Football And Life III. Contributed by @Olawalium
This World Cup is surprising. It keeps doling out more twists and turns. Germany is out of the World Cup. If anyone told me this would happen, I would have surely disputed it. I picked Germany and Mexico to go through and now I only have Mexico going through.
They didn’t only exit the competition, they took the last spot in the group, after being humiliated by South Korea with two goals in quick succession in the added minutes. Most of the favourites are getting dumped and you could see what it took Argentina before they could advance. Like I always say, you can get life’s lessons from football sometimes.
I read my friend’s post yesterday; @mickyscofield. He said he got inspired by my post, which led him to make that. Now I am inspired by that post of his, to make this one as well. He hit the nail on the head and I love it. You can read his post here.
That is life. We need to be a source of inspiration to each other. No man is an island of knowledge. No man has the monopoly of knowledge. We all need one another. No man can make it out here all alone. I learn from you, you learn from me and whatever we learn from each other can never be taken away from us. We live and learn and we learn to know more and improve.
I picked most of my favourite teams to advance from the group, based on past achievements. I only picked Nigeria out of loyalty. I would have picked Argentina and Croatia to advance but then, past achievements count for little again, because we can see how Argentina struggled and it took a late drama for them to advance. Everyone is evolving. Life is evolving. We should too.
When we reach certain heights, we should not plateau there. We should always seek for greater depths and heights. We should never be too comfortable. I spoke about Nigeria yesterday with Micky. They call us the giants of Africa and the truth is, if we can be humble enough to admit it, we would know that others are leaving us behind. People are only viewing us with yesterday’s lens. It's blurry, they need to clean it. Being realistic is the first step to self realization.
Today’s achievement is tomorrow’s mediocrity and this is why we need to always aim to be better than we were yesterday.
Everyone keeps evolving and doing things better and we should never be stuck with past ways of doing things, we should always evolve. This is why Mourinho’s defensive tactic when he was Chelsea Football Club’s coach back then is now being frowned at by Manchester United’s supporters because most people have found a way to break down that resilient defense and also because most players are now evolving too.
Everyone wants to play with flair, even the players. This is why you will see a player refusing to come on because the coach wants to use him to block and he knows his team needs to attack when they are trailing.
We should learn to leave behind what we have achieved before. We should let it motivate us to do things better and this is why the traits of Ronaldo and Messi are admirable. They are motivated by what they have achieved before and seek to do things greater and better.
Past achievements don’t matter to these living legends and that is why they are always a step above the others. Don't let people clap for you too soon, and I don't need to remind us of Balotelli, Chamakh, Adriano, and other footballers.
Djokovic; the tennis player came and hit the ground running. Imagine if Rafael Nadal didn’t evolve and intensify more efforts, he would have been a yesterday’s man.
Germany’s exit from the World Cup taught me a valuable lesson as @mickyscofield pointed out. Never relax, never depend on past achievements, and always seek to be better than you have achieved before now. Let your past achievements be your motivating factor.
Thank you for your time.
My pen doesn’t bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.
Still me,
My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.
Olawalium; (Love’s chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor’s order.
In addition, the neutral football world also makes the world of football believable to deliver the message to the public. This is what then some of the world's major organizations to attract football in the campaign program. Call it UNICEF who works with the world of football to address the problems of children in the world.
The very effective ability of the football world to deliver the message to the audience is also recognized by FIFA the world's highest soccer federation. Several times FIFA created ads that are humanitarian, soprtifitas, and the elimination of racial problems on earth.
With racial football problems, try eliminated. Because messages in anti-racist campaigns fit the nature of football that does not know any group, race, race, or religion. In football all tribes, groups and religions are considered equal, who are respected with tolerance.
That's what makes racial issues in the world of football barely survive. Maybe we still remember with some unscrupulous supporters who tried to show racial acts on black players, but it really did increase the white players' very high solidarity to the black players. Once again racial in football will not get anywhere.
