In all honesty, I had absolutely nil interest in the game I used to call soccer before entering my first or second year at Wesleyan University. As a kid the game was foreign to me and while it was offered at my private school, I never thought to learn anything about it. You see, in this respect I was the typical American: ignorant and often consciously oblivious to all things un-American. I spent the majority of my athletic years playing "respectable" sports like American football, basketball and track. Soccer was not an interesting game to play, watch or discuss. The only time a soccer ball was used in my neighborhood was to dunk it, if regulation size basketball was too big and tennis balls became too small.
So imagine my surprise when at Wesleyan I meet people from other countries for whom football serves as a source of inspiration, and even personal and national pride. Watching Miriti Murungi (Kenya represent!) and William Wilson (Jamaican brother) and Gbenga (Ghana i believe or Nigerian) toy around with a soccer ball almost like Ronaldinho first sparked in me the sense of awe. So naturally I would go to their games and enjoy every time they touched the ball. At that point, my knowledge of the game was weak, but I was slightly intrigued. And I recall being somewhat engaged or at least watching Brazil win the '94 World Cup, which was held here in the United States.
Time passed and while I gained a certain respect for the impact the game had on people, I still had not totally immersed myself in it. I continued to be impressed, even in odd ways, with how this game impacts people off all cultures. The '94 FIFA World Cup served as another source. Not only did the impact Brazil's team had on the world captivate me, so did the story of Andres Escobar of Colombia. In Colombia vs US, he accidentally scored for the US, which ultimately led to his death back home. People were dying over results of soccer games!!?? Really??!! That alone piqued my interest in the game. With this game came passion, heart, patriotism, and at times corruption. Often the most powerful emotions I have ever witnessed were displayed while watching a football game.
Fortunately, in 2001-2002 I had an opportunity to immerse myself in a culture that loves football. I moved to Tokyo, Japan and taught English there for 1.5 years. Coincidentally, the location for FIFA World Cup 2002 was shared between Japan (tokyo area) and South Korea! So that year, often being educated by my Australian, Irish, British and French coworkers and Japanese friends, I learned more about the rules, like what constitutes an "off-sides" and yellow vs red cards, etc. We frequented Irish pubs, sat among mobs of people and cheered loudly with friends (even one from Iran, my main man Younis). I learned of "hoolaginism" there, because Japanese media seemed overly concerned with british fans' behavior in the city. Security was in full force, and from what I recall, there was more Japanese hooligan activity than British. Ironic, huh? I of course blindly cheered when the US played, but found myself rooting more for other teams, mainly the global underdogs, and of course Brazil...back when Ronaldo was nice (although his haircut was not).
Speaking of Brazil, I finally had an opportunity with law school friends in 2006 to watch a local game in Rio de Janeiro, involving a popular club named Flamengo in the world renowned stadium called "MARACANA"!! Fans brought in instruments, wore face paint, brought signs and all their energy to the game! The electricity was in the air, everyone was on their feet, man woman and child of all ages celebrating and rooting for their respective teams, collectively singing and dancing. It was amazing being there and feeling the energy in such a historically significant arena in such a beautiful ciudade, among such beautiful people. Me and my boys (D,R,&A) partied along with them, and without knowing, developed a love of the Brazilian approach to the game and have rooted for Brazil ever since. And having lived in Japan, I root for their squad as well.
This brings us to FIFA World Cup 2010, set for the very first time in the motherland, specifically the beautiful nation of South Africa. 32 teams, eight groups vie for yet another Championship. It should be noted that Ireland is not part of this Cup due to suspicious activity in a loss to France upon qualifying. And Ronaldinho is not playing, apparently Brazil's coach decided to veer away from individual one-on-one skills, instead focusing on a more European style, where players pass more often.
