Peace = Goal? Or Goal = Peace?

By now, regular readers are well aware that I am soccer fan - actually, scratch that - I am a futball fan.

Futball is the accepted name of the sport everywhere on this planet except here in the good ol' US of A where we are always arrogant enough to change things, anything, just because we can.  (And to those many folks who ignorantly declare it's just a bunch of men or women chasing a ball?  You make me laugh.  Try it.  You and your Chicago Bears inspired beer gut won't last two minutes in this highly demanding, extremely physical, skills-mandatory sport.)

Baseball may be our national pasttime, our bragging right, if you will.  But baseball's origins in this country (exact dates vary depending upon source material) only date back to the 1800s.

Futball, or football, the world's sport, can be traced, according to FIFA (the modern day sport's governing body), back to BC.  In fact, the "very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise of precisely this skilful technique dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. in China (the game of Cuju)."

In addition, the Roman game Harpastum is thought to be a distant ancestor of football. It is also documented that various forms of football were played in medieval Europe, though rules varied greatly by both period and location.

But even when we Americans finally relent, letting it wash ashore here, we change its name.

Soccer.

Oh well.  PotAto, Potato.  It's still the same game and I am a fan.

So it's no surprise that I have been watching with interest, the Iraqi team's advancement through gameplay in the Asian Cup - it was their first appearance in the finals in this particular tournament.

This past Wednesday, the Iraqi team, named "Lions of the Two Rivers, a team no one considered to be a true contender in the Cup, held steady throughout the early rounds, earning their place in the finals after defeating 2002 World Cup semifinalist South Korea in a shoot-out.

Celebration was instantaneous throughout Iraq - and for a brief moment, being a Sunni or Shiite did not matter - they were all Iraqis and they were all suffused with pride.

And it is that moment on which I would like to comment. 

You see, when I say that soccer, football, futball - whatever - is the world's sport - I mean exactly that.  It is played with passion in nearly every country, large, small, infinitesimal.

As opposed to the United States where sports loyaties are divided along statelines, regions, hometowns - (seriously, put the Steelers in a Superbowl, I'll watch.  Dallas Cowboys?  Absolutely.  Cincinnati Reds in a World Series.  I'd have some interest.  Then again, I have lived in each of these places.  Mets?  Yankees?  Cubs?  Raiders? Bears? Packers?  Could not care less) - soccer, the world over, unifies entire countries, it glues people of every financial strata together, it makes mates out of bums and brokers.  It shuts down whole workdays when a country's team is on the telly.

That's what was so great about watching from afar as the country of Iraq, a country that should be mainlining Prozac due to continued nerves, constant stress, and depression, was celebrating, embracing, rejoicing.

Rejoicing, of course, until some a-holes decided all those throngs of people in the streets of Bagdad were ripe for the car bomb picking and killed roughly 50.

Yet amazingly, in the face of further death and destruction, the country again sat on edge today watching as their Lions took on three time Asian Cup champs, Saudi Arabia, in the finals - AND WON.

A gorgeous header sent screaming into the goal from captain Younis Mahmoud Khalaf in the 71st minute sealed the deal.

As the final whistle blew shortly after the 90th minute, the streets of Iraq erupted yet again - only this time, it was with celebration and exuberance, pride and confetti, not bombs and body parts - all vehicular traffic, in Bagdad at least, from cars and trucks to cycles and bikes have been forbidden, and remain so until Monday morning.

Yes, there are many folks around their country doing the obligatory Middle Eastern whoop-de-doo - firing guns into the air - but so far, the celebrations have been the focus, and the only thing running in the streets are happy countrymen - not their blood.

I realize this unity will not last.  As soon as the blush is off the celebratory rose, the people will go back to hating one another for reasons so old most of them have no true idea what the origins may be.

But for today - for this brief shining moment - futball, the WORLD'S sport - has done what it does so well.  Made friends of enemies.  It has Hatfields rejoicing with McCoys.

Perhaps if more people in this country would stop and take a look at what is happening in Iraq because of a sport we seem to hold in such conceited disdain, the USA just might give soccer a chance.

It really does have more to offer than just a good looking guy named Beckham.

Comments

[Nikki]

Sport has always united people.

I am glad that the Iraqi people had some respite from their daily misery.

Too bad battles cannot be restricted to the football pitch. We might get somewhere then.

[Missy]

...but ummm... Beckham is enough for me. meeeyow. ;)