Not a good day to talk about soccer

So today my favorite national soccer team, Argentina, lost very badly against Germany by a score of 0-4 in the World Cup quarterfinals. It was quite a humiliating defeat, and of course I am sad. I remembered that I was almost crying when Argentina was disqualified in the first round in the 2002 World Cup when they were the top favorite. But yeah, I am not in the border of crying now. Not yet haha.

It is frustrating because "on paper" Argentina definitely has one of the best teams. If you look at the list of players, there are 5 top class forwards who are shining in the European leagues (Messi, Milito, Tevez, Aguero, Higuain). Only teams like Spain and Netherlands portray similar power in that aspect.

What about Brazil, England, Germany, Portugal, Italy, and France? Brazil has 3 fantastic players (Kaka, Robihno, and Luis Fabiano) but Kaka is not in his best condition after a so-so season with Real Madrid. England has two pillars in the midfield (Gerrard and Lampard) but their soccer relies on Rooney who wasn't able to do much. Ronaldo has good skills but besides his good free kicks, Portugal didn't transcend much. Italy definitely needs some new talented younger players, and France has to deal with its internal turmoil.

Germany gave a very good "leccion futbolistica" (soccer lesson) because they destroyed Argentina in every aspect of the game. Germany was very compact as a team, very collaborative and systematic, and their players were very focused. This led to a strong defense and good-paced midfield which allows them to use the gunpowder they have in the forwards. While Argentina was seeking to rely on their star players Messi and Tevez, who weren't able to surpass the Germany defense.

What is encouraging is that most of the key players in Germany are so young, not even reaching the 1/4 century. More so, the veteran forward Klose is about to break the record in becoming the top all-time scorers in the World Cup. They have improved in their game after a shaky first round, and was able to beat two "big" teams like Argentina and England scoring 4 goals each time. Definitely they have become a serious candidate to win the World Cup. Even if they don't win, I think Germany can rest assure that they have a formidable team for the 2014 World Cup, when their younger players will become more seasoned.

Also, Argentina lost the game in the technical sense (from the coach point of view). Diego Maradona is considered one of the best players in all history, but his coach career and experience is very limited. He wasn't able to make good tactical judgement in this crucial time. This is something that has been seen at least a year ago when Argentina struggled to qualify to the World Cup. But still people like him because of his charisma, after all he is like an idol in Argentina and perhaps he is able to relate better to the players and transmit the courage to them.

This match clearly says that you will need more than good star players and a charismatic coach to win the World Cup. Germany shows that you need to have good team play and good tactical judgement from the coach.

2 lessons to extrapolate:

Team work over individualities:

• Once in a while or for a short-term you can rely on key individualities to win, but for a long-term you need a team
• In the body of Christ, we cannot rely only on the leaders that they will do all the work. They are the ones who encourage and drive the vision, but we also need workers who can support and do the background work. Everyone has to take ownership so that we can see the body of Christ further God's Kingdom with the full potential.

Importance of applied knowledge (wisdom):

• Being a leader, you are to be influential to the people under you. It is important that you can relate to them as a person and encourage them. But you also need to be grounded in the knowledge.
• There are many influential Christian leaders today, and some of them are very good in captivating the audience with the way they preach. It is important for us to test everything (1 John 4) and to discern whether what they are preaching is aligned with the truth (Bible).

But yeah, today is not a good day to talk about soccer.