The Beautiful Game

As someone who booked my wedding day on the day of the AFL grand final it's probably not too hard to guess that I'm not really into sport. I find the Olympics tedious and although I and used to watch cricket and AFL when I was younger I just don't really care anymore. This is pretty much a blanket rule to all sporting events. All but one. The World Cup. Every four years I am mesmorised by the beautiful game. Argentina's 2nd goal against Serbia & Montenegro was a moment that made me uncontrolably yell with delight.

It is not just the skill of the players that is so enchanting but each tournament there always seems to be at least one small African or South American nation who rises above all expectations and wins games they are just not supposed to, this year that nation is Ecuador. What's more they win purely by playing bravely, adventurously and with big hearts. Conversely there is always a squad full of great players fail to deliver, England is on the verge of shaping up that way this year.

With the advent of computer games it I think it is easy to become blasé when we see a running player pass the ball straight to the feet of a team mate on the other side of the field, and they to another player, it looks so easy, just like it might be in a computer game. But it's a real ball and the players are a long way from each other, every time I remind myself of this I am again impressed by even the weakest of teams in the World Cup.

Football is a simple game. Just a ball and two goals and this means that even the poorest nations can triumph at the game and regularly do. Football may just be one of the few great levellers left in the world, where being a rich like the US or autocratic like China seems to give no advantage. For this reason I would like to suggest that this will be the game that we will play in heaven and not rugby where skinny guys like me will be asked to peel oranges.

Long live the beautiful game and go Ecuador!