Next stop, Johannesburg

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0000figozidane_84216a.jpgA couple of hours from now, 22 handsome men of various shapes and hues will peel off their sweat-drenched jerseys and exchange them, amid hugs and kisses and mussing of hair, before a crowd of tens of thousands and a television audience of billions. And just like that, the World Cup will be over.

As the sporting winner emerges from the final pairing of France and Italy, so shall the competitionÂ’s winning narrative, the storyline of storylines that best succeeds in taking events on the field and giving them interpretive power to tell us something about the world we live in.

It is interesting that we are having discussions right now at the Mutiny about nationalism, jingoism, patriotism, anti-nationalism, and matters of that sort, at the same time that the worldÂ’s quadriennial celebration of national identities wraps up. The World Cup is a curious beast, it is a time when national loyalties are expressed, loudly and even virulently, yet in a choreographed manner and by universally recognized rules of engagement and fair play, for a limited duration and all at the same time.

It’s as much a celebration of the porousness of national barriers as it is of their continued relevance. It’s an event that inherently applauds globalization – the demographic flows, the internationalization of the business of sports, the diffusion of popular culture, the technological advances that permit billions of people to watch the same high-quality image feeds, the ease of travel that permits delegations of supporters to travel from the far corners of the planet. And it’s also an opportunity to wrap oneself in one’s flag – or that of another country to which one feels loyalty, or kinship, or just a whimsical fancy.a_ZyLuisFigo_vtop.jpgThe resurgence of the France team, which no one (including myself, a longtime France supporter who grew up in Paris) had given any shot of getting past the quarter-finals, has pushed back into the limelight the narratives of nationhood and cultural and demographic integration. By far the most “multicultural” team in the field this year – I mean that at the primitive, united-colors-of-Benetton level – Les Bleus offer a fantasy portrait of diversity in action, thrilling sporting action at that.

But since the team’s famous triumph in 1998, much of the luster has been taken off the easy “black-blanc-beur” sentiment. Culpable squabbling within the centre-left in the 2002 election resulted in the overtly racist right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen qualifying for the second round of the presidential election, forcing a national rallying around the mediocre and fatigued Jacques Chirac.

Last year, severe riots and disturbances in the squalid working-class suburbs of Paris and other cities reminded France and the world that the daily lives of people of color in France are fraught with obstacles and discrimination; not that the complacent political class and intellectual elite seem much interested in doing anything about it.

With impeccable timing, Le Pen inveighed a couple of weeks ago that France’s poor showing in the tournament’s first round was due to the presence of too many players of color, suggesting that the coach had gone for political correctness over actual footballing skill. (Sound familiar?) Then the team started winning games against tough opponents in fine fashion, Zidane-mania began its second coming, and Le Pen as usual looked like the fool that he is. Best yet, it was revealed that the great white hope of French football, Franck Ribéry, a scruffy working class kid from the depressed port city Boulogne, on paper just the kind of type to support Le Pen, is… a proud convert to Islam.

Whether France wins or loses the match about to begin, the team’s run has put the question of making diversity work back under the spotlight – a healthy improvement over the spirit of 1998, which was all celebration and self-congratulation. That was before the clash of civilizations, the horrific events that we know, the emergence of the new flavors of bigotry, chauvinism and know-nothingness that feel today like the norm. Today, the problems are more sharply posed, the stakes – in Europe, America, South Asia, the world – immeasurably higher.

A football tournament wonÂ’t solve the worldÂ’s problems, far from it. But the narrative harvest of this yearÂ’s World Cup has only just begun. Four years from now, the next World Cup will be held in South Africa, which virtually guarantees good material from now til then. IÂ’ll be following intently, and so will many of you. Thanks to the futbolistic caucus within the Mutiny for adding to the World Cup experience this year — from Bong Breaker to Sahej, Flygirl to Football Fan, AfroDesiAc to Kobayashi, and all the regulars and lurkers in between.

I’ll be rooting for France. I think Italy is actually the better side, futbolisticamente hablando, but the spiritual edge is with the multi-hued crew. So long as the féticheurs have been paid their fee and the chickens buried in the proper spots, this one is for Zizou and the boys.

Much respect to all. Next stop, Johannesburg!

