We should not attend matches expecting to be entertained before we respond.

We should attend as the twelfth player, with a clear assignment: support the team through triumph and disappointment alike.

This will be my third World Cup, after Germany 2006 and Qatar 2022.

Given our turbulent preparations, the late coaching change and recent results, this may be the World Cup Ghana approaches with the lowest expectations in years.

Yet many of us will still travel, still sing, still cheer and still believe. Because that is what supporters do.

As I think about the tournament ahead, I am reminded of our final match in Qatar. Ghana lost to Uruguay after our captain, André Ayew, missed a penalty.

What struck me was that only days earlier, I was in the stadium when Argentina’s captain, Lionel Messi, also missed a penalty against Poland. Argentina went on to win. Ghana did not.

The missed penalty was not the difference.

The response was.

Messi missed. Argentina (starting with the fans) rallied. Belief increased. The team pushed on.
Ayew missed. Frustration spread (starting with the fans). Belief evaporated. Momentum disappeared.

Same setback, different outcome and the difference was mentality.

Too often, supporters see themselves as consumers. If the team performs, we cheer. If the team struggles, we withdraw our support.

But that is not the role of a supporter. The role of a supporter is to support.

Not when victory is assured, but especially when it is not.

Resilience does not suddenly appear in moments of adversity. It is built long before those moments arrive, through discipline, belief, encouragement and the determination to keep moving forward when circumstances turn against you.

That is true in sport. It is true in business. It is true in life.

Failure is inevitable.

Recovery is a choice.

As we head into another potentially difficult World Cup, the real question is not whether adversity will come. It will.

The question is: when it does, do we collapse, as we did against Uruguay?

Or do we rise?

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Trials Won't Kill Us: How We Respond Matters

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