AUTOGRAPHS

A Love Affair With Soccer’s World Cup

A Love Affair With the World Cup
By Grace Nasri

Every four years, the world joins together for an event that covers 32 teams from the four corners of the world, hundreds of players with nationalities that span the globe, hundreds of millions of fans from Buenos Aires and New York to Tehran and Beijing, and one main goal: The World Cup trophy.

Soccer’s World Cup is largely about the national teams, players and goals.  Yet it is just as much about unity, equality and hope.  As hundreds of millions of die-hard soccer fans around the world would attest, there are many reasons for this love affair with soccer, but here are the top 10:

10.  The men

Soccer players are by far the best looking athletes.  From Armani models like Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham, to less flashy—yet still good looking—men, like France’s Yoann Gourcuff, the Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, Spain’s Fernando Torres, Wesley Sneijder of the Netherlands and Carlos Bocanegra of the United States. But the eye candy is simply an added bonus in this obsession with soccer.

9. Hat-tricks

A player who scores a single, critical goal in a game can be named MVP of the match.  So when a player scores 3, 4 or 5 goals, that player’s name gets swirled around with soccer’s greats.  There are several players with hat-tricks in their pockets, but the five hat-tricks below are exceptionally notable ones.

• Gonzalo Higuain’s recent hat-trick against South Korea, ending in a 4-1 victory over South Korea during the 2010 World Cup games, is the most recent hat trick scored during a World Cup game.
• Geoff Hurst of England’s hat-trick during a World Cup final against West Germany in 1996 was the only instance in which a player has scored a hat-trick during a World Cup final.
• Oleg Salenko still holds the record for the most number of goals in a World Cup game, scoring 5 goals for Russia in their 6-1 victory over Cameroon in 1994.
• Laszlo Kiss of Hungary scored three goals against El Salvador in under 10 minutes, with goals in the 69th, 72nd and 76th during the 1982 World Cup.
• Pele was the youngest player to score a hat-trick at just 17 years of age in Brazil’s battle against France in 1958.

8. The parties and holidays

• When Brazil wins the World Cup, as it has in five of the 18 World Cup games, the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo are washed in yellow and green as Brazilian fans flood the streets dancing, shouting, singing and celebrating, while cars drive by honking their horns and blaring celebratory music.
• Some bars in Germany have promised free beer during past World Cups if Germany brought home the title.
• President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay declared a national holiday this year to celebrate his country’s qualification in the World Cup games.
• In June 2002, when South Korea made it to the World Cup semifinals— ultimately losing to Germany—the South Korean government declared a July 1 national holiday in honor of the team’s achievement.
• When Italy won the 2006 World Cup, celebrations broke out across the country.  A reported 150,000 celebrants gathered in Rome’s Circus Maximus to celebrate their country’s win and an estimated 500,000 fans took to the streets to see the national team’s open-top bus parade.

7.  Penalty Kicks

Everyone claims to hate it when 90 minutes in a final game (plus a few minutes of stoppages time) pass without a victory and sudden death comes and goes without a tie breaker—as in the case of the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France.  The result is that the game moves into penalty kicks—a do-or-die penalty kick match.  Secretly, though, most soccer fans love to watch the nail-biting match-up of a goalie vs. a single striker—all other players removed.

6.  A sport of the masses

From the dirt streets of Iraq to the plush fields of England, soccer is the sport of the masses.  It requires no baskets, no golf clubs and no bats—it doesn’t even require shoes.  From barefoot children in Nigeria to cleated professionals in France, soccer is a game that can be played and enjoyed by everyone.

5.  The players are regular people

Unlike in basketball—where the average player is 6’7″—and football—where the average weight of an NFL player is about 250 lbs—soccer players are not oddities of nature.  Soccer players weight about 160-190 lbs and are typically less than 6’0”.  The things that distinguish soccer players are not things they inherited at birth but things they have perfected through years of practice, like the ability to complete a hat-trick, to dribble around a defender or to line up and execute a successful goal that dodges multiple defenders and slips past the goalie’s glove to punch the back of the net.

