Sever Voinescu, Dilema.ro: The Organization of Inabilities

For many years, I have been watching sports confrontations in search of life lessons. I think that such a human activity as sports, which has traversed the history of mankind changing in form, but never in essence, brings with it a kind of ancient wisdom that says something important about life and about people, that it is like a modern probe sent back to ancient times that has returned and shows us what it has gathered from the distant past of humanity.

With this thought, I watch football or basketball matches or some athletics events. I prefer team sports because the collective effort is more spectacular than individual effort and because in these sports, especially, the coach is visible: a kind of boss who is not a boss because, after all, on the field the players are alone and they win or lose, a kind of teacher who is not a teacher because, in the end, if things go wrong, he is more likely to be fired than the sanctioned students. I like, more than anything, to see how a team applies a plan, how they adapt to the opponent's plans, how they react as a body, how they become more than the sum of the individuals that compose it even if some of these individuals are themselves geniuses, alone, greater and more important than entire teams.

I recently watched a football match from the ongoing World Cup, which I found to be an extremely important lesson for all of us, for us as a nation, as a kind of national lesson. I find it especially useful now, when I have the impression that all our weaknesses have overwhelmed us.

The match between Spain and Cape Verde. Spain is one of the great football powers in the world. The current European champion, world champion in 2010, currently ranked third in the FIFA world ranking of national football teams, Spain gathers absolutely formidable players who play both exciting and efficient football. The exceptional qualities of each player are beyond doubt and their pleasure to play together under the national colors is evident. Cape Verde is a country off the west coast of Africa, with an area and a population approximately equal to that of Dâmbovița County. The similarity with Dâmbovița County is maintained also in terms of football. There is no football player from the Cape Verde national team known internationally, and the football tradition of the country, which became independent in 1978, is practically null (their football federation joined FIFA in 1986). During the match, it was clear that the Cape Verde team could do nothing – their players did not dribble well, did not connect more than two passes, at most the third pass was intercepted by the Spaniards, and the supreme helplessness was evident in the rare occasions when Cape Verde launched an attack against Spain. As they crossed the midfield, the Cape Verde players hurried to shoot towards the goal, you had the clear impression that they wanted to get rid of the ball and the burden of building, at least, a plausible attack, to return to defense. The match between Spain and Cape Verde could not even be a match between Goliath and David because, in the confrontation with the giant Philistine warrior, David compensated for the physical strength deficit with superior mental qualities and was able to develop a tactic that brought him victory. In our case, Spain was superior in every way. There was absolutely no relevant area for the game of football in which Spain's superiority was not overwhelming. And yet, Spain failed to defeat Cape Verde. Moreover, they failed to score even a single goal, despite attacking in waves, without stopping, the entire match. What happened?

Cape Verde admirably organized its helplessness and offered a magnificent lesson in collective lucidity. Moreover, they were fully aware that they could not dribble like the Spaniards, could not pass like the Spaniards, could not shoot like the Spaniards, could not develop a football game even comparable, let alone competitive. And then, they did the only thing they could do: they organized themselves. With a flawless tactical discipline, every anonymous player from Cape Verde stood in his place and did without error what he had to do in a "no passage here" defensive system. Nothing else. At first, Spain, a bit arrogant, took things lightly. They could not fail to defeat Cape Verde. Over time, seeing that they could do little against a disciplined wall, the Spaniards became increasingly aggressive, and in the last twenty minutes they began to get angry and hurry. Cape Verde consistently played the mediocre game they could play. But, essentially, they played organized and disciplined. Thus, it happened that great Spain failed to score any goals against Cape Verde.

As I say, the lesson is important. When you face an opponent much better than you, do not try to do what you know well that you cannot do, do not try, as many "self-improvement" enthusiasts would say today, to surpass yourself. On the contrary, be aware of how lucid your limits are and organize yourself well within them. Be lucid in relation to what you can and cannot do and organize yourself! "The readiness is all," says Prince Hamlet. To be ready for an opponent who is better than you in every respect means to organize your helplessness. Your limits can become an impregnable fortress if you organize yourself in such a way as to be ready for anything. Only unorganized limits become vulnerabilities and can lose you. Organization takes the place of everything you lack and, even if you are not sure that you will be able to achieve victory against a clearly better opponent, it is certain that he will not be able to defeat you. In football, sometimes a 0-0 result is a huge victory. Not on the field, but in the heart of the one considered defeated beforehand. Sometimes, defending the integrity of your limits is the noblest victory of all.

https://www.dilema.ro/tilc-show/organizarea-neputintelor