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Soccer win shows fans that life is what you make it

By Ben Lim Chiow Ang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-13 10:06

Spain is the newly crowned 2010 World Cup champion, becoming the eighth team to win the coveted title.

There are several life lessons that can be learned from the triumphant Spanish.

Spain is the only team to lose its opening game in the competition and go on to win the World Cup.

Switzerland created a major upset by beating overwhelming favorite Spain 1-0 in their opening group game. Spain picked herself up, dusted herself off, and started over again in the next game against Honduras.

Spain has the courage to face up squarely to the adversity and refuse to quit and she went on to re-write history as world champion.

Life is 20 percent what happens to you and 80 percent how you respond to it. How you choose to respond to life's events will determine if you are a winner or a quitter.

Spain chose to be a real winner and overcome adversity, an inevitable "ingredient" we all have in our life.

With the initial setback in the opening game, self-doubt surfaced as to the wisdom of Spain's passing game. However, Spain, with coach Vicente del Bosque at the helm, remained steadfast in their football philosophy of the passing game. Spain remained true to her own conviction toward "the beautiful game".

Self-belief or faith is a commodity that is lacking in the world today. We have to believe in ourselves because, in life, everything happens for a reason. Self-belief is an essential and compelling factor to our success in overcoming a life crisis.

Despite possessing a strong football pedigree at the club level, Spain has been one of the great underachievers in World Cup history. She has been through several disappointments in past World Cups. But now she has been crowned World Cup champion in South Africa. This is on the back of her deserved win of the Euro 2008 competition.

Success breeds success. The victorious Spain at Euro 2008 was coached by Luis Aragones and Spain's present World Cup winning coach Vicente del Bosque stuck with the proven success formula set up by his predecessor.

In life, to be successful, you have to be associated with successful people and learn from them. When you are successful, it is very likely you are doing the right things. And when you are rewarded with success, you will tend to continue doing the right things. If what you are doing is working, you will probably stick with it.

The success of Spain was a collective effort of the 11 individuals on the field as well as the unsung heroes, substitutes on the bench.

Undoubted star player Fernando Torres was naturally disappointed to have been dropped for both the semi-final and final but esprit de corps prevailed in the end and all squad members put the team interest above their own personal ambition.

Just as in life, no man is an island. To be successful, you have to build up a network of individuals around you and rally the members toward a common vision.

Spain's success was not mere coincidence. She reaped the benefits of a decision made six years ago. Know Thyself. Spain knew back then that she did not have physical players but a good team of technically gifted players such as Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and Cesc Fabregas. In view of it, she decided to play the ball-possession system, defend with the ball and attack with the ball.

As soccer fans all over the world celebrate with the Spanish after her marvelous win, we must not forget that we are here to celebrate life in general as well.