155 thoughts on “Next stop, Johannesburg”

  1. I totally agree that in terms of football it was a horrible move on his part, and unfortunately it is going to be a large stain on a rather impressive career. He knew he was going to get red carded for that stunt. I respect his decision not as a footballer, but rather as a person who just refused to keep bowing down to the cheap Italian tactics. Outside of that similar incident with the Saudi player, he is not really known to be a hothead, which makes it even more poignant that he chose to do what he did when he did. Instead of pulling jerseys, name calling and pinching away from the ref’s eyes which the Italians seem to prefer he made his move in plain sight without any question of his motives. He could have chosen any number of ways to retaliate, which would have at the worst gotten him a yellow card. I admire his character for not being pressured by the rules of a game and responding to a situation as he saw fit for better or for worse. I can only hope that “victory” tastes a bit sour for the Italians. And although I am sure this would be a dream, I hope he is received in France like a hero.

  2. according to bbc, materazzi may have said something insulting about zidane’s mother. zidane’s agent says it will all come out next week. materazzi’s father says his son was provoked.

  3. The thing that has been most repeated in the last eighteen hours is that “no matter what was said to him, Zidane should not have reacted like that.” I find this peculiar. How come so many people suddenly believe that words are always weaker than physical action?

    It does matter what was said. It matters exquisitely. Not all statements are the same. There are things you can say to a man that are worse than a punch in the throat.

    The response by Zidane was targeted, intentional, full-frontal, neat. Not unlike one of his mystifying penalty kicks. A slow walk, then a head suddenly knocked into Materazzi’s chest. It was bullish, but delivered with a matador’s grace. He accomplished it in front of one billion people and, without complaint, faced the consequence. It annoys me that so many people now want to cast the whole thing in these pathological or moral terms. In addition to being a brilliant winger, Malouda dived for a penalty yesterday, and his career will soar. Buffon is a great goalkeeper and a known fascist whose ears will long continue to ring with applause.

    But Zizou departed from script, the script that says that “football is only a game,” that “words are only words,” that the only violence permitted our eyes is the simulated kind. And that, I think, is what people find unforgivable. He, like all masters, deprived us of an illusion. That can be hard to take. That is the source of this excoriation.

    I laud him. I laud him.

  4. Is it not possible to figure out from the TV replays (close ups if there was any) what Materazzi said?.. Don’t know if that’s in English / French / Italian.. (or whatever language understood by both.. )

    Anyways, it’s poor judgement on the part of Zidane, after a classy penalty kick.. He is probably tired and worn out by the shoulder injury.. Players do stupid things.. He should have atleast waited till the game was over and knocked him off..

  5. This will not stain his career. Everybody who knows the game will never forget what he was – the greatest player of his generation and in terms of greatness, at the heels of Pele and Maradona. He won the World Cup, the European Cup for France, dominating the tournaments, he won the scudetto in Italy with Juventus, he won la liga with Real Madrid, and he won the European Champions league with Real Madrid, scoring in the final. His technique and skill and insight and improvisation made him a master. This will not overshadow what he achieved, because he achieved so much, and it will only add to a sense of sadness of what could have been, but was not, and will add to his allure and enigma. A flawed genius. But a genius, and one of the greats, and most respected footballers of all time.

  6. Does anybody know why Italy does not have any immigrant representation in their soccer team, unlike almost every European country? The Argentinian guy does not count, he seems like a “convenient” citizen.

    Neale

  7. Italy does not have as large an immigrant population as other countries, and it takes time for second and third generation players like Zidane and Odonker and Rio Ferdinand to come through.

  8. The Argentinian player was not some ‘convenient’ player, he was born in Argentina of Italian players. FIFA regulations allow teams to field players not born in the country of origin as long as they have at least one parent or grandparent from the nation. David Trezeguet of France was born in Argentina to Feench parents, Owen Hargreaves of England was born in Canada. Some nations, like Ireland, have most of their players born abroad, in Irelands case, the children and grandchildren of Irish immigrants to England.

  9. neale, red snapper is right, and to expand on his point a little: italy doesn’t have as large a population of people of immigrant origin who also have national citizenship. it had fewer colonies, and in the 1950s to 1970s it was a major source country of emigrants to wealthier european countries like france and germany. italy stopped exporting guest labor to those countries only about twenty years ago. hence the presence of players of italian origin in france, e.g. michel platini in the 1980s, and the relative scarcity of players of non-italian origin in the italian squad thus far.

  10. it had fewer colonies

    !!! Oy !!! It did??? . i thought y’all learnt african history in school?

