<html>
<body>
<font size=3>OK, OK...so i'm biased toward my birthplace...but they
played so beautifully!<br><br>
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/36759/beautiful-game-beautiful-cause-why-i-root-argentina" eudora="autourl">
http://www.thenation.com/blog/36759/beautiful-game-beautiful-cause-why-i-root-argentina<br>
</a></font><h1><font size=4><b>The Beautiful Game, A Beautiful Cause: Why
I Root for Argentina</b></font></h1><font size=3>Dave Zirin | June 28,
2010<br><br>
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 <br><br>
As Dan Wetzel of yahoo sports
<a href="http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/were-all-living-in-maradonas-world-cup--fbintl_dw-maradona062710.html">
described Coach Maradona</a> [1], <i>“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.”<br><br>
</i>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
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o">"Hand of
God."</a> [2]<br><br>
Maradona's brilliance inspired Eduardo Galeano to write, <i>“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.”<br><br>
</i>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.<br><br>
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
<i>desaparecidos</i>the people forever imprisoned or disappeared by the
military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla - during
Argentina’s<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War"> Dirty War
</a>[3]of 1976-1983.<br><br>
At a training session in South Africa, the entire Argentine team
<a href="http://www.harpyness.com/2010/06/21/activism-at-the-world-cup/">
unfurled a banner</a> [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
<a href="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 - </a>[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.<br><br>
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!<br>
<hr>
<b>Source URL:</b>
<a href="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</a>
<br><br>
<b>Links:<br>
</b>[1]
<a href="http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/were-all-living-in-maradonas-world-cup--fbintl_dw-maradona062710.html" eudora="autourl">
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/were-all-living-in-maradonas-world-cup--fbintl_dw-maradona062710.html<br>
</a>[2]
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o" eudora="autourl">
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o<br>
</a>[3]
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War<br>
</a>[4]
<a href="http://www.harpyness.com/2010/06/21/activism-at-the-world-cup/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.harpyness.com/2010/06/21/activism-at-the-world-cup/<br>
</a>[5]
<a href="http://www.mx.terra.com/futbol/mundial/2010/noticias/0,,OI4496306-EI14432,00-En" eudora="autourl">
http://www.mx.terra.com/futbol/mundial/2010/noticias/0,,OI4496306-EI14432,00-En</a>
entrenamiento Maradona homenajea a Abuelas de Plaza de
Mayo.html<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>