Soccer Struggles and Life Goals
- Vernon C. Lindsay, PhD
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Are you as lost as I am in the World Cup? Multiple moments have confused me during several games of what Americans call soccer, and everyone else recognizes as football.
We attended a community watch party hosted by a local soccer club for the USA vs. Belgium match. Our friends came, but despite crowd cheers and presidential interferences, the USA team lost.
I played basketball, baseball, and American football as a child. Whenever my gym teachers covered the soccer unit in PE class, I criticized their credentials. The continuous running across a green field after a black-and-white ball I couldn’t hold exhausted and frustrated me.
Microtraumas embedded in my adolescent psyche from playing soccer in grade school followed me to adulthood.
When I lived in Ethiopia for a three-month stint after college, weekends were often spent with friends in front of the TV watching football. They cheered and shouted words in Amharic or Tigrinya. I often fell asleep or questioned the hype around a sport in which teams rarely scored more than two points in 90 minutes.
Much has changed since my solo African adventures abroad. This week, I invited friends to the community watch party. Yesterday, I watched the first half of the France v. Morocco with my wife.
How did this happen? I asked myself after the game.
When my family moved from the US to Mexico in 2016, my wife and I signed our children up for a football team. They enjoyed it, and I transformed their early practices and games into episodes for our YouTube channel.
While two of my children left the pitch when we relocated to Antigua, jumped in the water and became swimmers, the middle one stayed with football and developed his skills. From Mexico to Antigua and back to the US, I’ve lost count of the practices and games attended; yet many of football’s rules remain a mystery.
It’s almost as if the childhood trauma from gym class has blocked my ability to understand offsides, onside, fouls, yellow cards, and red cards.
Despite my limited ball knowledge, I know politicians don’t dictate calls. Referees rule the field; presidents run countries.
But just like the name for football is soccer in America, World Cup calls must differ. America’s president ceased firing commands from the Oval Office to call in a favor, before the USA v Belgium match.
Officials permitted the US Striker Balogun to play in the game despite the suspension that followed a controversial call. Balogun received a red card during his previous match.
Did the accidental strike to his opponent’s heel warrant the red card? No, but on the football pitch, the refs are in charge.
From my earliest days in sports, I learned to “respect the call.” Arguing with referees, umpires, or coaches often put me on the bench. There is much that I still don’t understand about soccer or football, but I’ve gleaned a few things.
For 90 or more minutes, players run up and down a field chasing the chance to score goals for their team, themselves, and, in the World Cup, their countries. Throughout the pursuit, many players get tripped, pushed, dragged, and kicked.
The US team lost this week, but Argentina’s players defeated Egypt in a memorable match. Argentina’s controversial comeback reflected Divine intervention, league favoritism, or simply skills under pressure. I’m likely overthinking the game, but this is my interpretation of this sport called football.
The game mimics the real struggles of life.
Pain precedes progress.
Consider your last major project with multiple revisions or a fight to correct an injustice. Nothing feels better than making the seemingly impossible possible.
One goal translates to something much more than a point. As with everything we do in life, joy and fulfillment often follow strenuous struggle.
Difficulties, learning, and growing are interrelated.
I may not be able to tell you much about soccer, but I can teach you how to win against the struggles in leadership, love, and life. Subscribe to this blog, enroll in this course, and inquire about coaching.
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