The World Cup is here…again! In addition to fully immersing
yourself to the experience and the excitement of the great sport, you should
ask yourself why
billions of people on earth are entrenched in this sport.
I thought about this and I think I have the answer – it’s
not just a sport.
Soccer (football) is everything.
Soccer is joy
A few billion people will watch this world cup. It is the most engaging entertainment you can find.
Soccer, in general, is the cheapest entertainment you will ever find. So much joy - in reality, you need no cleats, no real fancy
Brazuca leather ball, no fancy astroturf fields, gloves, bats, wickets … nothing!
Just any field and any ball will do. Right in the middle of the
African Serengeti … with Zebras watching like referees and little barefeet kids scurrying around in shorts to impress the munching black and white onlookers and tourists with their binoculars.
That’s when you realize that joy does not have to cost you money!
We often behave otherwise!
Soccer is the world
Everyone loves the game! The world has equalized. With
African, Asian and South American players playing in the best leagues in Europe, the result is that
anyone can win a game in the world cup. In past world cups, Cameroon upset
Argentina, Nigeria almost had Italy, South Korea had a great run and South Africa played wonderfully. Last weekend, Costa Rica beat Uruguay in a shocker.
The crowds wear all colors of the rainbow, the players are from everywhere, and yes, ironically,
racism still exists
#SayNoToRacism
In Natal in the Amazon, the boisterous crowds in the
pouring rain were being flashed advertisements in all languages -
Chinese(!) (Yingli Solar?) and Spanish and English
and Coca Cola and McDonalds (yes, these are global
languages that the whole world understands :-))
Everyone from everywhere is represented in this global microcosm.
This is truly and the
one and only “
world cup”!
Soccer is war
I read somewhere that the game was used as a way for 2 tribes to resolve their
differences on the field instead of impaling each other with hand-sharpened
stakes! If I were a soldier, I’d rather sweat out a kicking match with a non-living
spherical object than hope that it didn’t hurt much when a rough-hewn piece
of wood lacerated my gut.
Remember the
Zidane head-butt? He lost his head, but that’s a kind of war. Maybe a silly war, like a war for
weapons of mass destruction, but a war
for ego and prestige nonetheless.
During World War II, there was the "
Death Match" where soccer was used in defiance by a Ukrainian team in Kiev against the Nazis. Ukrainian players eventually paid for victory with their lives.
Honor and sovereignty!
War!!
Therefore…
Soccer is peace
When England plays Argentina, it could be a way to alter the
political landscape. Of course, the Hand of God
goal almost
escalated to war,
but that’s why “War" and "Peace” are only a word apart, and only a white flag or
a handled ball separates these two states. When the
US played Iran in the 1998 world cup, it could be argued that was a small little proxy war. I expect all the generals were watching instead of planning military action!
Soccer is money
The CEOs of soccer do earn a pretty
penny pound,
based on their own stock. When Real Madrid played Barcelona, it was the
most expensive match ever played -
£417M pounds worth of smart sinew on the pitch. A few swooshes later, the
millions multiply further. The club players
have gotten to the point that they leverage their currency and change colors as
they evolve from team to team: egos and talent are traded off for loyalty when
teams are late to act to appreciate their key playmakers, much like the
situation in Silicon Valley or corporate America. This money then creates the talent that translates to passion for the national teams during the world cup.
Soccer is art
When you watch teams like Barcelona, Brazil or Spain
play, you see what I mean – you think it and they do it on the field – it is
uncanny and mesmerizing. If you don’t see it, then you don’t appreciate art.
There – I said it!
When you watch Maradona’s
second goal against England in the
1986 game – it was a showcase of artistry, when, by decimating half of the team
in one fluid movement across half the field, he showed that he could do with
this feet what he could do with his arm (see below) – kill an entire nation, and stop the
breath of the remainder of the earth!
When you watch Messi take the ball horizontally across from
the right side of the field to the center, and then duck in through the defence
to calmly slot the ball in the net – over and over, predictable, yet
unstoppable – a little differently every time – with the ball stuck to his feet
like they were magnets, you realize the artistry that is soccer. And, he did it again last weekend, didn't he?
When you watch people do with their feet what artists can do
with fine motor control of their hands with brushes, you realize the art that
is soccer.
Soccer is inspiration
When you see a team that is down by 2 goals with the
season
on the line, and 5 minutes to go, and then pull off what is an almost
impossible task and take it back in injury time, as Manchester City did in
their last 2 minutes of the season in 2012, you realize the will power and
inspiration that is soccer.
