Temporary glasses, don't freak out. Good morning, Hank, it's Tuesday.
Today, I want to talk to you about how to win, in life, in sports,
in whatever because I am very nervous right now and I would like to send some winning energy
into the world; or at the very least some tying energy, but first a bit of background.
So our community sponsors a third tier English soccer team called AFC Wimbledon, specifically our logo occupies the liminal space
between the left thigh and buttock on their uniform and this has been a really difficult season for
Wimbledon. They've lost more games than they've won, and with two games to go they are currently in 19th place out of
24 teams and that's a tad worrisome because the bottom four teams will be relegated and spend next season in the fourth tier of English football.
So in order for Wimbledon not to get relegated, they need to win or draw one of their last two games
the first of which starts (as I'm recording this) in about an hour. It's definitely nervous making,
but on the other hand this is actually the best position Wimbledon has been in for, like, months.
Largely thanks to the Walsall event. It's amazing how an entire season of football or really any endeavor can come down to
ridiculously little things. Like Hank, I often think that if your Harry Potter song hadn't been featured by YouTube in July of
2007, none of this would exist.
Of course lots of other things had to happen too, so many that I can't name all of them or even
know about all of them. We all live for better and for worse
with what happens to have happened; but right the Walsall event. With five games left in the season,
AFC Wimbledon are two nil down to Walsall at halftime. The last time
Wimbledon came back from a two nil deficit was a year and a half earlier, a 2-2 draw against Barry.
But then near the start of the second half Andy Barcham is fouled, the ensuing penalty is saved, but the rebound
happens to fall to Joe Piggott, who scores,
and then in the 65th minute, Lyle Taylor scores a beautiful goal and the comeback is complete; 2-2
everyone celebrates! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Except, wait. Hold on... roll that back. Right there, you see that guy picking up the ball?
That's Wimbledon's captain Barry Fuller; and he's doing that to run the ball back to the center circle to get the game
restarted as quickly as possible.
Now, time added on to the end of the half by the referee is supposed to account for all of this,
but in practice everyone knows you can save a few seconds by running the ball back.
So, while everyone else was justifiably celebrating the completion of their comeback,
Wimbledon's captain was like, "Hold on guys, we can still win this!" and I mean we're talking here about at most
15 seconds; that is 1/360th of the game, but as it happened that was a vital 1/360th
because in the final seconds of the game, Lyle Taylor was fouled in the box, Dean Parrot scored a penalty, and Wimbledon won the game
3-2. That meant three points added to their season total instead of one, three points that here at the end of the season looked like
they might be absolutely essential.
So why did the Walsall event happen? It happened because of accurate shooting, because of a referee's
decisions, because the ball bounced one way and not the other; but it also
happened because Barry Fuller picked the ball up and ran it back to the center circle, even though he knew that by doing that he
was only increasing Wimbledon's chances of winning by some
fraction of a percent. There is so much luck in this world and none of us should ever
forget that and we also all have to depend on the good judgment of strangers and help from our friends and colleagues
and teammates, but also you have to hope and you have to go on.
Even when you've lost more games than you've won and you've been down so far that a tie feels like winning, you have
to pick up the ball and run it back to midfield and believe in spite of it all that this game is still winnable.
Hank, I'll see you on Friday.