food for thought, no less

soundcheck: illegal (shakira ft. c santana)

well, where do i begin?? went home mp3-less, not because i lost it, but was so engrossed in analysing the morning's events.. seems that i learn more abt the game as a whole from not playing than playing, so here goes some lessons..

1. no one wins playing the blame game

"you all are not playing as a team..if you find that you cannot say anything encouraging or positive, then i rather you don't say anything and shut up." -- mr ben soh

no prizes for guessing.. b.soh just abt summed up our problems, both on and off the pitch.. yes, i know that we always emphasize that whatever happens on the pitch stays there, but obviously that's not where it stayed today.. he knows what i'm talking abt.. dimshit.. its one thing to give constructive criticism, and another to undermine each other's confidence and composure, and yet another to bite off innocent heads.. well, i'm sure we'll tweak this aspect of our game.. then we can talk abt playing as a team.. :)

2. more lessons are learnt from not winning than winning

despite all the gloom, i still feel confident that this is just a slip up.. i'm not being pessimistic, c'mon, we're playing sport.. can't expect to come out on top and win everytime.. we should count our lucky starts instead: today is the 3rd time we've salvaged something from a game in the last 5 mins.. not many teams can boast of having that fighting spirit & determination.. let's build on it and weave it into our fabric.. patience, it's coming together in due time.. also, like tauf pointed out, we're a new team, and yet unbeaten since jan1.. keep those chins up friends..

3. back to basics

"you are all so selfish. all of you are thinking of scoring the goals and being the hero, but none of you are thinking of the process before that.. think of the process, pass the ball around, the goals will come, trust me"-- gerard martin danker

one positive i can think of abt today is that it took the shine off our recent performances, making us look into what needs adjustment, and to rectify them in due time.. imagine, would we have pointed out our communication problems had we scored 2 late goals today? i doubt. we would've been celebrating our top 4 instead of pointing out the problems, which is the main purpose for entering this u18 in the first place..
forget abt blaming whoever makes mistakes
forget abt scoring the goals
forget abt being the hero
forget abt the medals
forget abt those 13 unconverted penalty corners
forget abt those supposed 'lucky' red socks
forget abt playing at unlucky delta

instead,
focus on playing our game
focus on passing around and switching
focus on task at hand, worry abt the rest later
focus on playing the game, not blaming
focus on our definition of perfection
focus on playing to the best of ability, so that we can walk off the pitch knowing there's not a single thing we could've done better


ok, enough abt the game.. guitar course is interesting, to say the least.. and my poor fingers hurt like mad.. i need to get a guitar, pls wait for me..takamine anyone? haha
i have maths tuition later, mum has company D&D later, looks like i'll be sooo busy.. all in a day's work..
peace..

quote of the day: "its not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you get hit and how you get up, how you fight on"-- rocky balboa, rocky balboa