Who is the better team on the day, really?

Written by Mawande.

You’ve seen many times before: one team dominates the balance of play, creates most of the chances and plays the more attractive game. They have the fans on their feet; they have the viewers on the edge of their seat and the sideline commentators waxing lyrical about how well they play the game. But when the shrill of the final whistle rings in everyone’s ears, that team is the one that loses the encounter.

“The better team on the day lost the game” is probably my least favourite saying in all of sports, mostly because of how insulting and untrue I find it to be. How can the better team lose? Is the better team the one that creates all the opportunities to win and puts pressure on the opposition or is the better team that withstands that pressure? I would actually go so far as to say that the better team on the day has never lost in the history of sport and never will. That saying undermines the most important quality that great sportsmen have, that being character and the ability to triumph over adversity.

Foreman or Ali. Who was the better man on the day?

One of my favourite sporting events is the famed Rumble in the Jungle. You only need to watch it once to realize how amazing a moment in history that it is. World Heavyweight Champion, George Foreman pounded challenger Muhammad Ali for seven rounds. Foreman probably threw more punches in one round than Ali did in the whole bout. Ali took all the punches to his body but didn’t go down and in the eighth round he went on to throw some of his own punches at Foreman and landed the ones that matter. Was Foreman the better fighter on the day? He threw all the punches, didn’t he? Yes, he may have been ahead on points, but he didn’t go home with championship belt. Ali did.

Ali lands the punch that mattered.





Fight over. Ali floors Foreman.

Now apply the theme of the Rumble in the Jungle to all of sport. “The better team on the day lost the game” denies the efforts of those who spend countless hours in preparation for that day, analyzing the opposition, working out strategies and getting mentally ready.  In an ideal world, I’d love to see that saying disappear from post game analysis shows and newspaper columns but mostly for sports fans to stop accepting it as the truth.