    The real reason of course is that the soccer players have a genotype characterized by musculature typical of the population with ancestry in the rain forest. it is not a coincidence that the rubber tree is a tropical plant and the original soccer balls were the solidified gum of the rubber tree. the italian colonies did not have rubber trees – just a lot of date palms. ergo, the players do not have synaptic triggers typical of soccer players, and so italy does not have immigrant soccer players – just homegrown talent. but you should check out the tree climbing representation from italy at the world lumberjack games.

    tawk among yourselves.

  12. His parents were players?

    Typo – I meant to say ‘parents’, was writing fast.

  13. ….i was aware that having a smaller share of colonies may be a factor, but doesn’t Italy’s proximity to Africa and it s reputation of porous borders create an immigrant base? Turkey was never a colony of any Northern European country but look at the players in Sweden , Germany,….

    Neale

  14. ….i was aware that having a smaller share of colonies may be a factor, but doesn’t Italy’s proximity to Africa and it s reputation of porous borders create an immigrant base? Turkey was never a colony of any Northern European country but look at the players in Sweden , Germany,….

    right, but that’s because turks were migrating to those countries to find work for the last four decades. italians also were migrating to northern europe to find work. hence big italian communties in france, germany, britain. people from other countries weren’t migrating to italy because it was a poor country itself.

    now all that has changed but it will still take time before that results in a large adult population of italian citzens of non-italian origin.

  16. Siddartha, Yes, that makes sense…also given the fact that Germany officially had a guest worker program and Scandinavian states have (until recently at least) had the most open-armed asylum laws.

    I was looking up citizenship criteria and came upon this for France “As from september 1st. 1998, every child of foreign parents born in france acquires french nationality at his majority if he is living in France and if he has lived in france, in a continous or discountinous way al least five years (starting at the age of 11 years).”

    That is so recent and so dramatic.

    Neale

  17. Immigrant populations do not neccessarily correlate with football – there are nearly 2 million desi’s in England but only a handful of brown professional footballers, none of them even close to being good enough to playing for the national team. There are, however, lots of British desis who play for the England cricket team, Panesar, Ali, Solanki etc etc.

    The black population of Holland, which has produced some of the best European footballers of the last twenty years, (Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids) all of their ethnic roots in the Dutch colony of Surinam, a country to the north of Brazil, which already had, Patrick Kluivert) a deep rooted football culture which they brought with them to Holland. Incidentally, Surinam has a very large Indian population too, descendend from indentured labourers like Guyana.

  18. Incidentally, Surinam has a very large Indian population too, descendend from indentured labourers like Guyana.

    One desi footballer from Suriname, Aaron Winter, played on various Italian teams (thanks, Manju).

  22. materazzi denies calling zidane a “dirty terrorist”:

    I’m hoping and praying and I hope this wish travels through cyberspace and reaches Zidane but I don’t want him to ever, ever, ever come out and say what exactly pissed him off. Let people speculate away to death and to hell with them all.

  23. “..but I don’t want him to ever, ever, ever come out and say what exactly pissed him off. Let people speculate away to death and to hell with them all.”

    why? it is to zidane’s benefit to say what angered him. if it was indeed something execrable, why should materazzi get away with it? zidane was punished for his transgression, according to FIFA rules. if materazzi also dishonoured the spirit of the game, he should be subject to a little public humiliation as well.

  24. “Incidentally, Surinam has a very large Indian population too, descendend from indentured labourers like Guyana.”

    Yup, ‘east indians’ are the majority there. Unlike say Trinidad, most still are Hindu.

  25. Yup, ‘east indians’ are the majority there. Unlike say Trinidad, most still are Hindu.

    i believe over 50% are still hindu in trinidad. 22.5% hindu, 40% east indian, assume all hindus are east indian….

  28. why? it is to zidane’s benefit to say what angered him. if it was indeed something execrable, why should materazzi get away with it?

    Well, on one level it’s all banal no matter how exercrable. It’s better to leave the mystery. Right now he’s looking really contrite and serious and the gravity on his face is simply amazing. I think he’ll lose some of his magic if he goes ahead and tries to justify his action. No justification is acceptable, imo. A rash and hotheaded action, on the other hand, is.

  29. Holy crap — looks somewhat likely that it was a racist comment after all. Lip reading experts have been deciphering what was said by Materazzi (I hope that’s how you spell his name) to Zidane, and come up with the goods. In addition to the Italian equivalent to the “n-word,” there was also something like, “we all know you are the son of a terrorist whore” immediately preceding the head-butt.

