As we are still mourning England's unfortunate penalty defeat - what else was to be expected given past history - the World Cup is coming to its twilight. In fact, it looks as if the organizers ensured that the whole Cup was at its peak since day one. Not only have they - as expected from the Germans - demonstrated flawless organisational abilities, they have also provided us with extraordinary stadiums and, through spectacular camera angles, presented a whole different spectrum of the game.

But not only did the German organizers do well, so did - surprise, surprise - the German football team. They are now in the semi-finals - probably going to the finals - after launching the World Cup as outsiders. Not only did the punters see them as such, the German nation did as well. Before the tournament, the general native belief in their stars winning the tournament was low. But recent polls show that more than 80% of the Germans believe that the World Cup will stay in Germany.

And all this in the face of yet another lame English performance. No other team has invested more money or media space in their national team in than the English. And for what? After disappointing performances, once again the team proved incapable of turning the penalty shootouts into their favour, allowing the history to repeat itself. Germans, on the other hand, never lost them. In fact, in World Cup history of penalty shootouts, the Germans only once missed the goal; the unlucky one was Stielke in 1984 against France.

Is it all luck? Are the English players not capable of handling the pressure? Or is the stigma from the past failures too strong to be overcome? Could more be done? What do the Germans do? Why do they win it all the time?

Here lies the German answer: the failure of the English management. Management? You may ask, what does the management have to do with penalties? In Germany it does.

The day before the English team's defeat to Portugal we witnessed once again how Germany, ruthlessly, executed their penalties in the shootout against Argentina. Not only did all their players hit the net flawlessly, but their German goalkeeper chose the right side for every single Argentinean shot - he saved two out of four.

The Germans did what they are known for - precision. Jens Lehmann, the German goalkeeper, said that it is expected from a German goalkeeper to save at least one penalty. But it is now known that not only his skills - which are blessed by Arsenal fans - but also the German support team had a role to play in this.

In the days before the game, a group from the German support team, under the guidance from the national coach Andreas Koepke conducted a thorough research on the Argentinean penalty shooting. In other words, they studied videos, match reports and gathered other information on how every single Argentinean player executes his kick from the twelve-yard spot. They were aided by other German coaches who work with, and have knowledge of Argentinean strikers. The result was a thorough database with 80% certainty. As the goalkeeper could have forgotten the important data, he kept a small piece of paper with all the information safely in his shoe.

The existence of this little piece of paper - the product of German precision - contributed the German national euphoria experienced on Friday night.

One has to wonder, with all the resources available to the English team, why did they not support the players with such information? This would provide much needed self-confidence to Robinson standing in the goal, and more importantly to Gerard, Lampard, and Caraggher who all missed. This is even more striking considering how much time is spent by various football experts analysing each game. Was it that the English team was hoping for a straight win during normal time? If so - and this is more than likely considering England's past in penalty shootouts - than there is one important lesson the talented English boys can learn from the Germans. Never leave anything to chance, always be prepared and leave no stone unturned.

But there are other aspects to take into account regarding the English failure to reach the semi-finals yet again. Number one, the tactics were completely wrong. We saw more than one a good player sacrificed for wrong reasons. We saw the formation changing in the middle of the World Cup - the four-five-one that the team never played before. And how many teams travelled to Germany with only four strikers, one of them injured, another one suffered from injuries in the last year, and the other two lacking world-stage experience? Yet the most worrying thing of all is that the English team is left with Steve McLaren, a Manager who actually participated in the game tactics in Germany. That doesn't leave much hope for the team's future performances, never mind its ability to be cold-blooded when it comes to penalties.

The World Cup is essentially a gathering of people from around the world in a festival of celebration. As with all sporting events, it is meant to bring people together. As the good, old Olympics saying goes, it should be more important to participate, than to win. But the teams do come there with an objective. The fans come there with the same objective. It is about making a nation proud of its achievements. It is about taking the magnificent cup back to their national football association. Could a little piece of paper bring the World Cup to the streets of London?