The Goal that Mattered!

Few people understand what it feels to be totally humiliated, but on August 1991, 11 individuals felt that emotion burning their soul, their pride hurt, their spirit shattered and head hung in agony, the famed DPS RK Puram soccer team had just lost the Jatin Bedi Memorial Soccer tournament to their arch rival Modern School. And I was a part of that team.

It feels like just yesterday when we went through this ordeal most of us did not show for school for weeks, we hardly spoke to each other, any conversation would reopen the wounds of that evening. But life moves and so did we or at least that’s what we thought at that time.

The following year with the reopening of school we were summoned to the field and we met our new coach for the season Mario Alvares Coach Mario for short. We went through the pleasantries of introducing ourselves the coach got down straight to business we had to forget whatever we had till now and start afresh. We left the field feeling better little did we 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.
We in school used to play the 5-3-2 formation which is more defensive in nature coach Mario changed that to the more attacking 4-3-3 formation that meant we could not rely on the defense any more we had to go out and attack to win I played in the central defender position and vehemently opposed this formation saying that the defense needed more cover. Coach Mario did not say anything then but to my surprise he showed up at my house in the evening and the lesson he taught me I remember to this day. 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 our 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 we had approached the season so far Coach Mario was different he changed from a defensive formation to an offensive one and with a confident team we went in to the tournament.

We started the tournament on a positive note we beat the Government Boys School by two goals, and Mont Fort by three goals. We drew the third league match and finally qualified for the semi-finals where we met one more of our old rivals St Columbus. They were totally taken aback by our attacking display. They had a robust defense but we they could not take the pounding and finally their defense gave way as we struck twice.

The coach of Modern had been following our progress and when the final draw was put up to our horror we faced Modern again in the finals.
Most of us had a disturbed sleep the night of the finals as memories of the defeat resurfaced and we felt that we may not be able to beat them, the confidence that Coach Mario had built up over the year suddenly disappeared. The morning was gloomy as it had rained at night; dark clouds hovered as we took the field. Modern had changed the tactics and they went for man to man marking for all the forwards there were many fouls. Raj and Shitij our star forwards hardly got space to move, and as the half time came we were tired and frustrated making no headway at all. Modern and Coach Singh had successfully disrupted our game plan.

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

Raj who had now playing from mid-field passed the ball to me and everyone was shouting for me to go forward. Unknown to most Coach Mario and me had practiced long distance free kicks. As I got the ball I could hear Coach Mario shouting shoot from the bye lines. The Modern defenders could see what was going to happen so they were closing me down fast I had to take a decision and I 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 mts left to play which were crazy as they tried to equalize and we defended as if our 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. We hoisted Coach Mario on our 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.

By
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran
Senior Business Consultant
Computer Sciences Corporation
(This speech won the best prepared speech at the Toastmasters club level)