Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers had a dreadful day, his struggles personified by a switch in formation from a back three to a back four after 20 minutes, then taking off Lazar Markovic at half-time and moving captain Steven Gerrard back to a deeper role.
However, the source of our collective distress is not only the horrific sights and sounds of violence and terror, but deep down, through such dreadful disasters we also struggle with our common conceptions of a loving God.
And today, as the world watches the dreadful and even Darwinian struggle for survival by the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, as information about the extent of the nuclear danger trickles out, President Obama has reaffirmed his commitment to build new nuclear plants.
A report on the ABC's 7.30 program on Tuesday that pointed to ice use in the navy reinforced the government's determination "to be absolutely unflinching in the struggle against this dreadful scourge", he said Keenan said policing was "very important but we also need to find other ways to work with the community, particularly within the health sector to address this issue".
For all the improvements of recent years, the road network remains dreadful, the railways overloaded, seaports clogged, airports struggling to cope with the huge increase in flights and electricity and water supplies in many places shockingly unreliable.
And I struggle with the unfairness of this dreadful dichotomy: my greatest joy and their worst pain.
After throwing four interceptions last week in a dreadful loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Mannings continued to struggle yesterday.
But the elegant French title sounds dreadful when transliterated as The Extension of the Domain of the Struggle.
As we wind down to the last hours of this dreadful enthralling year, let's give thanks to the men and women who struggle to humanize technology and have some fun doing it.
But it does little to illuminate that struggle, preferring instead a constant parade of people telling the camera how dreadful it would be if The Times did not survive.
