[News] The Beautiful Game, A Beautiful Cause: Why I Root for Argentina

[Anti-Imperialist News]

OK, OK...so i'm biased toward my birthplace...but they played so beautifully!

http://www.thenation.com/blog/36759/beautiful-game-beautiful-cause-why-i-root-argentina

The Beautiful Game, A Beautiful Cause: Why I Root for Argentina

Dave Zirin | June 28, 2010

Before the start of the World Cup, I broadcast my 
rooting interest with the obnoxious insistence of 
a nuclear-powered vuvuzela: Argentina all the 
way. I wanted Argentina to win because their 
style of soccer speaks to the full potential of 
the beautiful game. I wanted Argentina to win 
because few people in the US could pick Lionel 
Messi out of a lineup, and he might be the most 
electrifying athlete on earth. I wanted Argentina 
to win because their coach, the walking, talking 
telenovela, Diego Maradona, is just too 
entertaining to see pushed off the stage

As Dan Wetzel of yahoo sports 
<http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/were-all-living-in-maradonas-world-cup--fbintl_dw-maradona062710.html>described 
Coach Maradona [1], “He screams and cheers. He 
complains and cajoles. He smiles. He prays. He 
blesses himself. He hugs. Actually, he hugs a 
lot. He even kisses his players. Pushing 50 yet 
wearing earrings and a salt-and-pepper goatee, he 
remains the biggest presence in the building – 
and that includes his megastar players such as Lionel Messi and Tevez.”

In his playing days, Maradona made people 
reconsider the sacred idea that Pele was surely 
the greatest player to ever patrol the pitch. He 
went from soccer superstar to Argentine folk hero 
during the 1986 World Cup, when he “avenged” the 
1982 British defeat of Argentina in the Falklands 
War by defeating England in the quarterfinals, 
with a little help from the 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o>"Hand of God." [2]

Maradona's brilliance inspired Eduardo Galeano to 
write, “No one can predict the devilish tricks 
this inventor of surprises will dream up for the 
simple joy of throwing the computers off track, 
tricks he never repeats. He’s not quick, more 
like a short-legged bull, but he carries the ball 
sewn to his foot and he’s got eyes all over his 
body. His acrobatics light up the field....In the 
frigid soccer of the end of the century, which 
detests defeat and forbids all fun, that man was 
one of the few who proved that fantasy can be efficient.”

Efficient fantasy is the best way to describe 
Argentina’s current run to the quarterfinals. In 
a modern world of robotic soccer stratagems, they 
play with the wicked grace of decades past. Given 
that success breeds imitators, I would argue that 
it is in the best interests of international 
soccer to see Argentina take it all the way.

For those experiencing this World Cup in the 
throes of neutrality, there are political reasons 
to support Argentina as well. This has received 
next to no media coverage either in their native 
Argentina or around the world, but the team has 
fully embraced the courageous group of 
grandmothers known as Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. 
This organization is devoted to finding out the 
truth about the fate of Argentina’s 
desaparecidos­the people forever imprisoned or 
disappeared by the military dictatorship of Jorge 
Rafael Videla - during 
Argentina’s<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War> Dirty War [3]of 1976-1983.

At a training session in South Africa, the entire 
Argentine team 
<http://www.harpyness.com/2010/06/21/activism-at-the-world-cup/>unfurled 
a banner [4] that read, "We Support the 
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo for the Nobel 
Peace Prize." The group has in fact been 
officially nominated for the prize and Abuelas 
president Estela de Carlotto, is in South Africa, 
meeting with Nelson Mandela and other world 
leaders. She has also been publicly 
<http://www.mx.terra.com/futbol/mundial/2010/noticias/0,,OI4496306-EI14432,00-En+entrenamiento+Maradona+homenajea+a+Abuelas+de+Plaza+de+Mayo.html>– 
and literally - [5]embraced by Maradona. The 
critical work that Abuelas has done will only 
receive a greater spotlight if Argentina 
continues to advance. This makes all those 
connected with Argentina’s dirty war, who still 
hold tremendous power in the country, 
increasingly, and deliciously, apprehensive.

I can certainly understand, and have heard from 
numerous people, that these kinds of political 
concerns shouldn’t play into our rooting 
interests when it comes to the World Cup. It 
should just be about the game. But this is like 
wishing a double cheeseburger didn’t have 
cholesterol. There is simply no sporting event on 
earth more entangled in politics than this 
brilliantly bombastic tournament. Anytime you 
have half the earth tuned in - as colonies play 
their former colonizers and dictatorships 
challenge democracies - politics follow like 
rainbows after rain.  As long as politics are 
part of the mix, we might as well support a team 
that in addition to epitomizing “the beautiful 
game” stands with a beautiful cause. Viva Argentina!

----------
Source URL: 
<http://www.thenation.com/blog/36759/beautiful-game-beautiful-cause-why-i-root-argentina>http://www.thenation.com/blog/36759/beautiful-game-beautiful-cause-why-i-root-argentina

Links:
[1] 
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/were-all-living-in-maradonas-world-cup--fbintl_dw-maradona062710.html
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War
[4] http://www.harpyness.com/2010/06/21/activism-at-the-world-cup/
[5] 
http://www.mx.terra.com/futbol/mundial/2010/noticias/0,,OI4496306-EI14432,00-En 
entrenamiento Maradona homenajea a Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.html




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