Complacency tends to happen first when it comes to your career. Bright-eyed and fresh out of college, most people have these grand plans for their careers. They envision themselves being at the top of their respective fields within 10 to 15 years; however, once they realize how much dedication and hard work it takes to climb the totem pole, and how much networking/ass-kissing you need to do, that vision and dream soon fizzles out. That extreme plan to become the best and climb the corporate latter quickly, turns into the struggle to simply keep your head above water and to even be able to pay monthly bills. Now look, if you can make it work for yourself and are happy, then continue with that plan. However, if you want something more, you need to strive for something more. You have to put in the time to understand the ins and outs of your field and its related fields, and get to know people at different companies, in different positions, in different cities.
There are opinions that Vladimir Putin bought this World Cup 2018, so the results of matches are suspiciously «unpredictable», and the Russian team will be the Champion...
Fingers are crossed. Politics has always been involved in football matches. I can only hope that is not true. I am only interested in enjoying the matches and that is what i am doing.
Very good post and an informative article. For true you are veey right. This world cup has been full of surprises. Like geemany s out and all the big teams arenot really performing. Like argentina. But the small teams (underdogs) are having superiority over others. There are many other surprises to come.
Yes, so many surprises to come and this is why we love it. Seeing Germany out is a real shocker and this makes it all the more interesting. The so called underdogs are now living up and this is a wake up call to the big guns to start evolving because in no time, the small ones might catch up with them.
very true. the big teams should now realize that they have to perform or they ll be forgetten in history. the way they are playing in childish. btw which team are you supporting. dont miss todays games.
Today's games must not be missed and i have learned to be supporting the so called underdogs now. I am rooting for Croatia and Belgium. Seems odd. Hahaha
I enjoy the way you compare football with life and truth be told, we can see semblance in it. Some labour all the match with nothing to show, others don't labout as much but make use of opportunities that comes their way, and some are so ruthless that they dominate and never let opportunities pass them by. Good post this is @olawalium. Thanks to @communitycoin too. Very good.
I am really excited to hear your words of appreciation and you gave a fantastic comment with this one. That is just how life is sometimes. Life is full of surprises, so is football.
This is very informative and articulately composed
You are a star writer.
I see people complaining about some matches and fair play and all of it. I tell them to pick lessons from it and apply it to real life situation
Who would have thought Senegal will be evicted...They topped the group when Poland scored Japan and dropped to third at the 75th minute when the only goal came in.
Senegal did played good football but Columbia clinched the game.
Absolutely. So many lessons to apply in real life...even with the twists and turns.
Thank you always for your kind words, i always appreciate it.
The world is evolving and only those who are ready to adapt with each change will thrive.
Some of the teams who have shocked in this tournament have an element of unpredictability in their play. They have been flexible enough to to match each opponent with the needed tactics. A typical example of this is Mexico.
Life will always attack us with all sorts of obstacles, our flexibility and ability to adapt will determine how it all ends
Woooooooow! What a view. Life will always attack us, we should always adapt if we are to survive.
Thanks for this brilliant perspective and comment, really enjoyed it. Duly appreciated.
Even the best Predictors would feel disappointed in this on going world cup. It started with surprise and group stages are ending with wow results.
More surprises to come by round of 16 thats knocking already. Some days to go
Yes o...more surprises to come. I am really excited and open to more surprises. Bring on the next round. Yaaaaay!.
Thanks a lot brother.
I often tell folks; the Phenomenon called life is that it never gives you what you want from it, you take or pull from it (Life's Abundance) what you want, need or desire.
Still Elisedaniels...Love for the Gospel.
Yes, life won't always give us what we deserve, and sometimes it gives us what we demand.
Thanks for that. I appreciate it.
They call it the Curse of the Champions, right? Well, didn't think that would apply to Germany! The most emotionless professionals ever played football... The truth is however that they haven't been good at all, as they have been occasionally before too - but still would have forced their way at least to the final - in S.Korea-Japan World Cup for example... This is the thing with this juggernauts - they oppress opponents by the sheer authority that goes along or at times in contrast with the quality of their game... With one juggernaut out, and Argentina looking not very convincing either, perhaps the quality teams like Belgium and Croatia, also Portugal and Uruguay get a real shot at it.