    If that’s verified over hte next few days, Kobayashi’s praise for Zidane begins to look prescient. (Then again, the lip readers could be wrong)

  30. looks like the lipreaders are in big demand 🙂 an italian lipreading for brazilian tv said materazzi called zidane’s sister a prostitute and also wished his family “an ugly death.”

  33. Leaving aside for a moment what was actually said – my impression of the competition this year overall is – BORING. I’m as interested in other cultures and customs as the next guy, but the hype around the World Cup escapes me. Particularly when you consider how repetitive it is. This appeard in Sunday’s Chciago Tribune, which requires free registration, but I will post it in its entirety:

    SMALL WORLD CUP

    Soccer prize brings out a lot of what we’ve seen Advertisement

    By Richard Rothschild an editor on the Tribune sports desk

    July 9, 2006

    Soccer’s World Cup, which culminates Sunday with the match between Italy and France in Berlin for the championship, is the planet’s most popular athletic competition, drawing a worldwide television audience that surpasses 1 billion.

    It is an exciting, heartbreaking and maddening tournament of athletic theater. Only one element is missing: variety.

    The World Cup, particularly in the later rounds, is the most predictable of the major sports events.

    FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, has more than 200 member teams, but only 11 have reached the championship game since the first tournament in 1930, and a mere seven have won soccer’s greatest prize: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, England and France.

    Uruguay, which won two of the first four World Cups, can be seen as the Cubs of soccer, a terrific team in the early days of the event but a non-factor for nearly 40 years. England, the birthplace of soccer, has played in only two semifinals, winning its solitary championship on its home pitch in 1966.

    Even France was considered soccer’s worst underachiever until winning the 1998 World Cup outside Paris and then reaching this year’s final.

    Many teams enter soccer’s grand hotel, but few reach the top floors: Brazil, Germany, Italy, France and Argentina have filled more than 70 percent of the title game berths since 1930 and have played in every one since 1990.

    Whether one credits a big population, soccer tradition and talent, or simply knowing how to win big games, these five nations are able to succeed where other soccer strongholds such as Spain and the Netherlands always fall short.

    It’s as if the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s only winners were UCLA, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky.

    For all the talk of soccer’s being a global game, only Europe and South America have produced World Cup winners.

    The deepest an Asian team has advanced is to the semifinals. No North American or African nation has gone beyond the quarterfinals since qualifying rounds were added, and no Australian side has advanced beyond the second round.

    Compare soccer’s lack of international champions with Olympic track and field. At the 2004 Games in Athens, gold medalists came from such diverse nations as China, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, the Czech Republic, Cameroon, Norway, Kenya and Japan.

    When the World Cup is played in Europe, it’s as if teams from outside the continent don’t exist. Only three outsiders have reached the championship game in Europe. And only one–Brazil–has won the title on European soil. That was in 1958, when a 17-year-old soccer prodigy named Pele scored two second-half goals to beat Sweden.

    Conversely, a European team has never won the Cup outside its home continent.

    Perhaps a different kind of competition will develop in 2010, when the event moves to South Africa. This will be the first World Cup played under the skies of the Southern Hemisphere since 1978, and the first major international athletic event played anywhere on the African continent.

    Maybe South Africa’s altitude (Johannesburg sits 6,000 feet above sea level) will even the playing field and provide fresh faces beyond the quarterfinals.

    Every athletic enterprise, even the World Cup, can use new blood.

    rrothschild@tribune.com

    Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

  34. On Sunday, USA Today suggested that “soccer” was unpopular in the US (a dubious claim, in any case) because it was “unnatural” not to use one’s hands.

    The implication being that Americans were a natural people. Unlike those forners.

    Rothschild’s article is simply more of the same. Not enough variety. Too predictable. Uruguay is like the Cubs. Blah blah blah. It’s a grand hotel, and the top floors are only open to a few. It’s a bad metaphor somewhere between baseball and the NCAA. It’s unnatural. Not enough goals are scored. Blah blah blah.

    And yet, one billion human beings watched the final two days ago.

    Billions more will fanatically follow sport for years to come. And as America gets browner and blacker, millions of those people will be right here in the USA.

    And this will happen in spite of whatever descriptive contortions white-bread aw-shucks American journalists wish to get themselves into.

