The consipracy of the underdogs: Lessons from the FIFA 2018 world cup

The FIFA 2018 world cup has been full of surprises, I watched in disbelief as the big teams (Argentina , Brazil, Spain, Germany ) were eliminated from the world cup, so far the only big team left standing is France.

Before the commencement of the worldcup, alot of people thought they knew which team would win it. I had already concluded that either Argentina, Brazil, Spain or Germany would make it to the semi finals. However, things have turned out differently, as they have been knocked out before the semi finals.

The Brazil versus Belgium game was the one that really surprised me the most. Before the game I had full confidence that Brazil would win that game, considering the fact that Brazil was a football powerhouse, it was easy to predict they would easily ease pass the Belgians - but that wasn't the case, as Belgium won the game by 2 goals to 1.

The surprises of this world cup isn't so different from that of everyday life; we see examples of the David and Goliath story repeating itself time and time again just as it has in this world cup. The only explanation for such events is to simply classify them as miracles, because science predicted they would happen a certain way but time and chance has shown otherwise.

What I have learnt so far is this: there is no situation that is completely hopeless, even when the odds are completely against you, there is always that x factor that can turn things in your favour. You may never know before hand the outcome of a situation, but you have to trust your guts and believe that things will work in your favour.

I want to assume that there were times David thought himself foolish for challenging Goliath, maybe he wanted to back out at some point, we may never know this because there aren't any records of this in the bible. However, he conquered his fear and self doubt and took on a giant and became victorious.

I am sure the Israelite soldiers placed bets against David, maybe his own brothers did the same. Come to think of it, he wasn't supposed to win, the odds were surely not in his favour. How can someone with no military training or experience go up against someone who had been a soldier all his life and come out victorious.

The examples above just goes to show you that no situation is completely hopeless. Even when you are entering the battle as an underdog, there is still hope that you will come out victorious.