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.
