An hour or so after take off on EK003 from Dubai to London last Friday the pilot came on the public address system with an announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, here is an important message for passengers…’England 1…Argentina 0 is the final score!’ Now I am sure that this column’s loyal Argentinean readership will forgive me if I tell you that my customary dispassionate objectivity was cast aside for a moment and that I leapt from my seat and cried out “Yippee!!!”
Long standing rivalries are a key element in sport and without them one’s enjoyment would be lessened. In football England’s two greatest sporting enemies are, of course, Germany and Argentina. For England to have beaten these two in “World Cup” matches in the last six months has been sweet indeed!
Now I am sufficient of a realist to know that there is a long way to go in these “World Cup” finals (and that England may not even qualify for the next round if they blow it against Nigeria in the final group match). But from what I have seen so far, it is shaping up to be a tournament to remember and there is no reason why there could not be a surprise winner – maybe even England! We shall see. But what is pleasing is that many of the matches in the early stages of the finals in Japan and South Korea have been worthy of the description that all-time-great Pele used for the sport – he called in “The Beautiful Game”.
The beauty of football is its absolute simplicity of purpose and its instant accessibility. I have written recently about the awesome task of trying to explain cricket to someone who has grown up somewhere where the game is not played. With football no such problem arises. It is not just the ubiquity of the game which makes it so great, but the fact that there is really only one objective - to get the ball in your opponent’s net more often that they get it in yours. And there have been many great matches where there has been no scoring at all. Can you imagine the idea of a goalless draw in Baseball, American Football or Basketball? Indeed these sports don’t allow the possibility of a “tie” at all – there always has to be a “tiebreaker” in American sport – there always has to be a winner.
Whilst there is simplicity to the task in football that makes it unique (and sometimes “beautiful”) this is not too say that the game never disappoints. Football can sometimes be drab and dull or be blighted by cynical fouls - often when the stakes are too high or the discipline is too lax. But the game more often delights, than it disappoints. Part of the delight is that the form book is upset far more often than in other team sports. Senegal beats France. Croatia beats Italy. The USA beats Portugal. And any of the sides which reach the last sixteen could win the tournament - and that greatly adds to the general enjoyment of the spectator.
In referring to the simplicity of purpose of football I am not at all meaning to suggest that the tactics of the game, at the highest level, are simple. The best coaches develop football strategies worthy of the great generals in battles or military campaigns. Alf Ramsey, who managed England’s “World Cup” winning side of 1966, was the first coach to play a team without wing forwards. Before Ramsey the line up had always been 5:3:2 – with the front five having two wingers, two inside forwards and a centre forward. How ancient these terms sound today! As with many sports improved fitness levels, and a far greater requirement for all-purpose players who can attack as well as defend, have changed football a lot. But notwithstanding these changes the game itself is in many ways much as it always was. And the rules have hardly changed in a hundred years either – a time traveller from a century ago could go to one of this year’s “World Cup” matches and understand it immediately.
Beauty and simplicity, combined with fact that all you need to play the game is a bit of waste ground and a ball, have made football by far the world’s greatest sport. And the “World Cup” is football’s greatest tournament. Which is why I will continue to leap out of my seat if England wins – providing, of course, that the “fasten your seatbelts” sign is not illuminated!
