You’re all narrative merchants who want to attribute essentially random events to something more solid, as you think the sport you love is somehow devalued if you admit it wasn’t all destiny and that if the ball had bounced 10cm in the other direction one time, a team in blue would be lifting a trophy instead of a team in red.
So even when team A batters team B, hits the post eight times and then concedes a last minute deflected winner, they weren’t unlucky, but Team B had a better mentality, or Team A’s manager always bottles things in Europe so this was inevitable, or it was actually the genius of dropping player X into a false 9 rather than playing a traditional striker that made the difference.
The fact the best team doesn’t always win is what makes football interesting. Winning any big cup competition requires being both really good and really lucky. People should embrace that.
“The bounce of the ball, the gusts of the wind, the angle of impact, injuries, wrong footing, pregame fatigue, the mood of the ref, the mood of the players, line of sight, etc., etc., all play a major role.”
Good players will be better equipped to deal with pretty much all of those things, like judging the bounce of a ball and factoring in wind direction/speed when passing or shooting.
They can play a part in the quality of a match, but the better players will rise to overcome these factors.