The World Loves Soccer -- On the Tube, Under a Bridge

3/9/2012

I don’t know any other sport so beloved by the people who play it, or the people who watch it.

Even we grumps in the press tribune appreciate the possibilities, buy into the mystique of joga bonito, the beautiful sport.

Everybody in the stadium understands that at any given moment something amazing can happen, out of nothing.

I don’t know any other sport like that. I mean, in American football or basketball or baseball, people expect touchdowns or dunks or home runs.

In world football, you just never know. There is always the possibility of being surprised. Turn away and you will be sorry. Arrive late and you will hate yourself.

(This is why I screamed at some idiot chauffeur who stepped in front of reporters during a goal in the 1998 World Cup semifinal in Marseilles; all I could see was the back of his stupid cap.)

When something gorgeous happens, players and fans and even writers like myself shake their heads and say, yes, that is football.

For me, it happened four times in the past week – twice on the television, once on the web, and once on a cold, damp Sunday morning under a bridge in New York.

1. Let’s take the Champions League first. Arsenal needed to erase a four-goal deficit in the home leg against AC Milan on Tuesday. I couldn’t get to the tube until the second half, by which time Arsenal had scored three times. What I saw next was 30 of the most furious minutes of soccer – the best players in the world stretching to keep up with each other, Arsenal at home, frantic, attacking while they still had juice in their legs, forcing Milan to get back, make desperate dives and lunges, and then daring Milan to go on the counter-attack. It was breathtaking to watch these players test each other.

Ultimately, Robin Van Persie missed a gimme in goal mouth, and AC Milan was able to stagger home with a 4-3 aggregate victory. But what an effort. And that is the essence of the sport. We are all drama critics or dance critics, every bloke and blokette in the stands. We have high standards. And both sides earned our respect that day.

2. The next day was Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen. Lionel Messi made it totally irrelevant with two goals in the first half – and three more in the second half – for a 7-1 aggregate victory. All right, the little feller is the best player in the world, no point going over that. But with all due respect, Messi is also the hit man for the most beautiful soccer being played on this planet.

Forget about uniforms and faces and numbers; the style of Barcelona is interchangeable with the World Cup champion, Spain. That is not news, since many of them are the same players. Because they play together so often, to watch Barça move the ball is to watch the Bolshoi Ballet, choreography at the highest. They have been playing this way so long in this generation that it no longer requires thinking.
American fans observe Our Lads pausing, deliberating whether their teammate will actually be there if they propel the ball into that open space, but the Barça players know. Human pinball. Thump. Off Pique’s instep. Plock. Off Iniesta’s chest. Ping. Off Xavi’s toes. And there goes Messi, chipping home a goal at full stride.

3. Sometimes the brilliance arrives via the Web, the whole world taking pride in what somebody did on some other continent. On Wednesday, Neymar, the 20-year-old prodigy for Santos of Brazil, took off on a spontaneous run that must have been 70 meters long, a mixture of Olympic sprint and tailback initiative. The difference was that nobody called his play or directed him to the starting blocks. The ball arrived in his vicinity and Neymar took off, just to see if anybody could keep up with him. He shed defenders as he pushed the ball, and then he split two more defenders, muscling them at high speed, before beating the keeper on the run. Joga bonito in its home country.

Two questions: when will Neymar move to Europe? (Three questions, really; might Champions League defenses slow him down?) And might Neymar help win a World Cup at home in 2014 – before Messi ever wins one? That kind of speculation was on everybody’s mind as the whole world watched the video of Neymar’s run.

4. People love the sport on every level. On Sunday morning I went to watch my grand-daughter play for a very good and well-drilled squad from central Pennsylvania, in an early-bird outdoor tournament in New York.

The games were played on multiple fields on Randall's Island under the bridge that, with all due respect to Robert F. Kennedy, I plan to continue to call the Triborough Bridge. (For the same reason, the Jackie Robinson Parkway, re-named for another hero, will always be the Inta-Boro, in New York-ese.)

The other team in the Under-12 competition was from World Class FC. I know nothing about youth soccer, but then again, this was not youth soccer, this was joga bonito. The New York team swung the ball wide, tested the defenses, swung it to the other side, and attacked. Welcome to Fun City.

Sometimes routs can be instructive. World Class was so, well, so world-class that it could probe defenses on the run. At the age of twelve.