  35. KXB

    Football is the global game and if you’re not invested in its beauty and culture it probably wont mean much to you. A Morrocan winning a medal for white water rafting at the Olympics is nice, but it doesnt contain the drama and worldwide unity of joy or interest that a Ronaldinho back heel, a Maradon dribble to goal, or a Zidane head butt contain for the dreams and spectators around every continent on Earth.

    If you don’t get it, that’s fine, you don’t get football, but for those who do, it’s the best thing in the World, and the truly great players and games and teams transcend nationality. That is why boys in Liverpool worship Brazilian strikers, and lads in Nigeria dream of playing like a French Algerian called Zidane. It’s called football, and oart of its wonder comes from being simultaneously a tribal sport and a game that transcends all boundaries and identities. It is the beautiful game.

  36. I am not going to try to persuade soccer fans that their devotion to the game is misplaced or undeserved. But it is observable fact that despite having a billion fans, and more countries competing, the same teams keep winning over and over.

    Interestingly, cricket can also claim to have a billion fans – yet, it does not seem seem to draw the adulation – perhaps South Asians are simply too poor to warrant such press coverage. Brits, Germans, and Japanese have deeper pockets.

    Compare soccer to basketball – in the 1990’s, America dominated basketball in the Olympics. The 1992 Olympic team was a once in alifetime gathering of talent – Jordan, Barkely, Robinson. But, other teams watched and learned. They improved their skills and practiced like hell. Now, in international competitons, it is the Americans that are lagging behind. The NBA itself is scouting the world looking for talent – since too many American youth seem to focus on the skills that improve their individual stats, but do not know how to be play-makers, in the manner o Magic Johnson.

    The argument that increased Hispanic immigration will increase America’s interest in soccer is often repeated, but I’m not sure how valid that is. The current American team had more African American players than Hispanic.

    The current issue of the paleo-con magazine The American Conservative argues that for some American fans, soccer allows them to behave nationalistic, only in a more socially acceptable manner. I don’t buy the whole argument, and there are some needless jabs at Hispanics. But the author is probably on point that the American crowd that is so into the World Cup is likely to dismiss NASCAR.

    One World Cup

    ” A common defense among intellectual soccer advocates against charges of status-climbing is that they are instead welcoming the Hispanicization of America by mass immigration. But in truth, soccer is growing in the U.S. on two distinctly separate tracks, the immigrant and the upper middle class.”

    ” Strikingly, one place where soccer is not terribly popular is in BritainÂ’s cultural offspring. Being equally blessed with co-operative creativity, Canadians instead devised ice hockey and Australians developed Aussie rules football.”

  37. KXB

    I don’t really understand where the impulse to denigrate football comes from amongst some Americans. It does not matter. On every level of society on every continent it is a game adored and played with passion and love. It seems strange why anyone should be threatened by a simple game that gives so much joy to so many people. That is truly the global game, and is probably the only truly unifying cultural experience in the world. Football is not just the World Cup. After the World Cup comes the continental championships which are always won by varied teams, on a national level football teams contest championships with variety. This is what football is – the micro game amplified to an epic game in the world cup. That’s just what it is, the beautiful game, the universally loved game. I know this perplexes some Americans, but I find it curious as to why it should seem to make them feel threatened. I suppose, what they do not understand or appreciate is to be slandered, but the world keeps on loving the beautiful game, intoxicated and in love, whilst games like baseball and basketball are minority sports outside the USA.

    Maybe this is what leads some Americans to be hostile to the beautiful game.

    Anyway, only a few weeks until the football season starts! I am cheering up at the thought of it already 🙂

  38. Interestingly, cricket can also claim to have a billion fans – yet, it does not seem seem to draw the adulation – perhaps South Asians are simply too poor to warrant such press coverage. Brits, Germans, and Japanese have deeper pockets.

    Cricket is restricted to a handful of countries. The whole world loves football. No comparison.

  39. One more thing – characterising football’s popularity as down to developed countries deep pockets is erroneous.

    Football is the quintessential game of the ghetto, the poor man, the favelas of Rio, the shanty towns of Africa, the deprived projects estates of England and Italy and Spain. It is the game of the working class, the poor, the marginalised, the outcast, the oppressed. All the greatest footballers have come from the ghetto, from Pele to Zidane. It is the game of the third world as well as the developed world. It is truly the universal game.

    The whole of Europe, the whole of Africa, the whole of Latin America, the majority of Asia, it just grows and grows and grows, unstoppable.

