5.22.2006

A Cup of Glory...by Apollo

Foreshadowing? Kaka' and Adriano celebrate Brazil's victory in the Confederations CupWith May winding down and June right around the corner, the focus of the World will soon fall on the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. An event so huge that even North Americans who can't stand soccer still have to take notice, the World Cup is an epic spectacle, bigger than even the Olympics, and is one of those glorious moments where grown adults watch television cheering on athletes and countries that they may never have even heard of before. Quick, name more than one player for Ghana, Angola or Iran!

I still believe in the World Cup as a sporting spectacle, as opposed to the calculated and cyncial corporate parties that most sports events have become. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of capitalism and accompanying corruption in football to rank right up there with any of North America's professional sports, or the Olympics. However, there's something quite simplistic about the sport of football itself that helps suspend your disbelief just enough to enjoy those 90 minutes of game time.

On the surface, football is a basic game, apparently too basic for North American fans to understand. Sure, it is true that adidas is unveiling yet another technologically advanced ball for this year's tournament and the ultra expensive shoes worn by the world's best and supplied by manufacturers such as Nike are far cries from the studded slippers of yesteryear, but superficially anyway, football is all about talent and nothing else. There are no alumnium composite sticks that break at key moments of hockey games, no wireless headset in the quarterback's helmet allowing communication with the sidelines, no oversized driver optimized for the perfect fade, no lycra suit tested in a wind tunnel to eliminate resistence. Football is all about putting the ball into the net more times than the other team. That purity is a quality that still enthralls even the most battle-worn, pessimistic of sports fans, just like myself, and renders, if only for mere moments, to appreciative fans awestruck by the grace of a Ronaldinho, the power of a Shevchenko, and the brilliance of a Zidane.

There are sure to be controversies, as with any sport involving the discretion and judgment of human referees. There will be missed calls, missed shots, missed opportunities, and misplaced intentions. But by the time July 9 comes and the Selecao of Brazil hoist their sixth World Cup victory (or so the 2 Wise Men hope), there will be only memories, glorious memories of how great the game can be, and hopefully plenty of evidence that it is worth believing in the beautiful game itself, rather than paying too much attention to the scandals and controversies that plague the professional leagues of soccer in the four years between World Cups. Forca Brasil!