Attack or Defense?

Well another week has come and gone, and I’m sitting here wondering where it went. I’m guessing the reason it has disappeared is due to preparing for EMASS, now only 2 days away! I’ve also not worked a full week – I was lucky enough to go to the Olympics on Monday.

Although we applied for a number of different events, we only received tickets for two sessions of the women’s hockey, but we were still very happy to have received these! So on Sunday afternoon, my parents and I got in the car to head for London and the Olympic games!

We got to see four games of hockey; New Zealand vs Germany, USA vs South Africa, China vs Japan, and Belgium vs South Korea. I’ve not played hockey for a number of years, having only played it in PE at school, but it was very exciting to see the game played with such skill, and it reignited my interest in the game.

The way the teams played their games was also of interest to me. I’ll start with China vs Japan. China had been playing better than Japan in their previous games, and the crowd expected them to win. Of course, this would mean a harder team for Team GB, so the crowd was cheering for Japan. But the game was anything but exciting. Japan had a number of penalty corners, but they did not have the power in their shots to score.  China should have easily won the game, but they seemed too scared to move forward and attack. They did not push forward, or use the opportunities they had. This was the same with Belgium and South Korea. Belgium did not push forward, playing a very defensive game and not striking with any force at South Korea’s defence.

The most exciting game of the day was USA vs South Africa. We were cheering for South Africa, and they really delivered! I’ve talked about how Belgium and China played a defensive game, South Africa was the opposite. They were very low down in the table, and so they decided, with nothing to lose, they would attack and push forward as much as they could. It worked. The South African’s scored nine goals during the game, although only 7 were allowed (two were deemed unsafe), while America failed to score at all.

So why have I been writing about these games?

The three teams (South Africa, Belgium & China) were all in very similar situations. They all had nothing to lose from their games, but the way they reacted to their situations was very different. China and Belgium appeared to give up. They did not see why they should try. They were scared of failing, and that damaged any chance they may have had. South Africa played it different. They used the knowledge they had nothing to lose by giving their all so they could go home knowing they had given their all, and it paid off.

Often in life, we can feel dejected when things haven’t gone our way. We give up battling, feeling there is no point. We become defensive, not wanting to give away anything, but ending up achieving nothing.

But maybe we should follow the South African teams approach. With God, we are given the courage and strength to go out fighting. Things don’t always go our way, but we need to hold on to the knowledge that God is with us, supporting us. We need to put on the armour of God and who knows what greatness we can achieve?