, the crowned as champions of Europe.

Pictures taken from:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Charisteas%27_Siegtreffer_im_Finale_der_Euro_2004.jpg

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1164298014027860480RIADBj

http://www.futboldelujo.com/articulos/reflexiones-y-opinion/6547-la-epopeya-griega-2004-de-florentino.html

http://www.notasdefutbol.com/eurocopa-2008/grecia-confirma-un-adios-tan-precipitado-como-previsible