Not knowing and disappointment

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I’m about to board a flight from Toronto to Vancouver and I had the thought this morning that I might share this flight with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC my local football (soccer) team. I am a huge fan of these guys, a member of one of the supporters groups and a seasons ticket holder. And I was dreading sharing the flight with the team.

The reason? The Whitecaps absolutely blew the best chance they have had in years of inning the Canadian Championship cup final last night. They came out against Toronto FC – a team that has lost its first 9 games of the season, a team that one of heir own called “the worst in the world” – and they lost. They needed a goal to go ahead in the second leg and they failed to score. They put on the most dismal performance I have ever seen them play. They didn’t link up, they didn’t have a shot on goal, they stood in against a crappy team that was determined to foul them, waste time and destroy the pace of the game and they caved in.

I can only imagine this morning the heartbreak and disappointment they must be feeling. I have had days like that – when nothing goes right despite your best intentions. When something that seems easy and straightforward gets completely overtaken by circumstance. When complacency creates a cascade of effects that tips the system towards chaos and there is nothing to do but retreat and hit reset.

There is no guaranteed results in sport, and football is one of those sports that will always surprise you. There is never a guarantee that even the easiest of tasks in the most favourable of circumstances will work out. Disappointment is an inevitable part of working in the unknown. Heartbreak is a possible outcome.

So live it and move on. There is nothing else to do but host yourself through it and realize that, in the game of complex outcomes, the next possibility has arisen right now.

Go Caps. We have a derby against Portland on the weekend. Reset and kick some ass.