How Sport Can Brighten Your Week
Monday mornings can be tough but when you have a team to support getting up and facing the week ahead can put a spring in your step
I woke up yesterday morning with a smile on my face because of sport.
So for me, there’s no doubt that sport can impact your life. After all, yesterday morning was a Monday morning, and who likes Monday mornings?
But I thought back to the weekend of sport that it was and in general most of the teams I followed won so that made me feel good.
As I folded my legs and then pushed myself to sit on the side of the bed to face the new week ahead I recalled how difficult the season had been for some teams. I knew that although there were things that I was not looking forward which was to the sportspeople that I followed I`d have to get on with it and work through it for a better overall result.
In the previous weekend, my home teams had played in the second and third match of their respective leagues and one of them had lost while the other had won.
When I reflected on the team who had lost I wasn’t too worried because they had previously beaten the best team in the league only the weekend before so they’d proven that they were going to be a force to be reckoned with come the business side of the season. And my other team had caused a bit of a shock in winning the previous day because everyone thought they’d lose. A week earlier they had been well and truly beaten by several goals so all hopes for the season were dashed, so I was content with the previous day’s result.
Because one win in sport can lift all hopes and interest again and that’s how I was now feeling about that team.
Then there was Liverpool.
I`d followed them since I was a boy.
When I was getting up this morning I knew that I wouldn’t see them play for a couple of months given that the season had finished the previous day. I`d watched the highlights before I`d gone to bed so it was all pretty fresh in my mind.
And that old familiar tune of the Match of the Day theme tune was still in my ears as I rose for my morning routine.
And how Liverpool won the previous day was not the best thing about the feeling when I thought about them. More so, it was how they have made a comeback in the last third of the season and claimed their Champions League qualification which meant a huge amount for the following season. Sure they didn’t win the league but they did the bare minimum that was expected of them just by the skin of their teeth.
And there was huge excitement in the way they did it.
More importantly to me, they were admirable by the way they played too.
After all several weeks earlier they were plummeting towards mid-table in a league of 20 teams. If they had finished in that position the manager would probably have left the league and several players with bundles of talent could have left the club. But instead, they stayed and worked together to climb the table in the final few weeks.
In the last ten games, they outplayed every other team in the league to get into the top 4.
By finishing in 3rd place they were now qualified for the European Champions League. That meant that they’d be getting money and live television coverage for the following season. And they`d retain their manager, and better players as well as being able to attract better players to want to join their club.
It also meant that football fans everywhere would see them play more often on television and they’d be more interested in supporting them and spending on their merchandise.
And in the business of sport the more support there is the more money in the pot.
And all came from hard work and playing as a team.
In the final ten games of the season, Liverpool could have given up. After all, it was impossible for them to win the league as mathematically they`d played so poorly in the middle third of the season and it meant that they’d finish the league trophy less for the first time in a few years. And only a couple of months earlier they were top of the league and favorites to retain their league crown.
Still, they dug in and bonded together to grind out the last ten games and they got their reward by not only getting into 4th spot but also doing one better and finishing just behind the top two teams.
In doing so they put down a marker for the following season.
They showed their supporters that when things go wrong you need to dust yourself off and pick up the pieces and push hard to improve no matter what. Because the middle third of the season was so bad for them that they had their worst home record since the 1937/1938 season but they turned that around in the final few games and that came from their great attitude.
So by the time I stood up this morning I was already looking forward to the day ahead and thinking that no matter what was flung at me I`d react like a champion and get through it all because like the team I supported I`d work hard to find the positives on the other side.
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