Wade Elliott’s Psychology on Cary Defeat

The Clarets suffered a 2-1 defeat by Cary U-23 in the sweltering heat of the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina last Thursday night. Our opening goal though was something to relish. Wade Elliott, dribbling past defenders found the space open up in front of him running a full 50 yards to score a spectacular goal with a left foot shot. It was a good game for Elliott all round and he would easily qualify as our Man of the Match, causing the Cary U-23 defence all sorts of problems on the night.

Elliott though interviewed after the match, puts forward an interesting theory about the positive effect the defeat may have on the players psychology:

‘Maybe it will do us more good to lose,’ he suggested

‘If you win your first game and it’s comfortable you may relax a little bit and feel that things are going slightly better than it actually is.

‘But we have come here and had a tough game and lost.

‘That will sting us for the next week, but I think it will make us realise how much we have got to do and how hard we have to work.

‘In terms of our training and preparation it is probably better that we get beat.’

Clarets fans will of course be disappointed we lost and it is easy to find excuses.

Blame it on the heat and humidity, remind folk its just a warm up match in our first week of training against a team at the peak of their fitness and competitive edge etc etc.

It is probably quite refreshing to hear one of our players just accept we lost and take some positives from the game without looking for such excuses. What do you think about Wade’s comments? Does he have a point?