Life's lessons from Soccer: The Winning Goal

(Image Source: Graphichunt.com)

(A fictional tale of how a soccer team learns to believe in itself and learns valuable lessons of life)


Few people understand what it feels to be totally humiliated, but on August 1991, 16 individuals felt that emotion burning their soul, their pride hurt, their spirit shattered and head hung in agony, the famed Hogwarts High School soccer team had just lost the Wizard Soccer Tournament to their arch rival Durmstrang. And Hari was a part of that team.

It feels like just yesterday when they went through this ordeal most of them did not show for school for weeks, and hardly spoke to each other, any conversation would reopen the wounds of that evening. But life moves and so did they think at that time.

The following year with the reopening of school the team was summoned to the field and they met their new coach for the season Albus Dumbledore, Coach Albus for short. The team went through the pleasantries of introducing themselves after which the coach got down straight to business. The team had to forget the last year’s performance and start afresh. They left the field feeling better little did they realize how close history would be repeating it self.

Soccer is a game played by almost 210 nations worldwide actually there are more members in FIFA the governing body than in the United Nations. Some of the soccer stars have been no less that god including Pele, Maradonna and recently David Beckham. Actually Beckham inspired a movie on his name ‘Bend it like Beckham’

It’s a simple game to play there are goals on either side of a pitch that is 120mts long and 50mts wide. The ball is usually made of latex or rubber.

Eleven players make a team and according to international rules 3 players can be substituted at anytime. Every team has its own formation like the famed Brazilian 4-4-2 formation there are other tactics which depends on the mindset of the nation and its coach.
Hogwarts high used to play the 5-3-2 formation which is more defensive in nature coach Albus changed that to the more attacking 4-3-3 formation that meant they could not rely on the defense any more and had to go out and attack to win. Hari played in the central defender position and vehemently opposed this formation saying that the defense needed more cover. Coach Albus did not say anything then but to Hari’s surprise he showed up at his house in the evening and the lesson he taught him changed his life forever.

He said “ If we are defensive in soccer or life we would always lose, to win attack always attack, not recklessly but a carefully planned well co-ordained attack.”

He made other changes in the team’s training and positions and encouraged the defenders to go up and take a shot at the goal provided they were fast enough to fall back to their positions in time to defend the goal. This one simple tactic would have a bearing on the events that were to unfold that year.

Soccer is more of a mind game, the games are won or lost in the mind of the players and the coaches before they are played on the field. And this was evident in the way Hogwarts High had approached the season so far. Coach Albus was different as he changed from a defensive formation to an offensive one and a confident team went in to the Wizard Soccer Tournament.

They started the Tournament on a positive note, beating the Hufflepuff by two goals, and Rawenclaw by three goals. They drew the third league match and finally qualified for the semi-finals where they met one more of their old rivals Slytherin. Slytherin was totally taken aback by the attacking display. They had a robust defense but they could not take the pounding and finally their defense gave way as Hogwarts struck twice.

The coach of Durmstrang had been following Hogwart’s progress and when the final draw was put up to their horror, Hogwarts faced Durmstrang again in the finals.

Most of the Hogwart’s team had a disturbed sleep the night of the finals as memories of the defeat resurfaced and they felt that they may not be able to beat them, the confidence that Coach Albus had built up over the year suddenly disappeared. The morning was gloomy as it had rained at night; dark clouds hovered as they took the field. Durmstrang had changed the tactics and they went for man to man marking for all the forwards there were many fouls. Ron and Neville the Hogwarts star forwards hardly got space to move, and as the half time came they were tired and frustrated making no headway at all. Durmstrang and Coach Karkaroff had successfully disrupted their game plan.

At half time Coach Albus addressed the team, he knew what was happening and at this rate it would come to a penalty shootout and Durmstrang had a better keeper than Hogwarts. They had to score that was the verdict, and then the strangest thing happened. Hari was the central defender, Coach Albus told him to come forward more often and take the shot from Long range. As the game resumed Durmstrang pressed on with their tactics and Hogwarts responded with their new plan the defenders pushed forward and this seemed to be working.

Ron who had now playing from mid-field passed the ball to Hari and everyone was shouting for him to go forward. Unknown to most Coach Albus and Hari had practiced long distance free kicks. As Hari got the ball he could hear Coach Albus shouting shoot from the bye lines. The Durmstrang defenders could see what was going to happen so they were closing Hari down fast. He had to take a decision and he pushed the ball forward and shot.

The ball went curling up and then at the right moment it dipped the goal keeper had come off the line and he rushed back to his goal line but too late the ball went in and the goal that mattered was scored.
There were 10 minutes left to play which were crazy as Durmstrang tried to equalize and Hogwarts defended as if their lives depended on it then came the final whistle. It had started to rain it washed away the pain and humiliation of the defeat last year. Hogwarts hoisted Coach Albus on their shoulders and carried him around the pitch.
Life is just like football, it is always an inch to the right, an inch to the left a second too slow or a second too fast that makes all the difference and that’s it to soccer and nothing else.