The Best Team Lost

One of the most delightful clashes happened yesterday when Tottenham took on Liverpool for a battle for the top of the English Premier League. Without a doubt, the match was one of the most entertaining ones of this season partly due to its open-ended nature and partly because each team was trying to make a bold statement this early in, what is most definitely going to be, an exciting 2020-21 Premier League season.

Being completely naïve about football analysis and its jargon, I will leave Navedya to cover that part in his blog but after Liverpool managed to scrape through with a much-deserved victory thanks to a Firmino header at the 90^th minute, the one thing that caught mine, and the hundreds of other viewers’ like me freeloading on the pirate stream’s attention was, when the Liverpool bossman, Mr Klopp at the end of the 90 minutes went to shake his advisory for the day, Mr Mourinho’s hand, the Spurs bossman seemed to pass some cheeky remarks which at first seemed to mildly trigger the German who later seemed to dismiss it and even gave the legendary Portuguese a pat on the back. When questioned about this later during the press conference, Mourinho revealed that he told Klopp, “The best team lost”.

Even though Tottenham had created many excellent chances throughout the game, it was Liverpool who got the all-important goal at the end of the day. Now this particular statement, by a football coach, is either a very arrogant statement coming from a sore loser or a courageous one from an individual who, at the end of the day will completely back his squad despite the result. Knowing the legends of Mourinho, I’m guessing it’s a very complex mixture of both.

Later that night as I lay tossing and turning in bed, for some reason, that darned sentence, got me thinking of my achievements and failures. My somewhat average 12^th percentage appeared before my eyes, neither bad nor good college SGPA also made an appearance as various digits and memories came rushing back. I remembered the frustration of getting a low grade even after burning the midnight oil in the run-up for the exams and the pain in my parent’s eyes when they saw their son was eating dirt in a highly competitive rat race of competitive exams and grades. I remembered the nights where I would worry about my purpose in this world and the use of even trying. These depressing thoughts slowly started swallowing me up.

But then I remembered the joy I felt after I got my first internship, the joy of getting a job offer letter, even during a raging pandemic, the joy of clearing four gruelling and depressing years in college and the joy I felt when the raft hit the waters of River Kali with a giant splash. The warmth from memories of my parents' hugs slowly started creeping in. I slept like a baby later that night. 

Maybe what Mourinho was trying to say, was that even though you may have lost, crashed and burned when trying to achieve something, at the end of the day, inside your own mind, you have achieved the best possible version of yourself. And that definitely is some deep, inspiring shiznit. But then again, I guess he was just bitter because his team lost the top spot to the defending champions.