By Shevlin Sebastian
COLUMN: Tunnel Of Time
When Uruguay, the last South American side, went out of the 2010 World Cup, our hearts were truly broken. It was going to be an all-European final on Sunday: Spain Vs Holland. Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Ghana: by losing they made us bleed. Why do we Indians root for these countries? It is primarily because their football is free-flowing and magical.
When Lionel Messi of Argentina is given the space to move around, his ball control is dazzling. The 'zero angle' goal that Brazilian right-back Maicon scored against North Korea was breathtaking.
There is a joy which one experiences in the face of such wonderful skills, shown especially by the South Americans. Then you remember the tough backgrounds that most of them came from. Argentine forward, Carlos Tevez, like the great Diego Maradona, grew up in a crime-ridden neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. Both surmounted formidable hurdles to make a mark on the international stage.
On the other hand, look at the Europeans. Many European nations have excellent football academies, top-notch coaches, and some of the richest domestic leagues in the world. They enjoy advantages that footballers in poorer nations do not.
During the quarter-final between Argentina and Germany, at Cape Town, we saw how the free-flowing creative skills of the South Americans were stymied by clever strategy, and the indomitable willpower of the Europeans.
This match created a moment of introspection. Should we follow the Eastern way, of treating life like a river and going along with the flow, which is what the late spiritual leader Osho had suggested, or should we follow the European method: have aims and goals, plan your strategies, and be ruthless.
A football match is also a metaphor for our daily lives. You are moving in society, showing good skills, but there are people lurking about, at the side, in front, and at the back, who are ready to trip you. You dribble past one, two, and even three adversaries, but it is inevitable that you will get tripped and fall. But you stand up again, and the attempts at tripping continue. Sometimes, those who do the ‘paara’ (Malayalam word for tripping) are exposed. They are shown the red card, and asked to leave the field.
But the dilemma continues: what does one do when faced with non-stop aggression? Keep calm and work your way around the antagonist? Or kick back at the foe and risk the danger of getting a yellow or a red card?
There are no clear-cut answers because life is messy, just as when a player moves forward with the ball, he faces messy situations. But here is how author George Orwell analysed the game of football, and, in an indirect way, life: “Sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is War Minus The Shooting!”
(Published in The New Indian Express, Kerala, on July 10, 2010)
