I don’t like soccer (I know strange for a German), but this is brilliant.

I’m usually in favor of simplicity but you gotta admit that Maradona’s goal was far more beautiful. OK, I’m totally biased but to me that goal represents a developer managing to finish a troublesome project beautifully against all odds. But to your point, the dutch goal was much more efficient.

You guys have missed Arjen Robben’s goal in the Euro 2008 match against France last weekend? Also straight, without a doubt. Cheers from The Netherlands, this post makes sense.

This ad, also for Bavaria beer, is great too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly9aJZZ83n8

Agreed, simplicity takes all the good stuff out, leaving the player with a go-lucky long-shot chance at having any success.

Now, I’ve been saying that for years. Proud to be simple.

Am I the only one completely lost? What was the point of this?

Of course the Dutch pioneered total football and that wasn’t simple or direct.

The funny thing about this is that everybody before the Dutchmen used skill and beautiful play to score their goal. The Dutchmen scored on a lucky deflection meaning it was random luck. This is actually a pretty bad example if you’re a soccer nerdo :) I like to embrace the beautiful skillful play before I do blind luck. Even a shot from that distance with no deflection is one in the dark. Blast it and pray, nobody can guarantee placement from that range.

I’m getting – Why pass when you can do something yourself? Don’t create more work when one option will do?

Is that the point of this? If not, I’m way off the path.

Jesus, it’s an ad guys. It’s fun. You don’t need to dissect it. My god you must be lonely people.

It would be even simpler to throw the ball with your hands…for most people at least. But, well…you get the point…

Maybe if I knew what the hell they were saying? Or does it not matter?

I get the ad, but who’s it for?

“Agreed, simplicity takes all the good stuff out, leaving the player with a go-lucky long-shot chance at having any success.”

Interesting interpretation of the video, alternatively one could say: You are more likely to succeed with a well aimed simple and powerful strike from an unexpected distance than with a complicated and daring single striker offensive against a plethora of aggressive defenders.

The simplicity is as much in the commentary as anything else. Zo.

or is it Dutch brutality ?

Yeah, us Dutch, we’re pretty brutal….

We simply create a lucky goal, Keep it simple stupid!

I can’t simply understand it.

funny.

here’s the German version of simplicity from a day or two ago.

Boot it like Ballack.

:)

Haha, I thought the ad was great! They showed super-stars struggle through waves of defenders followed by one good Dutch strike. My favorite part was the sequence of the goal counter tallying up one for Holland and them coming off with a win against Italy, followed by the immediate “Zo.” in large print.

Made me laugh.

Love the way 37s promotes their belief. Thing to learn!

I knew exactly where that was going.

Ha, ha, ha…very funny! PD: the best fútbol in the world resides in South America!

Bad post! It seems that you don’t understand soccer. Soccer (called Football outside the U.S.) is a sport of talent and fun not simplicity. I agree with your ‘simplicity’ mantra in software and other things, but come on! not everything has to be ‘simple’. Don’t apply simplicity to everything, there are things that cannot be measured by simplicity and that’s the case of soccer. Again, soccer is about innate talent, about how many defenders you can avoid before making a goal. The Maradona goal shown in the video is in the ‘hall of fame’ list as complex as it is but the Dutch goal is a ‘standard’ goal and is not as famous as the Maradona goal.

Come on guys, “you don’t understand soccer” and all that. You’re obviously missing the point here.

The ad is for beer brand Bavaria, and the “zo” simply means “so”. In this context (and all other Bavaria ads) it means “got it done as quickly as possible (while delivering a great result), time for a beer”. Nothing hints at Maradonna etc doing it the wrong way, it’s just that the Dutch apparently want to do it right and fast, so they can quickly grab a beer of said brand.

Uh, used to forget this sad moment from 20 years ago … Anyway, the truth about this is that should Arie Haan shoot that shot 10.000 more times, he would never score again. Instead here you can take a look at italian simplicity:

as you can see, here simplicity is used again and again, and the result is always goal (the trick here is that the guy is Roberto Baggio…).

Just as it happens with Rails, where simplicity in Basecamp and co. is possible because of the awesome team that built it.

So, simplicity = mastery (while not always mastery=simplicity)

I’m a big fan of your simplicity mantra, but this time you missed the target guys, there’re lot of “simple goals” out there like this one from the NCAA and they only reflect luck, not simplicity.

Well I do prefer German beer and the German team so this is very funny .