Lose the game, keep the thing that matters: being someone people want to play with again.

Results are temporary and your reputation inside a sport is not. Across a season you will lose plenty, and nobody will be able to list the scores a year later; what they remember with total accuracy is whether you sulked, blamed, went quiet, or stayed decent while losing. It outlasts every individual result by years.

After the next loss, give yourself the walk back to the changing room and then say one normal thing to somebody. Avoid the post-match autopsy of whose fault it was. Being easy to be around after a defeat is rarer than being good.