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Moral victory

- CBSSports.com, March 22, 2010.

2. Indeed, the impression lingered that Andorra, ranked 186th in the world, had been rather unimpressed with Capello’s side in a contest that effectively pitted blanket defence against increasingly desperate attack. “Mr Capello says he does not understand why a small team like Andorra still defends when we are losing 2-0,” said the Andorran coach David Rodrigo. “I can tell him that he should try coaching Andorra and I will try coaching England, and I’m sure we would beat Andorra more than 2-0.

“People talk about my team being nonprofessional and having jobs outside football, but my players made the English supporters turn against their own team again, just like they did two years ago. What does that say? If we had 11 professional players, we would beat England. We are proud to have lost only 2-0. We were very organized and stopped them scoring in the first half.

“It is not easy to play against England. From our point of view, it is no consolation but we have to say it was a moral victory for us.”

- Andorra taunt England after 'moral victory', The Guardian, September 8, 2008.

3. The term moral victory is not exclusive to sports. It has been used to describe everything from Al Gore’s disputed defeat in the presidential election of 2000 to the battle at the Alamo in 1836.

But the term is heard most often after athletic contests referring to the losing side of a close result against an opponent perceived as superior. The boxer Joe Frazier’s reputation was enhanced in 1975 when he lost his heavyweight title bout to the champion Muhammad Ali in the Thrilla in Manila. The same sort of fame came to John McEnroe after Bjorn Borg beat him for the 1980 Wimbledon title.