They were all good, but No. 10 would deliver the ball to the right to No. 4, who could turn the corner on anybody, on the run. Or somebody would find No. 13 on a fleet diagonal near the goal. It was a treat to watch, although probably not for my grand-daughter who held her own in midfield. (At one point she flat-out got annoyed at the proceedings and physically stripped the ball the way Michelle Akers used to do.) I think the score was 4-0. World Class was so smart, alert and clean. At the end we applauded both sides, in the best fashion of youth soccer, and I felt the need to personally tell the families from World Class that their team is terrific.

That’s the way we feel about world football – from Europe or Latin America or under the Triborough. It’s our sport, and when it is played well, we appreciate it. I don’t know any other sport that inspires this possessiveness, this sense of pride.

Warmup Under the Triborough Before Joga Bonito -- Photo by Peter Wilson

Steve Hoffman link

3/9/2012 04:53:47 am

George,
I love the way you write about soccer. I wish more American sportswriters could appreciate the game as you do. I hope The Times is going to let you weigh in on the Euros this summer (and the World Cup in 2014). I look forward to it.

George Vecsey

3/9/2012 05:22:17 am

Thanks so much for the nice thought. I did the R-thing last December and don't know of any plans, but hope to be in Brazil somehow. If only for the music.
Best
GV

Hansen Alexander

3/9/2012 08:40:24 am

Absolutely delightful, Nobody writes better about world football, as you so aptly coined it.

Tom Schwarz link

3/10/2012 12:37:18 am

One single moment of brilliance can determine a game in which the opponent totally dominates the run of play. Unless its Messi and then it can be a number of them. God I love it when you write about the game! AND I love that you congratulated your grand daughter's opponent.
Peace, my man!

Michael Scappator

3/11/2012 10:32:29 am

I miss your writing in the NYT. You really do capture the essence of football. Glad I caught someone’s tweet with a link to this site. All the best George.

Alan Rubin

3/13/2012 09:59:16 am

It is always difficult to compare sports stars from different generations. The impressions of our youth often influences who we consider the best player, as if there can actually be one best.

There was an International summer Soccer League in the US about 1960 that consisted of international teams that were on off season tours. The final was between Santos of Brazil and Bromley of England. Santos played the "beautiful game" style that it was famous for, but the highlight for me was seeing Pele score on a bicycle kick from about 20 yards out with his back to the goal. The goalie never moved and it took the crown several moments to react. I was fortunate to have been behind the goal.

It was also a classic clash of styles as Bromley played the typical English style of the time by booming the ball down field and having the wingers run like crazy.

I saw Pele play his first Cosmo's game in 1975 at Randall's Island's Downing Stadium, now the renovated Icahn Stadium. I went with my twelve year old son on a school night so he could see him play. He still talks about our being the only English speaking people there.

Pele and Messi were completely different players. Messi has the ability to blast both through and around defenders while maintaining he balance. Pele was a tremendous field general who had a great sense of the field of play.

I enjoyed Pele for what he was just I enjoy Messi for what he is-fantastic soccer stars.

Andy Tansey

3/22/2012 11:55:31 pm

Mr. Vecsey, this one hits me at multiple levels, especially the most local, as a very recent former soccer dad/coach/ref. Neat how your holding midfielder played where the (perhaps) first Supergalacticos played! I miss the GU-12/13s, among the most enjoyable soccer spirit I have experienced - all intensity on the pitch, and all smiles in touch, the parking lot and beyond.

Having seen one of mine who had the misfortune of being coached (and reffed! - hey, if the assigned ref's a no-show and you're there with your kit . . .) by her dad develop into an Arsenal supporter (a "Gooner") as I have developed a fondness for Spurs, the near come-back was psychologically challenging. It reminded me of being a 10-year-old Yankee fan growing up in a Flushing ZIP code in 1969. At one level resenting having to root for Milan, at another charmed by RVP's "he-scores-when-he-wants" effectiveness, I felt guilt at my enthrallment. There is no greater connector than soccer, and I am glad I can still enjoy the way you bring those connections together - from Barcelona to the Intaboro.

Now, if they decided to change the name of the Grand Central to Peachtree Parkway, that'd be something!

Ever respectfully,
Andy

George Vecsey

3/25/2012 02:54:39 pm

Andy, let 'em try changing that name. My aging self would be in the streets to protest.
That was the first large-scale tournament I';ve seen. I kept looking around at the older boys and girls -- so cool to see the depth of soccer in the region.
You rooted for the Yankees in Flushing in 1969? What for?
GV

gabriel

6/9/2012 05:06:45 pm

was it true that people could watch ny cosmos game from outside of the downing stadium?

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

The World Loves Soccer -- On the Tube, Under a Bridge

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