I have had the opportunity of matching a lot of football matches before last now but the match I watched yesterday or should I say last night opened my eyes to what I have been missing for so long. I believe that you have been missing this particular point I will x-ray in this article about football because most times we just watched football in a bid to get entertained by the footballers and then because of the team we support. Have you had the opportunity to look beyond the entertainment part of football? This is a question you will answer after reading this article because last night I saw football beyond the entertainment point of view. It is common knowledge that the 2020 Euro championship that was supposed to have been played last year was moved over to this year due to the covid19 saga that bedevilled the whole world. This tournament started on the 11th day of June and from that day to date there have been great football showman-ship which every football lover has been enjoying both in the field and over the television. We already know that football is the biggest and most popular sport in the world today and there have been a lot of great legends who have made their mark on the field of play in years past.
These legends have become the backbone of sports because a lot of the youths have joined the sports just because of the things they saw these legends do in the field of play. I am not going to reel out the history of football because I believe that would be too common. After all, I believe anybody can find it over the internet at any given time. Therefore I will go straight into the reason why I decided to write this article. As I was watching last night match which was between Russia and Denmark, something struck me and I began to the correlation between football and the reality of life. This relationship was stated clearly by this great quote by one of the Super Sports football analyst.
“Football is the Microscopic Reflection of the Society”… Rhulani Mokwena.
Rhulani Mokwena is a South African professional football manager who is the assistant manager of Mamelodi Sundowns. Source
Just as the normal ritual for football analysts to talk about every match in a bid to x-ray the errors and good performances of both teams, he was allowed to make his point and before he started, he dropped the quote which made the presenter of the program ask him to repeat his statement because he believed that the quote was a suitable way to talk about the match that was played. I believe a lot of people must have heard this quote last night but not everyone would have read meanings into it the way I did. This is the difference we have as individuals and I will urge you to read through this article because it will open your eyes to some of the mistakes we make in life in our pursuit of success.
Football the Microscopic Reflection of the Society
I know you will be wondering what this Rhulani Mokwena meant in the quote he made. I must tell you that he not only spurred me into critical thinking, he also explained what he meant. When he was asked to throw more light on what he meant he said that what transpired between Russia and Denmark is what we see in everyday life in our existence. Russia came into the match with 3 points while Denmark had no single point which was a determinant of who will make it to the next round (round of 16). Now, Russia was playing with the hope that Belgium will win Finland who was also playing at the same time in another stadium, but Denmark came into the game to win irrespective of what plays out in the other match fixture between Belgium and Finland. Let me explain more. Before the beginning of last night match, Belgium was leading in group B with 6 points followed by Finland in second place with 3 points, Russia in third place with 3 points and Denmark in the bottom and on their way out from the Euro championship with no point.
From the above standings, a draw for Finland will send them into the round of 16 if Russia loses or draws with Denmark. For Russia, a draw will see them into the round of 16 if Finland losses to Belgium and by ranking, there was over %70 chances of Finland to lose to Belgium. In both teams (Finland and Russia) calculations, they never imagined that Denmark could come from the bottom to head straight into the round of 16. That was why what happened last night made me see beyond football. Both Finland and Russia hinged their qualification on others and that made them play with less vigour and high spirit, but Denmark came all out intending to win their match even if they will be exiting the tournament last night at least they would give their fans something to glory in. They never thought that their vigour and resolve to give all they have will take them into the next round.
The lesson we must learn
In reality, a lot of us think and behave like Finland and Russia when it comes to actualizing a given target. We have become so dependent that we depend on other people’s failure for us to become successful. For instance, you come for a musical audition with the mindset that the other contestants are not good enough therefore your chances of going into the next round will be bigger and better. This mindset will make you not work very hard because you believe you are better than the other and therefore their failure is your success. While you are living in such a mindset, the other contestants are busy working on themselves because they see you as a challenge and by so doing, when they come out to perform, they will set a standard that is so high for you to achieve because you were not prepared.
We can also see this in the area of friendship making. A lot of people will not be comfortable enough to make friends with people who are more brilliant than them because they would not want to become the dullard of the click of friends. This set of people forget that when you mingle with people who have high IQ than you, you will be spurred to work harder in a bid to meet up with their standard and by so doing, you will end up improving your IQ if not in the same level with theirs, at least you will be up to par. I can go on and on in bringing in instances where we have acted like Finland and Russia when it comes to the realities of life. We must look at our lives critically to understand why we are not getting the positivity we are meant to get when it comes to achievements and success. Depending on the failures of others for your success will always keep you away from your deserved success. Don’t be ignorant like the two teams that had better chances of moving to the next level in the EURO 2020 tournament but lost it because they were depending on the result of other matches.
Be smart. Never put yourself in a situation where you will be relying on another person’s failure to succeed in life.
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