There’s a reason the FIFA World Cup is called the greatest show on earth! There is nothing else that brings the entire world together in unity and division both at the same time like the FIFA World Cup.
Nobody does it better! (If you know, you know 😉😂)
I had a friend in school, one of my earliest and very few ones whom I could call a friend even after all these years. Of the many things we talked about, one thing we had in common was we were both crazy about Argentina football team. Yeah, we've been supporting Argentina even before Messi arrived! Naturally, as all Argentina fans, we learned it takes a lot of courage and acceptance of suffering to be a football fan. And we learned it together. We went through the pain of a first round exit in 2002. We went through the pain of a heartbreaking tiebreaker loss to Germany in 2006 when it seemed we had the win in the bag. We bonded so much over this one thing, it is insane!
And then one day out of the blue, that dick just left the country for good and migrated to the United States. I don’t think I have still forgiven him for that. We caught up a few years later when he returned to visit, but as life happened the visits got less frequent, the chats were lesser. It breaks my heart that the last we spoke was 8 years ago.
And then as I was jumping all over our living room with the entire family last sunday as Montiel placed his penalty perfectly behind Hugo Loris, my phone buzzed! It was him! After 8 long years - Argentina's win brought us together again, the world cup brought us together again!
This is what sports is capable of doing. I sometimes get tired of watching all the pinching and poking of rival fans, be it Barcelona and Real Madrid, be it Argentina and Brazil, be it Messi and Ronaldo, be it Maradona and Pele - it just gets tiresome sometimes. And then one day out of the blue I will remember those days we were not even into our teens when my friend and I would fend off the hungry hyenas in a fierce fight of logic to defend the team we were so emotionally attached to. And then it all makes sense. There is indeed a very fine line between love and hate. But one thing both sides have in common is the passion. And it is this passion that brings the world to a stop, all at the same moment in time.
This is why it is The greatest show on earth! Nobody does it better! 😉
