Last week Friday, Chelsea was on the verge of victory against Bayern Munich in the 2013 UEFA Super Cup but with just eight seconds left, Bayern Munich equalised and were the eventual winner after a penalty shootout. The UEFA Super Cup is an annual football match organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
Brazil were the favourites to win gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics men’s football. The team met Nigeria in one of the semi-final matches of the competition. Brazil had beaten Nigeria 1-0 in the group stage. For the greater part of the match, Brazil were leading. At a point, Brazil were three goals up against Nigeria’s one. But with 12 minutes left, Nigeria scored two goals to send the game into extra time. Nigeria won the match with a golden goal in extra time. In the final match of the competition, Nigeria again came from behind to beat their opponents, Argentina.
In 1999, during the European Champions League Final, Bayern Munich had led Manchester United by 1-0 into the stoppage time but two goals from Manchester United in the stoppage time gave victory to the Manchester club. It was a dramatic comeback.
During the 2005 Champions League Final between AC Milan and Liverpool played in the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul AC Milan were three goals up by half-time, prompting some Reds fans to leave. But in six crazy second-half minutes, Liverpool equalised and went on to eventually win the match in a penalty shoot-out.
The opening game of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations saw Angola leading Mali 4-0 till the last four minutes of the game but somehow the Malian players conjured up 4 goals in 11 minutes to end the game in a draw.
What do these stories teach me? That I should never give up early and if I have any reason to give up at all, I should ask myself these questions:
- Why are you quitting?
- What was the initial reason you started?
- Did you overwhelm yourself too fast?
- Was your goal initially manageable?
- What about everything you sacrificed?
- Are you quitting because you keep failing?
- Would your life be better if you gave up on this goal?
- What would you tell someone else if they were in your shoes?
Let me end this post with some quotations I stumbled across.
“No. Don’t give up hope just yet. It’s the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.” ― Pittacus Lore
“Do it again. Play it again. Sing it again. Read it again. Write it again. Sketch it again. Rehearse it again. Run it again. Try it again. Because again is practice, and practice is improvement, and improvement only leads to perfection.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich
“Do not worry. Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end”. (unknown)
