When I was in college I was in an amazing class called "arts of oral presentation" which sounds extremely sexual but was actually just a class about giving speeches. You had to get up in front of the class and give four speeches. One was a story, one was explaining how to do something, one was something else (that I can't think of) and one was persuasive.
The day that I was supposed to give my persuasive speech I was lying hungover in my bed and thinking, "F*#@, I really should have prepared something, seeing as how class is in 15 minutes!"
I had pretty much convinced myself that I was going to skip class but then I looked up and saw my photo of Zidane on my wall. Zidane is a French player who was one of the best players in the world and who became a bit infamous for headbutting a player in a game.
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITdPTKpGHuI
To be fair, however, that player was talking smack about Zidane's mom.
Anywho, since we need to have some sort of visual aid for our speech, I ripped the poster off my wall and brought it with me to class.
Then I gave a speech about why soccer is the best sport in the world. It was a hard sell seeing as how most of my class was made of football and frisbee players.
And I don't know that it is necessarily true. Comparing the different sports is like comparing apples and oranges. And I can understand why some people don't love it and find it boring. Especially with this World Cup where the players are apparently going for the Best Actor award. And I don't imagine that people who don't play soccer would enjoy watching it that much because they wouldn't realize how difficult some of the things that the players do actually are. The players make it look quite simple. I heard a statistic that professional soccer players run an average of 13 miles per game! And a lot of that is sprinting!
There are many reasons to love or hate soccer. But some of the reasons that I gave as to why it was the best sport were that A) anyone can play, even if you aren't amazingly skilled. People obviously get better as they get older, but little kids can have fun playing it too. B) You don't need a ton of equipment. Mainly just a ball. And people in really poor countries tie rags together to form a ball. The goals of most pick-up games are made by putting some bags on the ground to mark the spot. C) It is a universal sport and therefore most people already know how to play. You can't just go to some foreign country and start a pick-up game of baseball or basketball (though that is changing more and more) with people that you don't speak the same language as.
I think this last reason is one of my main reasons that I do love soccer. I was able to kick the ball around with people in France, Italy and Greece, even though I couldn't talk to them. And that was a really special and fun time for me.
Today, for my workout I decided to go to the park and kick around a soccer ball. It is somehow easier for me to run when I am chasing a ball.
This little ten year-old kid came out onto the field. His sister was with him but wasn't playing with him.
My town is right next to the ghetto in Chicago. So lots of people from the ghetto come to the park where I work out at. They don't have safe, clean places to play, so they come here.
The kid does his own thing for a while and then makes his way over towards me. I asked him why his sister wasn't playing with him. He told me that she finds it dull. He seemed sad. So I got in goal and let him take shots on me. Then we switched spots.
It didn't require any real talking. I never even learned his name. But we were having fun. And that's what a sport is supposed to be about. And that's why I love it.
Fantastic post, Nik.
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