4. The upsets

So often World Cup matches produce historic upsets, whether it be in opening games or in the finals.  So far, World Cup 2010 has seen several upsets, from the US v. England match that ended in a 1-1 tie and Italy’s 2-3 loss to Slovakia to Switzerland’s 1-0 victory over Spain and South Africa’s 2-1 victory over France.  This year’s game has also produced historic goal differentials, like Portugal’s 7-0 win over North Korea, although Hungary still holds the record of the country that has scored the most goals in a World Cup game when it defeated El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.  But there have been some major upsets in final games in the past, including:

• U.S. V. Columbia (1994): The world was stunned when Columbia’s Andres Escobar got his foot on the ball just before it rolled into his own goal.  Escobar was killed shortly after—many attribute his murder to the goal he scored on his own team.
• Cameroon V. Argentina (1990): Cameroon defeated the World Cup champions in a shocking victory.
• North Korea V. Italy (1966): North Korea’s 1-0 win over the favored Italians prevented Italy from advancing.
• Senegal V. France (2002): France lost to its former colony, which beat the World Cup champions 1-0.
• Uruguay V. Brazil (1950): Host Brazil lost to Uruguay 2-1.

3. The emotion

Emotion is everywhere during the world cup games.  It is seen through the tears sliding down the faces of hopeful soccer fans, through the roaring screams of fans that have been lifted to their feat in victory, through the smiling face of a triumphant striker whose team rushes him in celebration and from the tears of pride from players like North Korea’s Jong Tae-Se, as his country’s national anthem played before his team faced Brazil during this year’s World Cup games.  Feelings of ecstasy and feelings of grief run down the faces of players like Landon Donovan of the U.S.—who after scoring a tie breaker goal in the 91st minute against Algeria broke into tears—and the Italian team—who held their heads in their hands after being defeated 2-3 by Slovakia. From the players to the fans, emotion envelopes everyone.

2. The goal

Unlike other sports, one goal in soccer is worth so much more than one basket, one touchdown or one homerun.  One goal can win the World Cup title.  Yet at the same time, a team can come from behind, as in the game between the US and Slovenia when the US came from behind to tie 2-2.  For that reason, soccer players have to be on the entire 90 minutes.  A goal in soccer is such an exciting moment that even shots on goal that don’t find the back of the net will have people rise to their feet in anticipation and hope.
Wiping away tears of joy as he explained his goal against Algeria—which saved his team from going home— Donovan said, “People that know me closest know how hard I’ve worked for this moment…  This is unbelievable.”

1.  Unity, equality, respect and hope

Soccer is the only sport that brings together the entire world—from developing countries in Africa and politically unstable countries in Asia, to world super powers like the United States and economic powerhouses like China.

But once on the field, neither economics, power, politics nor religion have the power to land the ball in the back of the net.  On the field, all are equal.  Hence, the U.S. tie with Slovenia (2-2), Mexico’s 2-0 win over France and South Africa’s 2-1 victory over France.

Team captains oftentimes swap flags or other national gifts in a sign of respect before a match begins.  After the match is called to an end, players shake hands and oftentimes exchange the jerseys they wore with pride, with players from the opposition team in a swap of mutual respect.

The game also gives hope to young children, some of whom live in poverty.  Before matches begin, children from the host country are paired with the national players from the two teams; hand-in-hand, the pairs of hopeful children and professional athletes walk out together before millions of fans watching from all over the world.

The World Cup games show the world that countries can challenge each other in the fiercest of competitions, yet after the 90 minutes are up, the two countries can come together and shake hands in respect.  Perhaps leaders around the world could take a lesson from this.

Simon Kuper, the author of “Soccernomics” described the World Cup best: “It’s the moment when the planet becomes a family, when we’re all doing the same thing whether we are in California or Nigeria or Shanghai.”

About the Author

Grace was born and raised in southern California.  She received a double major in political science (with an emphasis in international relations) and global studies (with an emphasis in socio-economics) at UCSB.  After graduating, Grace moved to New York—where she studied international relations (with a focus on Iran) at New York University.  After receiving her MA in international relations, Grace moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as an assistant editor at an international Iranian newspaper.  She recently moved back to California, where she works part time as an assistant editor, and full time as an Editorial Manager at FindTheBest.com, a comparison search engine.

Landon Donovan Signed Jersey