Having the World Cup in North America has been a tremendous amount of fun and, for Americans, it’s been full of revelations. You can go down the list from the Scots literally drinking Boston dry (okay, that was kind of expected but still amazing), to the Norwegians rowing up and down escalators, to the brilliance of Lionel Messi, and the gutsiness of many teams, (notably Cape Verde), it’s been a lot of fun.
The U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994, but that was long ago and far away, and there was no
social media back then, and in ways that are both good and bad, social media has really amplified everything.
On the down side, we see the vilification of Argentina. There are various conspiracies about FIFA wanting Messi to advance, but with the magnificently competitive games and general global obsession with football, FIFA doesn’t need Messi to draw more eyeballs. And as we have seen several times now, Argentina’s opponents have suggested skullduggery and corruption designed to favor Argentina.
Of course, where there are humans, there could well be corruption. Among other things, the FBI is now apparently investigating the Argentine Football Association for possible criminal acts.
But an investigation doesn’t necessarily mean crimes were committed, and even if they were, who has done what Argentina has on the pitch?
Against Egypt, they scored three goals in the last 13-14 minutes. No one forced Mostafa Shobeir to let those goals in.
The same thing happened against Switzerland, when Argentina scored two late goals. Again, we’re confident that the goalkeeper was not part of any conspiracy. We’re quite sure that, like his counterpart Shobeir, Gregor Kobel agonized over those two goals.
And like Egyptian manager Hossam Hassan, Swiss manager Murat Yakin complained that Argentina had been given unfair advantages.
We’re not knowledgeable enough about the game to convince anyone of anything, and we’ve seen videos make convincing arguments on both sides. Both sides made sense, but we’re rubes here. We don’t know nuttin.
What doesn’t make sense is demeaning what Argentina has accomplished on the field. Its great star is aging, and the team has in many stretches not played well. That may yet catch up to them, perhaps against England on Tuesday.
Whatever the controversies, when winning time came, Argentina has had what it takes.
That was true for Norway as well, at least until they met England on the field of combat, such as it is. But that match didn’t end in bitterness. It ended with great mutual admiration. Both teams played hard, with the Brits pulling it out, 2-1.
After the match, someone British released this AI video, which sums up how much respect the Norwegians have earned.
This speaks of a tremendous level of competition, which in turn ended in immense gratitude and genuine affection for one’s opponent.
FIFA may have issues to work out, but this is the way sportsmanship should go, and is vastly preferable to confronting opponents and photographers, much less spitting at people, all of which Hassan did.
The sentiments in this video are what everyone should strive for.
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