England missed more penalties in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday night than Germany have missed in their entire World Cup history - that was the statistic in circulation at Germany's camp in Berlin yesterday. Germany have taken part in four penalty shoot-outs in the World Cup, won them all and scored 16 of their 17 penalties in the process.
Werder Bremen's Tim Borowski, who scored the fourth of Germany's successful kicks against Argentina on Friday night, attributed their ability from the penalty spot to ruthlessness. In comparison to England's efforts against Portugal, he said: "I just think we're a little bit cooler in front of goal. It is a ruthless streak Germans show when they take penalties."
England's Gary Neville acknowledged that they could learn from Germany's prowess. "They are masters at it, masters of winning on penalties . . . we have to develop that mentality at make-or-break moments in tournaments."
But the Germans were also stressing Jens Lehmann's efforts. In contrast to England's Paul Robinson, who saved none of Portugal's spot-kicks, Lehmann saved two of Argentina's four and guessed correctly on the other two. However, guesswork had nothing to do with it.
The full story of Lehmann's preparation emerged yesterday. He won the 1997 Uefa Cup with Schalke against Internazionale after making a penalty save. His manager at Schalke was Huub Stevens, who is responsible for a personal database of 13,000 penalty kicks. Lehmann used this archive against Inter and, prior to the Argentina game, he telephoned Stevens.
The 36-year-old goalkeeper already had the benefit of the German FA's database - they had copied Stevens' approach - and having collated the information about who takes Argentina's penalties and how they take them, Germany's goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke wrote it on a piece of paper ripped from a hotel notepad. On it was written details such as "[Julio] Cruz - stand tall, don't move, dive right".
For Argentina's second penalty-taker, Roberto Ayala, it said: "Ayala - look at shooting foot, left low." Sure enough, Ayala placed the ball low to Lehmann's left and it was advantage Germany.
When Maxi Rodríguez walked up to strike the third, Lehmann knew it would be "hard, right". He went the correct way and was unlucky not to make the save. But after Borowski had made it 4-2, Esteban Cambiasso had to score to keep Argentina in the tournament. Lehmann's notes said: "Wait, stand tall, left corner." He duly made an impressive stop to his left.