Football finale

I had a Friday that was quite unusual. I got up at 3.30 in the morning to get on a 4.20 train to Geneva in order to reach the 6.30 EasyJet flight to Brussels. As I was sitting there waiting at the gate, feeling sorry for myself for being awake as such inhuman hours Fill Niu [China] from the class walked in. He had been up at the same time, been on the same train and was going on the same flight. He looked as fresh as he always does, so there went my excuse for pitying myself.

We slept all the way to Brussels and a little before 8, the time we normally walk into the classroom, we were walking out of Brussels Airport. Fill was picked up by the company he was visiting and I took the train to Antwerp, where I had two meetings. Mid afternoon, I got on the train to Rotterdam for another meeting in a café right next to the Rotterdam train station. Two hours later I was back in the train, now heading towards Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Everything was going according to whatever little plans I had made......until a passenger on the train got sick and had to be picked up by an ambulance. That took 30 minutes and now time suddenly was in short supply! I ran through the airport and made it to the gate just as they started to board. Back to Geneva, on the train back to Lausanne and at 00.30 I was finally home again. A nice 21 hour work day, good meetings and I avoided staying overnight. It is great to have these high-pace high-energy days from time to time..... as long as you get your rest in between.

Saturday and Sunday have been passing at a much lower pace. More and more signs of the closing of our MBA experience is starting to appear. One of them is the arrival of parents, brothers and sisters that are coming in for the graduation on 8. December.

Today was the last round of football in Parc de Milan. Our Sunday morning football is one of the things that I will miss the most. There were weeks - particularly during the building blocks - where is was the only thing that kept me going, the only short-term reward I had in sight to get through the week.

There was a great show of people today, so we were playing 11-on-11 or something like that. After the game our fearless and tireless football captain of the year, Joost Mackor, had invited us all out for a beer. The Sportsbar was closed, so we ended up at the White Horse, having beers and burgers. The team presented Joost with a picture of the silver-medal-winning MBAT team duly signed by the team members. Both on and off the track Joost has been the driving force behind the team. Thanks Joost, from all of us!!

Thorsten

We had a great game today!


Today's orange team. It is Yury's dad in the back with Yury's daughter.


Sometimes you can shake a camera so much that the picture actually becomes good. I was just about to delete this picture when it occurred to me that it somehow pictures a memory. The blurred but good memory that our Parc-de-Milan days eventually will become.

Of course this diary entry must finish with the team's grand achievement.
The MBAT 2009 Silver medal, Paris 9 May 2009.

Rugby Defense

What a couple of days it has been in Paris! So much to tell, so little space. My apologies for this diary being so lengthy.

Friday's success (bronze medals in Petanque and Climbing as well as a football team qualified for the quarter finals) continued Saturday. The Tug-of-War team started out by going undefeated through to the finals, where it beat Cambridge comfortably. The team's strategy - which was based partly on good advice from last year's Tug-of-War captain Bryan Hassin - was very effective. Actually the team won all of its matches in less than 15 seconds!

Juan Benitez [Colombia] added to the number of medals by bringing home a gold and a silver in swimming.

The other schools and their coaches have student bodies up to ten times the size of IMD's to choose from and students that on average are 5-7 years younger, so the statistics are therefore not on IMD's side. The IMD football team had thus already won more than it had hoped to win by qualifying to the quarter finals, but there was much more to come.

We were set to meet the Italian school Bocconi - one of the favorites to win the tournament - so we didn't set our hopes very high. As the game started we managed to keep them at a distance and play some opportunistic football by kicking long passes forward. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. When the referee blew the final vistle, the score was 1-1, and that was even after an IMD goal was disallowed in the last minute because of an alledged IMD 'handball' that apparently only the referee and the Italian goal keeper saw. We won the penalty shootout mainly due to fabulous goalkeeping by Stefano Giussani [Italy] and to our surprise we found ourselves in the semi finals.

In the semi finals we met HEC, who we already had drawn against in the group play. History repeated itself so after a draw, a penalty shootout and more magic from Stefano in the goal we found ourselves in the final. Not bad for a bunch of 'old boys' that just play football for fun on Sunday mornings in Pard de Milan. It reminds me of 1992, when Denmark won the European Championship in football. Noone in his right mind bets on David when he fights Goliath, but once in a blue moon things do not turn out as they 'should'.

