A Quote by Roberto Di Matteo

Some of my worst moments in football have been losing semi-finals, the Barcelona game in 2009 probably more than most. But you have to take it and bounce back.
Finishing second and getting in the Champions' League quarter-finals or semi-finals is fine, but at the end of the day you need to take some silverware.
Most people have wanted me to go back to football. Which is cool, but I think at this point, some things are just more important than football. Football has afforded me an opportunity to take care of my family, to live out a dream, to meet people, to go different places I would never have been able to go. Football has been a huge part of my life. Giving that up isn't an easy thing. But I would rather us live in a country where there is freedom and justice for all than to be catching a touchdown. And like I told my wife, the America that I don't want to live in, is Charlottesville.
It was a tough year for me, '89, losing two Slam finals and losing another five finals. It wasn't until I won the Masters, or what's now called the ATP Finals, that things changed again. Suddenly I won seven tournaments in 1990 and became No. 1.
I may not have played men's football, but I've been at World Cups as a player. I know the emotions. I've been in quarter finals, a semi-final. I'd been substituted and sat on the bench watching us lose a penalty shoot-out. I know what happens, what you need when the pressure's on.
Success breeds success and the more you are around a healthy and thriving athletics team, the more the people who only think they can make semi-finals will be inspired to want to aim for finals and go for medals.
It's disappointing to lose a game with the chance to go into the semi-finals of the Champions League.
You want to be challenging for titles and in semi-finals and finals. Everyone is excited by that.
A lot of teams who go on to win trophies lose in quarter-finals or semi-finals first.
WIth football you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren't playing so well, you don't have to turn those two game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.
With football, you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren't playing so well, you don't have to turn those two-game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.
Everyone loves playing in semi-finals and finals.
The sack is a sad fact of life for football managers. I have been axed three times. The chairman at Notts County was on record as saying it's the worst thing they ever did. Within a couple of years they were one game from losing league status.
In the 123rd minute of the semifinal game at the Olympics against Canada, I scored the game-winning goal that brought us to the finals. You can't replicate those do-or-die moments in practice or a friendly game.
There are several differences between a football game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also, there are usually more casualties in a football game. The object of the game is to move a ball past the other team's goal line. This counts as six points. No points are given for lacerations, contusions, or abrasions, but then no points are deducted, either. Kicking is very important in football. In fact, some of the more enthusiastic players even kick the ball, occasionally.
I'm not pessimistic, because poor people tend to bounce back. We've been through worse than this - working people been through worse than this. We've got slavery and Jim Crow. We've got workers with no rights up until `35. We're going to bounce back. We are resilient, resisting people. So, it's not pessimism, but it is blues-like. It's not optimistic. We're just prisoners of hope, that's all.
When you take a year off from football, you come back for all the enjoyable moments. When you're not playing, you miss out on all the highs, but you also miss these disappointments. But I would rather be in the arena to be excited or be disappointed than not have a chance at all. That's football. That's why everybody plays it.
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