It Takes Two Baby

In most countries, football events and statistics are measured in single actions. Tackles, dribbles, shots are all events recorded in games. In one or two other countries, they have a different concept. The duel. Effectively statistics are recorded in for both players – the tackle and the tackled for example.

I’m working on a project right now involving this kind of stuff. It won’t particularly interest most people but it got me randomly thinking about the whole idea.

You take a shot, and somebody saves it. You tackle and recover the ball, somebody loses the ball. You winner a header, somebody loses a header. All duals where somebody wins and somebody loses.

It makes a lot of sense really. Most of events in our lives are duel. There are certainly individual actions in life (there is a joke there somewhere), but so many things we do are duels. Decisions and actions we take so often have an impact on other people.

You accept a job, somebody else doesn’t get the role. You throw litter on the floor, somebody picks it up. You make a joke, somebody smiles. You make an inappropriate comment, it hurts somebody’s feelings. So much of what we do has an impact on other people.

I have a spontaneous side – I do some random stuff sometimes without too much thought. I also often think too much sometimes about how other people will feel if I say of do something. The outcome of the duel. I don’t particularly consider it a negative, though it can either weigh on my mind or possibly affect my decision making, which I do not overly like. I also do not like stumbling across people who do not give any thought at all to the outcome of their duels. They are not hard to find and I don’t give them too much time any more.

I guess a certain somebody has made me more aware of this and maybe I’m getting old. We are also surrounded by a group of special friends who are incredibly thoughtful and sensitive. Some have even decided to use the post office now to pay bills. I know I have worked with stats for some years now but I am far from an expert. I would guess that a rather large percentage of what we do and say affects somebody else. I introduce you to the duel.