Soccer is More Than a Game

Oh the humanity...there are 100,000 people dancing a singing, they are jumping a round hugging their grandparents, their children, and even people they don’t know. What has brought on this foolishness? What has grown men crying and nations glued to their televisions? Is it the Super Bowl? Is it the World Series? No, it’s the World Cup.

Wait, the World Cup? You mean a soccer tournament held once every four years? Why should anyone care about soccer? It’s a boring game where no one ever scores. Why would anyone get excited about that?

Well, I will tell you since you asked. The World Cup is easily the most difficult tournament in the world to win. You think March Madness is a big deal. It doesn’t take two years to qualify for March Madness and a good thing too because the typical American sports fan doesn’t have that much patience. And that is the reason the typical American sports fan doesn’t watch soccer.

Patience, anticipation, the climax of a goal being scored. It kinda sounds like sex doesn’t it. And who doesn’t like sex?

Soccer is the world’s game for a number of reasons. The most rational is it is economically the cheapest sport to participate in. And for the many poorer countries in the world that does make a difference. Also anyone can play soccer. Children like to run and kick the ball around, it passes the time and when they get old enough to take the game seriously, they can decide if they want to dedicate themselves to the sport. Also the rules are pretty simple, kick the ball into the net you get one point. People do not have to speak the same language, there is not a lot of discussion, just play.

So lets get back to the 100,000 people dancing and signing in orgasmic bliss. National pride is a huge reason the World Cup is seen world wide as the greatest sporting event by many people who think that Jordan is a small country next to Egypt. (Which it is.)