Finding Success in Failure

This past weekend my club team, the A.S. Wolves Competed in a premier showcase tournament in Afrims. Overall, looking at the stats, the competition was quite unsuccessful. In our first game, as our coach stated "We played as if we had never seen a soccer ball before" which pretty much summed up the game. No one was communicating with each other which was a cause of major problems. This game ended in a 1-0 Loss. Game number two was a little better, but not much.The mental lapses throughout the weekend caused our losses. Game number two also resulted in a 1-0 Loss. Five minutes into the game our holding midfielder scored off of a scrum in the box, but the goal was called off on the grounds of "off side." Two minutes later the opposing team scored a goal off of an intercepted pass. Game number three was again lost 1-0 due to mental lapses and physical mishaps. Off a free kick from 30 yards out, the opposing team had a player that hit one of our players in the crotch just as the ball was hit, our player turned and the ball struck his hand, a penalty was called, and a goal was scored. The fourth and final game was lost in a mater of 5 seconds. During the progress of play, players attempting to sub in called their subs off, but another defender came off the field. This gave us a man down disadvantage for about 5 seconds, the opposing team won the ball and scored. The final was 2-0. Upon reflecting back on the competition as a whole, the team realized that tactically, we can compete with every single team we play, however we need to improve the mental aspect of the game, which unfortunately is the hardest part to improve upon. We were able to find success in failure because if we improve the smallest things we can always come out on top. Another thing I realized was that many of the coaches watching have a certain arrogance among themselves. As I was standing at midfield waiting to sub in, a coach from behind me grunted " You know you couldn't have picked a better spot to stand in front of me." I just thought it was interesting in the way coaches interact with potential future recruits.