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Beautiful. I told myself I wasn’t going to write anything personal about the FIFA World Cup even though I had, in fact, been counting down the days to June 11, 2010 for a good while. Yet I couldn’t help it, but this time it’s not about my beloved Mexican team’s performance, rules or officials; it’s not about what the game is, but what the game does.
The World Cup is what everybody is talking about, and one can pretty much pick up a conversation with anyone, anywhere by asking if they saw the morning’s game. The morning’s game. I haven’t seen so many people wake up before 7 a.m. for so many days straight.
Some have a favorite team they follow religiously, others always root for the winning team, we have the ones that go for the underdogs, and some others that follow all matches just for the love of the game. But everybody’s watching, and no one wants to be left out.
As I already said, I follow Mexico. Religiously? Maybe. After three games I feel like the number of people I’ve felt connected with has increased match by match. I saw the first game with my regular crowd. Then, the crowd was invited to a friend’s house for the second one (yes, when we beat France).
It was nice to watch the game with a family that stopped its regular routine to check it out, just like mine does. This family adopted six individuals with green shirts for two hours and even invited us to barbecue after the match, just like mine would do. See the connection?
I had to watch part of the third game at the Student Union Theater because I decided not to miss class as I am a woman of faith, I said, and will save my absences for the “big games.” Well, I couldn’t find a seat and once I was settled I shared the game’s emotions with about 200 people. I, again, felt connected.
But most importantly, over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed the relationship between fans of different teams has increased. So if you like the U.S. you have to hate Mexico and vice versa, right? I thought so too.
I’ve seen American people express their solidarity with Mexico fans; things don’t always have to be hostile between parties and Fair Play goes beyond the playing field, crosses barriers and can strengthen bonds between people when they truthfully hope for the best to win.
I can just imagine how different the world would be if relationships between disparate groups were as simple to fix, and if there was a factor that could bring people together globally for longer than one month…forever. For now, I’m just happy to have proven what the late John Paul II once said, that “amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important.”
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