This World Cup for me was different because I became much more involved in many of the back stories of many sides. I immersed myself in the rules, learning which key players were injured or could not play due to a red card in the previous game, understanding which team plays which defensive set and why, and more. I engaged people from Ghana, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Nigeria in discussions before, during and after the games. And they began to engage me. Often I have been told by those with football in their blood, "I am impressed that as an American you are so interested in football." I felt proud that I could converse on a higher than basic level about each game, and continue to ask questions when confused. I felt pain when Japan lost, Ghana and Brazil. Once I began empathizing and internalizing pain that people from other cultures felt as a result of an unforeseen loss, I knew the love was deep. I knew the love was even deeper once I began to offer suggestions as to how the integrity of the game could improve. Anyone watching the Ghana vs Uruguay game would agree that a goal-tending rule, at certain times of the game and concerning shots within a certain distance from the goal, should be enforced.
Now, I have a healthy understanding of the game, as presented on the World Cup level. My newfound love has led me to seriously consider buying tickets to FIFA World Cup 2014 held in Brazil. I plan on being there. And I hope to transfer this deep interest in football to watching during the regular seasons, something I still have yet to do. Thankfully, there is so much more to learn about the players, the relationship politics plays in each country, the coaches and where they trained, the naturalization process for teams with players not born domestically, salaries, coach/player relationships, racism in clubs and even spewing from European fans, etc. Consider me a football fan. I'm thankful for being exposed to such a great global pastime/sport, with such a deep international history, and for seeing the value in it. My nephew Shane plays and is a beast, by the way.
later still
Credit to you for avoiding the two things that I, with my American biases, just can't get past in profession soccer:
ReplyDeleteFirst, the diving. I find it next to impossible to have any respect for people who use faking an injury as a strategy and don't just go out and play their best to win.
Second, the rather obvious playing for ties, esp. in the group stages. The drama in any sport, be it soccer, baseball, curling, or a marathon, comes from each side trying to win; from there being the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat. That ties have to be allowed to stand in some situations in a larger league or tournament is one thing, that a team would try for one is unacceptable. If a team is playing to tie, shouldn't the spectators get in for half price? They're only seeing half a competition, if that.
World Cup soccer is way too risk averse. Players play to not look bad, teams play to not lose. Right up until the end, when teams tend to race for the bottom in sportsmanship and class.
Soccer's popularity around the world and ability to unite people is admirable, but it has almost no connection to what happens on the field, which is too often quite the opposite.
I have a beef with the World Cup for other reasons, too. The countries that actually stand to benefit from hosting the World Cup (or the Olympics, or World Expos, etc.) are developing or recently developed countries. Such events are a great status-building debut on the world stage. In that respect, good for South Africa. On the other hand, FIFA et al. now have such specific and technical demands that the facilities almost invariably turn into massive white elephants. South Africa now has a very expensive problem on its hands. Of Japan's massive new 2002 World Cup stadia, one is in regular use. Mostly for baseball, for which it is not a particularly good stadium. A J-League club shares the Sapporo Dome with baseball's popular Fighters, but comes nowhere near to being to make any use of the stadium's massive capacity. Not many sports can draw tens of thousands of people consistently. Major urban South American or European soccer, NFL or big-time Div I college football in the US, Japanese pro baseball teams on weekends or holidays - that's about it, for the most part. The 2002 championship stadium is a money pit - it's too expensive for any team to lease it or use it as a home ground, but it costs a fortune to maintain.
South Africa has already lost money on this, they're set to lose a lot more over the coming years. The only hope is that the World Cup provided a big enough image boost to bring in enough new tourism and foreign investment to make up for that. Let's hope.
More important, let's top pretending FIFA (or the IOC) care about helping countries or promoting unity or any of that BS. FIFA cares about FIFA's pockets. It pays millions to World Cup participants - the better you do, the more you get - which means it's a wealth transfer up the income scale, as richer countries do better in international soccer.
My mom is from football loving sweet sweet T&T (Trinidad & Tobago), my uncle played on the national team for many years and notwithstanding same I have not yet bitten the World Cup bug! This may reflect, however my general apathy toward professional sports (unless of cours I have a dog in the race). I was pretty enthusiastic when the Soca Warriors made it to the finals for the first time EVER in 2006. Quite a feat for a country of its size. :)
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