LOYALTY V REALITY In football, as in life, loyalty tends to blind people from reality. There are many examples that one can give. What explains supporters of the ANC living in the stench filled Alexander shacks claiming that the movement cares about them? A supporter, whose leaders enjoy the warmth and exceptional quality of a heated mansion in Joburgs top suburbs, maybe even Sandton, very close to Ga Mampyana. It is loyalty versus reality. A mother always jumps at her sons defence even if the larney has committed a big crime. She will claim, even after seeing the evidence, that her son is innocent and cannot even harm a fly. There are gentlemen and ladies who have been blinded by their partners, being so loyal that when you tell them that their partner is cheating with their best friend, they will dismiss you for being a jealous prick. Equally so, there were a lot of Liverpool fans (most of them my friends), who decided to ignore reality and all the warning signs, insisting that the Reds will beat Real Madrid. Some went as far as saying Madrid has never beaten Liverpool, some said Anfield is a house of pain for the fluent Los Blancos and others claimed even Ronaldo has never scored at the Kop. They did this very aware of how red hot Madrid is at the moment. Their loyalty could not help them avoid what was coming their way, what was inevitable. I even saw a good friend saying “Even in Istanbul, the scoreline was like this at half-time (referring to the 3-0 scoreline). Even now, they still cannot understand that Madrid not increasing the three goals they scored was only out of respect, and not because Liverpool had improved. I told someone that in England, Adam Lallana is a good player, but once you face him off with Jamez Rodriguez and Toni Kroos, he becomes an average player. It is the same with the quality between Dejan Lovren and Raphael Varane. Now, when you understand football (I am not saying therefore), you would have seen it coming. You would have understood that Liverpool is a crisis club in EPL, you would have seen that they took seven steps forward, only to take nine back. You would have seen that quality against quality, Liverpool are lagging behind. You would have understood that Liverpool beating Madrid were close to one and never. I told a colleague that Liverpool would be lucky not to let in three goals. She said I was hating on the mighty Reds. Liverpool is a big club, but the honest truth is that the club is in decline. I understand though. In issues of love, war and stomach logistics, loyalty tends to surpass realism. We are all human at the end of the day.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 07:02:32 +0000
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