I’ll admit it. I’ve a bit of a wagon rider when it comes to The Beautiful Game. I don’t follow the big European leagues, or even the small North American ones. But every two years when the World Cup and European Championships are under way, I start to get soccer fever. But this year, working in an International School, the passion and emotion for the game that I was surrounded with where much more than I’ve experienced in indifferent Canada.
So in bringing back an old feature of this blog, here are the main reasons I’ve grown to love this sporting event.
1. Collective Experience – It is both pathetically sad and beautifully innocent that this event that takes place every four years is unquestionably the largest event in the world. Not the UN Summit on Climate Change, not the war in Afghanistan, but this: a month long tournament featuring less than a fifth of the countries in the world draws the most attention of anything else in the world. Four years ago, everyone from Rome to Rio, from New York to Nairobi, and everywhere in between witnessed Zidane deliver a head butt and cost his team the championship. There really is nothing like this that gets experienced around the world, and it is exciting to be “in” on the moment.
2. Unpredictability — There is something special and exciting about a short tournament like this. It puts all of the pressure and exciting on one game. While I love the Stanley Cup playoffs, they are missing this amount of excitement. The more games played the more likely it is that the more talented team will win. Sure there are exciting teams like the Montreal Canadiens that can make it far, but if it was a win or go home situation like it is in the World Cup, it would certainly be different. Could the Dutch have beaten the Brazilians four times out of seven? Could the US have come back against Ghana and win a best of seven series? I don’t know, and really never will. But the fact that everything rides on one game makes it harder to know what to expect.
3.Optimism – This is sort of an extension of the last one. Due to the unpredictable nature of the tournament you often end up with a team like Korea, Ghana, or Senegal capturing the hearts and minds of the world and dramatically overachieving. It always makes things fun, especially to see just how excited people can get. Eventually one of these teams will pull a shocker, like Greece did at the European Championships in 2004 and win it. I simply can’t wait for that to happen, because it will be something special.
4. The Fans – The audience can be better than the games sometimes. The passion that fans show for the World Cup is far, far more than anything we see in different sporting events. The flags, face painting, signs, that guy in the orange suit, make things fun and incredibly contagious.
5. The Rarity — Sure the World Series or Stanley Cup are special, but if your team doesn’t win, then there is always next year. That isn’t really the case for the World Cup. Given that the events are every four years, the opportunities are so incredibly rare. Only a few players can play in multiple World Cups. The fact that it happens so infrequently makes it all the more special, and if it took place all the time then we’d lose a lot of the other things that I love about this.
6. The Beautiful Game – More importantly, it’s a damn fun game to watch. The two teams that are left to play have both been simply amazing. If any of you are interested, I think that the Netherlands will pull this one out in the end. They’ve been controlling more games than the Spanish have been, and great players playing a great system should outdo great players alone.
But what the hell do I know? I’m Canadian. I’ll have to tune in and find out.
Enjoy the game!
Until next time,
G
P.S. 3 down, 14 to go
Tags: 17 posts, Soccer, sports that aren't hockey