  40. I don’t really understand where the impulse to denigrate football comes from amongst some Americans.

    red snapper, there is a clue in the excerpt kxb quoted from the “paleo-con” mag:

    A common defense among intellectual soccer advocates against charges of status-climbing is that they are instead welcoming the Hispanicization of America by mass immigration.

    i know, i know, what the hell does this have to do with anything? the key phrases to decipher where this nonsense is coming from are “intellectual” and “charges of status-climbing.” it’s the old anti-cosmopolitan argument, plain and simple, as deployed by nativists and know-nothingers and national-socialists and stalinists throughout time.

  41. Football is the quintessential game of the ghetto, the poor man, the favelas of Rio, the shanty towns of Africa, the deprived projects estates of England and Italy and Spain.

    Its also inflicted by racism and zenophobia, so much so that this year’s FIFA pedled anti-racism agitprop to improve Brand Football. There are fascists and neo-nazis; there is gambling and rigging; there is jingoistic flag waving and yes – nationalism.

    Nothing under the sun is tainted by perfection. Perhaps we should thank God for that.

  42. If soccer is politicized and Americans are repeatedly beaten over the head about how international and global a sport it really is and how Zidane is better known across the globe than Jeter or whatever, it becomes inevitable that there be a certain backlash from the “heartland.” Why not let soccer’s popularity grow in America in an organic way without the pleading or veiled insults (i.e. don’t bait “nativists and and know-nothingers”)- there’s a pretty good chance of this happening with globalization and continued immigration trends.

  43. siddhartha

    You are probably right. I think it is basically parochialism and good old conservative American fear of the rest of the world that produces such bitter and silly ruminations.

    desitude

    The point is, despite those things, it is still the beautiful game. Billions of people around the world cannot be wrong, the game transcends all of her ills and she roots them out because from Africa to Asia to Europe to Latin America all races and religions unite in joy for the game.

    Grumpy American conservative chauvinists scratching their head in pain and confusion feel threatened by it for some reason. It really is bizarre, and unique, and shows an essential lack of generosity of spirit and joy, that such a harmless thing as the world’s love for a unifying sport can provoke such indigestion.

    Never mind, the rest of the world enjoys.

  44. Grumpy American conservative chauvinists scratching their head in pain and confusion feel threatened by it for some reason. It really is bizarre, and unique, and shows an essential lack of generosity of spirit and joy, that such a harmless thing as the world’s love for a unifying sport can provoke such indigestion.

    Spirit and joy – aren’t you ascribing a bit much to a sport that has to put in more security because of fans misbehavior? No one talks about baseball and football hooligans. And 94 fans never died at Soldier Field because the fans got out of hand.

    Look, soccer is a sport that parents like to put their children in – because since all it is is running and kicking, anyone can play and no parent has to console their kid at being cut from the team.. American pastimes such as baseball, football, and basketball often require specialized skills that not everyone can do. That’s probably one of the reasons I was better at soccer than other sports as a kid – skinny and long-legged, I couldn’t hope to bulk up enough to play other competitive sports. And my poor vision makes me useless in catching a fly ball in the sun – or keeping an eye open for a pass while avoiding a tackle.

    Despite its boosters smugness (soccer doesn’t provoke indigistion)- bemusement would be a better term. I mean, we are told of how dangerous nationalism is – and yet here is a sport that revels in it. And despite all that, the same Old Europe teams (plus Brazil) keep winning over and over. I have no problem with the rest of the world going nuts over the World Cup every four years, just don’t expect me to give into global peer pressure.

  45. And despite all that, the same Old Europe teams (plus Brazil) keep winning over and over.

    KXB, I tend to agree somewhat with what you are saying about the same teams keep winning. That definately sucks (IMO). Thats why I wanted Ghana to do well this time around , but alas !!! I like the game because I played it growing up and enjoyed it. The game has become too much defense oriented and may need a little bit of changes in the rules to make some level playing field amongst countries.

  46. because since all it is is running and kicking, anyone can play and no parent has to console their kid at being cut from the team.. American pastimes such as baseball, football, and basketball often require specialized skills that not everyone can do.

    Dude, are you for real?

  47. Dude, are you for real?

    He lives in a paradoxical reality, where keeping it real has made him a victim of abnormal normality.

  49. Siddhartha,

    beautiful post. I fell off the chair when I saw that head-butt…laughing and disappointed (homey can play). Unambiguous! Ghetto! Human! Brother! Dayumm! So much more beautiful than any hockey brawl or even the Artest venture into an NBA crowd.