Reversals of Fortune on the Field

The sharp turning points typical of strongly disputed soccer games make obvious the dialectic of success and confidence, the way in which one builds or diminishes the other. A team that have strung a few good passes together become confident of their abilities and even more successful in their plays.  But a small series of misteps is enough to shake or even shatter that confidence, and the team’s skill and luck will as if suddenly desert them. No doubt these sharp turns have to do with the fact that teams, rather than individuals, are in play:In a team, you are not truly one with the other players, you can only have the illusion that you are – a thin illusion which a breakdown in coordination, a repeated failure of the group to act according to your will, easily shatters.