Right foot forward

As the old adage goes, always start on the right foot. I have always been incapable of that, metaphorically and physically. The oddball that I am. And of late I had been wondering about the cause of this seemingly innocuous malady and came to the conclusion that it was because I used to play too much football. The left foot for a right footer is the anchor point, the fulcrum of balance from which the best movements happens. It is the foot that holds down the fort leaving the right one to do its thing - be it score from an insane free-kick or make the first move to start off a series of fluid dribbles. 

A friend of mine posting about Ted Lasso made me think about the character Dani Rojas running about yelling 'football is life'. And as it is with life itself, football has a place for everyone and everything. It can be dance, it can be a brutal exercise. It can be a calculated strategy or it can be lethargic fluid movements that is as much a pleasure watch as it is beautiful to execute. You can dive or you can get up and keep going. You can feint or you can use sheer physicality prowess. Anything goes within the construct of just 20 or so rules or so to speak. Everyone is welcome. Everyone has a place. It's not the team, it's not the player. Premier leagues and World cups come and go, you're winner once, bottom of the league next. You can't be scoring 91 goals in a season, or maybe in a remote part of the world there is someone who scored a 150 a single season in a small countryside league, which is as important. Because it's the game that matters most.

And as it is with life itself, all of it has to be done and dusted in 90 minutes or a maximum of 120 if you are going to be technical about it. And at the end of it, you rest. A well deserved rest for playing your heart out. And if you didn't play your heart out, too bad. You should have. 

So by this recklessly contrived syllogism in my head - if football is life, why is it so bad to start on the wrong foot? Give me a little time, you haven't seen what the strong foot can do... Yet.