The Spanish armada from IESE were waiting in the final. There was not much we could do there and they won comfortably. The funny things was, though, that by the time IESE was done celebrating their victory and everybody had left the place we were still celebrating our silver ecstaticly. There was no end to the joy. It reminds me of the Women's 400m relay in Barcelona in 1992. If you don't know the story then take a look this video.


The supporters following the teams were absolutely amazing. Judging from the amount of noice created by the supporters IMD was by far the largest school out there. During the party Saturday evening IMD was further awarded the price of the 'School with the most spirited team'. Perhaps this video of the Tug-of-War final explains why.


It was hilarious to see people walking around very slowly on very stiff and sore legs today. The spirits were high, though, as it was the good kind of pain. The kind where you know that it has been worth it. The kind that leaves you with a sense of achievement. And above all, it actually feels great to - for once - be exhausted from good old fashioned physical activity.



From left: Jodie Roussell [American], Joe Nai [The Netherlands/Hong Kong] and Misayo Matsumoto [Japan] showing the IMD MBAT uniform.



Minli Zhao [German] in perfect style.



Men's double with Ajay Lakhwani and Shibu James [both from India].



Two of the three members of bronze winning Petanque team: Liesbeth Bakker [The Netherlands] and Christian Cuenot [France]. The third members of the team was Richard Dove [UK].



The Ultimate Frisbee team is ready to go!



The supporters were fantastic!
Here it is Sebastian Guery [France].



Suchir Swarup [Canada/India] in deep thought.



The foosball team from left: Nicholas Denef [Belgium], Alberto Mussi [Italy], Suchir Swarup [India], David Rohan [Australia], Andres Akamine [Peru], Naoto Tsushima [Japan], Gerald Lo [Malaysia/China].



The Tug-of-War team in action. Notice how the supporters are working just as hard as the team.



Tug-of-War Gold!
Kneeling left: Cathinka Sheie [Norway], Anita Yehudai [Germany], Christine [U.S].
Standing left: Chuks Onunkwo [Nigeria], Fadi Sbaiti [Lebanon/US], Gerrit Sindermann [Germany], Yury Vasilkov [Russia], Thorsten Boeck [Denmark].



The fundamental part of what competition soon named 'The Rugby Defense'. Paul De Hek [The Netherlands] and Chris Eaborn [UK].



Stefano Giusanni [Italy], now better known as 'The penalty killer' across major European business schools.



The football silver medals are reality! Who would ever have thought this?



And in between all the sports there was actually time to have a look at Paris. It is an amazing city on a springday when the sun in shining.


You can find many more MBAT pictures here and here

MBAT Day 1

This is the diary entry from Friday 8 May:

2 bronze medals and the first football team in IMD history to proceed to the quarter finals! That is the result of the first day at the annual MBA tournament. The Bronze Medals were secured by Christian Cuenot [France] and Liesbeth Bakker [The Netherlands] in Pétanque and by Joe Nai [Hong Kong/The Netherlands] in Climbing. I have had the honor of playing on the football team today, where we so far are undefeated. It is a minor detail that we did not win any games either, but the two draws were enough to get us into the quarter finals which will be played tomorrow.

On top of all of this we have had people participating in sports as exotic and different as rowing, volleyball, basketball, fencing, chess, golft, table tennis, baby foot (table football) and then I have probably even forgotten af few. Tomorrow we will add Tug-of-War and Ultimate Frisbee to the list and continue many of the others.

The IMD guys do stand out a bit. We are on average 31 years of age, whereas most of the other 'kids' range from 23 to 27. We tell ourselves that we just bring that much more experience to the game. Whatever that is worth in sports I am not so sure. All I know is that my legs feel very heavy after today's matches and that they (the legs) will complain when I start warming them up again tomorrow.

We will get some more pictures to you later, but here is a couple to start with.



Andres Akamine [Peru] with his son David. David is one of the two children that have joined the MBAT. On the right it is Stone Gao [China].



Waiting for the bus this morning. Nicolas Denef [Belgium] is making the absolute most of his time.



The IMD football team in this years MBAT. We are greatly assisted by veterans Paul Holmes (goal keeper), who is from last years class and, and Chris Eaborn (standing far left) who plays with us every Sunday in Parc De Milan.



Relaxing a bit after the first footbal game. From left Oren Yehudai [Israel], Paul De Hek [The Netherlands], Simon Sundbøll [Denmark] and Joost Mackor [The Netherlands].