"Sport doesn't build character; it reveals it"
It was pretty straight forward - win the game and we have 1 hand on the trophy.
Our opponents for the evening were De'Shang Nite and because they were languishing in the final 8th spot for Cup qualification, they had to win this game too which made it all the more difficult.
As I prep-ed myself up in goal for the 1st of 2 title deciding clashes, I knew I had to focus. Unfortunately, just like the past few weeks, I found that (focus) hard to do. And so it showed.
The first 20 minutes were purely CCFC and we kept them pinned in their own half with 2 well taken goals from forgotten-man Wei and veteran terrier Han. And it got even better when they were reduced to 10 men when their captain & centre back was sent off for a vicious lunge on wing wizard Ming. But then our midfield colossus Max went down injured shortly after and 10 crazy minutes turned the game completely on its head & in their favor!
The first was when I failed to commit to aerial combat from a freekick and although I parried a close range header away, the rebound fell to a lurking player at the near post and he gleefully slammed it home. The second was a comedy of sorts (tho I found nothing funny about it), when I let a speculative long range effort bounce in front of me and out of my reach into the net. The expression on my team-mates faces said it all. They were disgusted.. as was I.
The second half was spent chasing for that elusive winning goal and thankfully Jerome hit the winner with his newly bought Adidas boots to cap off an exciting evening whilst my goal was being bombarded with shots, freekicks & taunts from rival players and supporters. Even Ah Han had a go at me a few times. The opponents smelled blood from my 2 mistakes and they took their chances however they could but thankfully we kept the score in our favor but most importantly, here's what I learned:
Life Lesson #1:
Everyone has good days and bad days. Sometimes we will even have terrible I-don't-wanna-come-out days. There's no science for predicting when this will happen but life needs to go on because we don't just live for ourselves, other people depend on us too. Although I had a rare off day, I just couldn't give up because my team-mates were also counting on me.
Life Lesson #2:
Everyone makes mistakes. Sh*t happens. Get over it! Instead of beating myself up over the first half, I decided to just get it together & it proved much better as I came out more confidently to collect crosses and even produced a 1-on-1 save!
Life Lesson #3:
Don't hide behind excuses! When I made those 2 mistakes, I immediately blamed everyone except myself. I blamed the bad week, the poor defence, the pitch, etc. But what I soon realized was that in order for me to solve the problem, I had to face the problem - ME! If we hide behind excuses, we will never be able to move forward because we'll be stuck with the same mistakes time & again.
Life Lesson #4:
Never let external factors tell you that you're not good enough. I had a bunch of rival players and supporters taunting me for my mistakes throughout the entire 2nd half. Whenever people tell us that we're not good enough, we usually just cave in & feel demotivated. Instead, we should be showing them how good we are. If I had given in to their taunting, I'm sure we would have lost the game by a big margin.
Life Lesson #5:
Reputation means NOTHING! People take their places & position for granted. So what if you've been great?! So what if you're top of the league?! The effort you've put in to build that reputation means nothing if we don't try our best in everything we do. And for those who are not really there yet, don't give up! If we run helter skelter when faced with tougher opposition, whether it's external or within us, we will NEVER progress. It's all about ATTITUDE.
Needless to say, I had a very tiring week and day. But I'm glad I was able to derive some life lessons from what I went through in yesterday's match. Now for the Championship!