Enough said. Watch the video!
Soccer is perspiration
Imagine that the average player in an average game is
running upwards of 8 kilometers. And
making over 80% accurate passes with his feet. And jumping a meter in the air to head the ball. And taking kicks in the shin, and elbows to the face, and knees in the back. In 74% humidity.
Hey, this is a little more severe than the Spurs just turning off the air-conditioning to turn up the Heat!
A torrential downpour of 5 hours did not stop Mexico playing Cameroon, did it?
Soccer is surprise
Who would have imagined that Spain, reigning world champion,
would run into their worst loss in more than 50 years in their first game in
defense of the title? Yes it was the Netherlands, but 5-1? Surprised? Would you
have bet on this result even knowing that their previous worst defeat happened
the last time they played in Brazil?
The first goal of the tournament in Brazil was Brazil’s only own goal in the world cup ever! Could you have written that in the script?
Would you have counted on the Swiss scoring a deadlock-breaking goal in the last 30 seconds of their game with Ecuador?
Would you have expected the US to win knowing that they were out-shot 21-8 in the game?
Would you have counted 44 goals in 14 matches with only 1 draw?
Could you have predicted that in the first 2 matches, there
would be 3 referee errors?
Surprised?
Soccer is community
I’ve been coaching for more than a decade. I’ve probably
coached about 300 kids over the years, and the kids went from size 4 shoes to
adult size 10. From Mitre to Adidas to Nike, from yellow to blue to red, from butterfly-pickers to artists who could coach me instead of the other way around, I’ve seen it all. Kids come in wanting to make their parents happy, and leave as mature teens with a sense of discipline and confidence and unselfishness and the ability to be a part of the whole.
When I walk into a Safeway, and I turn around at the gruff
sound of “Hi Coach!” and see a young man 6 inches taller than me, with a wispy mustache covering the face I can recognize as the young boy I’d coached a few
years earlier, I realize that I’m a part of the community. We’re a social
animal, and our kind of animal needs coaches to help young kids become young
adults with a sense of loyalty and belonging.
Soccer is teamwork
When every season starts, there are always upstarts on the
team who think they will carry their team, and only they can carry their team
with their gift for the game. At the end of the season, they leave, knowing
that even if they are a gift from god, they need their teammates to do their
job, and no one person carries the team. The team carries everyone – to
victory, to defeat, to self respect, to respect.
That’s the one reality of the
world, and of corporate life as well – the team is larger than the
individual.
Messi is better in Barcelona than in Argentina – it’s the team
that carries him. Portugal is better with Christiano Ronaldo, but he often
struggles on his national team without his Real Madrid teammates, as he did during the recent German rout.
This is true of most team sports – which is why a majority of
inspirational speakers are athletes who learned discipline and sacrifice
for the greater team good instead of just individual goals.
Soccer is deception
When the first game of the world cup was done between Brazil
and Croatia, it was a relief for the nation that Brazil had won. The metallic
taste that left in the mouth was not
because Croatia gave Brazil a run for their money with their tight marking and
physical gameplay, but because of the
Fred Flop.
No foul, but the penalty
awarded showed that humans will always deceive when the stakes are high. They
will do it in Banks, in Corporations, in schools, in churches, and … on the
field.
Don’t blame Fred. It is
human nature and it is in our system. You will
never root it out. You will always have the world’s best take what they can, even with flip-flopping.
After all, it's the "
Hand of God".
Soccer is death
When Marcelo put in Brazil’s
only own-goal in world cup history, a colleague of mine said he was
dead. He was using those words for effect, but I cautioned him against it, because I had done exactly this a few years back when Colombia had lost a game due to an
Andres Escobar own-goal, and I’d commented to friends that the defender was "dead"! Two weeks after the world cup, he’d indeed been killed after an argument in a bar. I felt terrible for a few days, like I’d foretold his death.
If you hear about the
beheading of the referee after a local
game in Brazil after the referee stabbed, in self-defence, a player who attacked him after a decision he’d made, you’d realize the implication of the emotional balance in hold through a game.
Soccer is war – soccer is
death.
Soccer is life
Right now, the world cup is on! It excites me in the morning and my days are brighter. My palms are
colder and sweaty, but the heart pounds and pulses, and the blood
flows.
Soccer is life itself.
