We don’t get the opportunity to comment so positively about our football team, so please excuse the absence of apologies. I will talk about golf and expectations as this article moves on, but for now we are still in the competition and this summer we have something to shout about. For the first time, in living memory, the fans are now connecting with the manager and the squad. We expected very little and have been treated to our first ever World Cup win in a penalty shoot-out; we have scored as many goals as we did in the 1966 event; our top striker has within his grasp the Golden Boot; and we have a shot at becoming World Champions with only a few day to go until the final.
Just so you are aware, I have to submit this article by close of play on Wednesday, so I can’t be too accurate about the outcome of the competition. What I can say is that it is amazing how a country’s perception of a manager and his players can change in the flick of a switch, if they win, and win with humility.
Southgate’s waistcoat and empathetic commiserations to the Columbians who missed the penalties not only showed a human touch, we were with him when he missed in Euro 1996, but to see him embrace and console the players who missed their penalties was so refreshing. Especially against the back drop of Maradona flipping the bird to the Nigerian fans after Argentina’s late winner.
We are behind the team and the manager, more so than any team in recent years. The last manager who connected with the fans, at this level, was the late great Sir Bobby Robson. His team saw an end to the tournament twenty-eight years ago during Italia 1990 at the hands of West Germany, through penalties in the semi-finals.
Now it’s beginning to sound familiar but with a twist; nobody expected this, Germany are out of the competition, the draw totally opened up due to some shock exits and we have won our first penalty shoot-out. Things are looking rosier than ever.
When the whole country is going mad about football, how can the players perform under all of this pressure. For example, imagine you were stood on the first tee and had five hundred people watch you tee off. How would you keep calm and hit the shot straight and true? Now imagine you have the whole country watching you, hoping, praying that you play well. Millions of people tuning in, thousands flying in to Moscow with the prospect ahead of them of seeing their National team make it to their first final in fifty-two years.
Speaking as a coach, the only way to achieve maximum performance under these circumstances, is to keep the expectations as low as possible, not to project past the occasion. If you start imagining what it would be like to win, you have not focused on the task at hand. The irony here is that only focusing on the task in hand will get you over the line. This is where the ‘stay in the moment’ comment really lives.
Of course, the players have to believe that they can do it too. Nothing can be achieved without belief. So to stand on the first tee believing you can hit the fairway, having trained hard doing so, is a must.
If you have practiced, trained so hard that the movement is automatic, you can do it without blinking, then you are ready.
Finally, you have to have fun, you have to enjoy the occasion. If you hate the attention, despise standing out then the stage is not for you. This is why you will hear professionals say, ‘It’s only a round of golf, a game, 90 mins.” They are buying into the philosophy that they are only doing what they are very good at, what they have trained to do, what they really enjoy.
Then, and only then, is it just a game of golf, football or tennis; except with millions watching and hoping. This time they are behind the squad, the same way a parent supports their child.
“So long as you do your best, you will have nothing to regret.”