![all creatures [great and small] by allcreatures](http://24.media.tumblr.com/avatar_827f13ebf9f5_40.gif){kind=avatar}
Football in Harlem on Flickr.
“In the small confined spaces, you had to find ways out.” - Andrés Iniesta
Constriction forces creativity.
Constriction forces you to be more creative:
futebol de salão:
This insanely fast, tightly compressed five-on-five version of the game— played on a field the size of a basketball court— creates 600 percent more touches, demands instant pattern recognition and, in the words of Emilio Miranda, a professor of soccer at the University of São Paulo, serves as Brazil’s “laboratory of improvisation.”
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” - Pele.
Soccer, like figure skating, demands art as much as sport. This is not baseball, where numbers mean so much that they seem to carry a moral weight. Soccer’s beauty is that it surpasses mathematics, or, in Barcelona’s case, conjures a sublime human geometry of triangular passing and movement.
Basketball, American football, baseball; all these sports stop and go. They were organized for marketing advertisements in between.
The beauty of soccer is the uninterrupted constant state of flow, mixed in with tactics and precision skill and timing. It’s not something to be explained. You just have to watch.
I rather play for a bad team that has fun than a good team you don’t enjoy playing for.
They lost 55-0.
Sculpture: Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi at the Pompidou Centre
(via Matt Barker)
Reversing Global Interests
The Internet introduces people to new stuff they wouldn’t have normally found or liked.
One case and point is soccer, often joked among Americans as a “Communist” sport. But soccer is now the second most popular sport for 12-24 year olds in the US. This didn’t happen naturally.
The combination of early addictive video games like FIFA and television broadcasts laid the groundwork. But now social media is spreading the game rapidly, converting more Americans into soccer fanatics every year.
New adoption for anything requires both education and awareness. Every American is connected to someone outside the United States. It’s impossible to ignore the banter of a trend in the Facebook and Twitter from people overseas. Soccer is one of those constant trends.
The reverse is also true. More Europeans are getting interested in American football and baseball.
Social media is knocking the walls down on a diversity of interests, turning niche interests into global communities. The same phenomena is happening in music, whereby Electronica is now mainstream in America.
Sharing similar interests can only be a good thing for world culture. We can make easier connections and understand each other better. The Internet has made people more open and less myopic.
Zoom
Info
Now this should be the US Men’s Soccer Jersey.
Textile footballs made from wool fabrics
There should be one made to match the personality of every country. That’s an idea for Seth Blatter, World Cup 2014 Brazil.
Fascinating read on Arsenal star and Premiership MVP Robin Van Persie.
There are various references in the article to Van Persie’s admiration for artful passing, clearly influenced by his father whom was a real artist. His two favorites passers were Dennis Bergkamp, his idol and Cesc Fabregas, a former teammate.
On Bergkamp:
Passing in really hard, receiving the ball, bouncing it back at once – so beautiful. I thought it was art.
On Fabregas:
He always thinks two seconds ahead.
As an Arsenal fan losing Van Persie’s own artful goals would clearly be a big loss. I don’t know who’s going to replace him.
Social Media and the World Cup
There’s a fascinating change happening in the United States, more Americans are watching soccer than ever. Note: and it’s not because they suddenly like the sport.
I have witnessed the bizarre growth myself. Before Facebook and Twitter, my friends and family knew nothing about the Champions League or the World Cup.
But these social tools make it impossible to ignore chatter. And the other outlets like TV, radio, and print, pick up what the social networks are saying. This spreads the word to the non-active web person, piquing interest.
Furthermore, there are three main reasons soccer is grabbing attention:
- Twitter and Facebook are global. Americans are connected to the world without leaving their seats.
- Social media exposure converts passive listeners into active watchers.
- Significant influencers (those whom have a big following on Twitter/Facebook) are spreading the news.
I would compare this marketing moment to Michael Jordan’s huge building billboard in Barcelona in 1992. That’s when the US spread its soft power using corporations as the backbone for promoting American idols. In other words, 1992 is when GLOBALIZATION hit the world stage, run and managed by marketing dollars of US companies.
Social networks, particularly Twitter and it’s growing base ex-US, is like Globalization 2.0. Twitter users are connected to friends, celebrities, and politicians. One tweet about the World Cup from Obama for example, drove Americans and non-Americans to their TVs. It’s the patriotic and “global” thing to do.
Let’s face it. Social media compelled us to watch the Women’s World Cup. Apparently there were 7,196 tweets per second during the game. This spreadability didn’t exist in 1999, when the US Women won the World Cup.
Thanks to social media, people are more educated about global events. Now, more Americans “know of” world soccer stars; it’s not just about David Beckham.
Social media is galvanizing new interest in soccer. However, there’s no telling if awareness for the sport will convert Americans into soccer players. It’s only then that we begin to see the real conversion.
