Lost in translation

A few weeks ago I watched the German film Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) - which is well worth watching, should you get the chance - and in the introduction to the film the phrase 'The ball is round and the match lasts 90 minutes.' is used. I'd just assumed that was a line in the script to imply that some rules are fixed, while others are more changeable depending on circumstance (it makes sense in terms of the film) but what I hadn't realised was that these lines had a cultural significance in Germany. As I discovered from reading this article about a new German film that details their victory in the 1954 World Cup, they were actually spoken by Sepp Herberger, the German manager, at a press conference during the tournament. It's probably akin to an English film using the phrase 'they think it's all over...it is now!' - something that's a reference to an important moment in the national culture with the deeper meaning or reference not necessarily obvious to a foreign viewer.