By the time you read this article, the world's most watched event will have begun. You know what I'm talking about — The World Cup, of course. Friendships and rivalries will develop, nationalism will go through the roof, and people will stay awake from 2 to 8 am just to watch their favourite team play. Some may say, "Hey, it's just a game," but it is the gathering of the best among the world's favourite sport... maybe it is because it only requires something resembling a ball for someone to play.
I have played the game for I don't know how long and have followed the game for about 12 years (not extensively, mind you), but I have made a few silly, if not absurd, observations. I think I've learned more about the world from football games than I do anywhere else (all right, it is an exaggeration). The following is a few of them:
When we were young, we were told "crime doesn't pay." Sometimes that is not true. Very often players fall awkwardly and yell in agony whenever they are touched, even when the contact is phantom. Often the referee buys it and the diver gets up whenever a foul is given. North Americans love to bash the game for the prevalence of diving, but this occurs in every sport. Hopefully, FIFA will keep its word on clamping down diving.
Many associate the sport with hooliganism: things can really get out of hand when hooligans are in full force. That gave me a good glimpse into what riots and police/trouble-maker confrontation was like years before Peppergate.
Sometimes when a war is over, it isn't really over. England (Britain) and Argentina were involved in a conflict in the 80's, and apparently they are silll fighting battles ... only, on the football field. From Maradonna's "Hand of God" in '86 to the David Beckham lashing at the ref in '98 to Beckham's injury from the legs of an Argentine, there are no shortages of fuses between these two countries.
On the good side, countries who were at war only years earlier can make up and battle each other on the pitch, not a battlefield. Yugoslavia and Slovenia agreed to play each other (well, they were drawn in the same group) less than a decade after a bitter war. Many were worried and filled with anticipation when the US and Iran were drawn in the same group in World Cup '98. It was great to see them compete for the full 90 minutes in a game. Well, US-Iran relationships may not be peaceful: at least they are willing to stand on the same pitch together without beating each other to smithereens.
A Columbian rebel leader said "My soldiers won't fight when our heroes are playing. We are soccer fans, too," during last year's Copa America in Columbia. I don't know if this statement is real since (a) it's from CNN; and (b) my research is less than top notch. It is great to see people stop fighting so that a football tournament can go on uninterrupted. If only George W. Bush and Osama were football fans ...
Okay, enough serious material. It is time to get to the lighter side of things.
The World Cup-related song lyrics can range from serious to funny to clueless. Lyrics such as "Without boundaries or borders, the grass be our witness," "Ole, Ole, Ole," and "A billion of eyeballs together following a football," are so catchy I remember them years after the event ended. Maybe I am paying too much attention to these things. (Some of these lyrics were originally sung in other languages, so some meaning may be lost in the translations).
Football is probably the only game where anything can happen after scoring. Players will take off their shirts, leap toward the goal scorer, jump over the billboards on the sidelines, do backflips, or bite a teammate's groin. What I learned from the game is that whenever someone wants to congratulate you, prepare for anything.
This article is not intended to persuade you to watch the World Cup and won't convince anyone to watching it. For those of you who enjoy the game, enjoy the World Cup. If you don't, try to find a good set of earplugs or have a few afternoon naps, you may not have many quiet nights for the next month. Of course, it never hurts to watch a game to see if it suits you. (I also have taken many issues in a simplified form, but you can't take everything seriously, can you?)
My pick for the winner? My guts says France, and my brain says Argentina, and my heart says Italy. So I will take the coward's way out and keep my mouth shut. As for how far can China go? I'll be happy if the team wins a game.
Jason "Screaming Goooooal" Lau