Wednesday, June 23, 2010

What can we learn from the World Cup?

Are you guys watching the World Cup? Two weeks into it and as always, it's been exciting! I'm super super pleased since both of my teams have made it into the second round. My Korean brothers pulled it out yesterday:

Dae-han-min-guk! And the US made it a bit too close this morning, but finally scored in the 91st minute in injury time.

This means Saturday will be an all day soccer fest for me, with South Korea playing in the morning and the US in the afternoon.

I think we all know that raiding is a team effort. So just to reinforce this point, a couple of ideas on what can we learn from watching these soccer matches:

1. You're a team. No matter how many brilliant, egotistical, overpaid super stars you may have, it really doesn't matter if you can't play as a team. Team chemistry and the desire to work together makes a difference.

2. Communication. The best teams communicate with each other. Even when there are distractions (ahem vuvuzelas), you have to find an effective and constructive way to communicate throughout the mayhem.

3. Sometimes things are beyond your control. Blizzard/server glitches, idiot blind referees (ahem Kouman Coulibaly)... yeah sometimes despite your best effort, things happen beyond your control. Sometimes lady luck is on your side, sometimes it isn't.

4 comments:

  1. Sorry, I cannot watch World Cup without the feeling I'm about to be stung by a several million bees... I don't know what those things are, just their name and the fact I can't stand the noise from them... All do respect to the sport, but that noise... ::shudder::

    ReplyDelete
  2. The US game was on of the most nerve wracking game I've ever watched, and it was a great time :) You could tell we were more about winning, and playing as a team than getting the ball to a specific person. England on the other hand, has players that don't even like each other, and are doing less than expected. Those vuvuzelas are awesome, I don't know why people hate them so much

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Kayeri: I think I've kind of gotten used to them, but yes, they do drive some folks absolutely batty.

    @Aituair: I know! Ghana is going to be a tough game on Saturday... The other team I was thinking about with my first point was Les Bleus. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm just glad that the U.S. pulled out a win so that they get to miss Germany in the round of 16. Nice that my loyalties won't have to be divided for another round at least. Should they meet in the 8's though... go Deutschland.

    Also, am I the only one that took some perverse pleasure in watching Italy and France fail soooo hard?

    ReplyDelete