Thabo Matlaba was just one of four players to find the back of the net against Al Ahly on Sunday evening, and it was his strike that helped us learn some things.
After a failed pass from Al Ahly's No. 18 on the edge of Orlando Pirates' 18-yard area, Matlaba attempted an interception, but he was already under pressure.
He could only pass the ball sideways to Mpho Makola, who passed to Ayanda Gcaba. The defender was able to clear the ball, but his clearance was long and without hope; however, the main objective was to get the ball out of the danger area.
Matlaba then seemingly hopelessly chased after the ball. An Al Ahly player got to it first, passing it back to his goalkeeper, only for Matlaba to intercept the keeper's attempted clearance and stroke the ball into the back of the net.
It was a show of great determination by the fullback. Here are three lessons we learned from his strike.
1. Opportunities don't just come; you have to make your own opportunities. Matlaba was able to create something out of nothing. His chasing forced a mistake from Al Ahly. In so many instances in life, we wait and wait for an opportunity to come, but we never take the responsibility to make the opportunities ourselves. Chase your dreams, you never know what will happen.
2. Never give up! Imagine if "Festival" had turned around after seeing the defender reach the ball first? It is in the most impossible situations that one must show hope, because hope will help keep you doing what you are doing. If you continue doing this, something may happen. Unlike being hopeless and pessimistic, because, after all, pessimism brings defeat and stops you from doing what you need to do. You have to believe.
3. Never get into a routine and then stop thinking and observing. One magical thing Matlaba did in that run was that, as soon as the defender passed the ball to the keeper, the 27-year-old put his head up and reacted. He saw that the shot-stopper was getting ready to make a pass to the player outside the arc, he then immediately changed the direction of his run to intercept the pass. Some of us get into routines, and then fail to check that those routines are still working. Things happen and realities change; we must be observant of those changes so we can redirect ourselves when necessary.
These are three life lessons I learned from Matlaba's goal – what did you learn?
