The World Cup's Drawback

For weeks now I have been excited for the World Cup to start. Like the Olympics, I love the World Cup as a cultural event that pulls the world together and brings out each nation's normally dormant national pride. Most of all I love the World Cup because it is a time when my beloved Brazil becomes a global powerhouse, the envy of the world.

This morning I tuned in early to catch some of the festivities before the opening game. It was stirring and the energy inside the stadium was electric (especially with the constant blare of those consummately annoying vuvuzelas). It was an exciting build-up, but then the game started and I realized that for me the World Cup has just one drawback: it's soccer.

If I had been raised in any other spot on the globe besides the United States, I'm sure I would find televised soccer (er... football) to be riveting. However, as an American I find it to be quite dull. This Simpsons clip captures the general American reaction to soccer perfectly:



I believe that there are a variety of reasons that most of America doesn't care about soccer, such as the minimal amount of scoring (earlier in the same Simpsons episode, the TV commercials for the game boast that soccer games often end with such exciting final scores as 0-1 and 0-0!). But I don't think that's why I can't get into soccer. Intellectually I can appreciate the buildup of tension as the two sides engage in a back-and-forth battle for even a slight advantage to exploit, leading to the cathartic burst of a goal. But in real life I just don't get sucked into the action. Watching the first few minutes of this South Africa-Mexico game I've realized that my problem may lie in the way soccer games are filmed.

Watching a game like basketball, where the cameras and the crowd are literally a few feet from the action, you can really appreciate the abilities and body language of the players, and the momentum shifts and story of the game are instantly apparent as the game unfolds. In the case of soccer, the players are so spread out and they routinely kick the ball half the length of the field, so out of necessity the default camera angle must be a wide aerial shot. I feel that the distant vantage point renders the game incredibly arid and impersonal, making it difficult for a soccer novice like me to even follow the narrative of the game, let alone appreciate the beauty and subtlety in the footwork and ball-handling of these world-class athletes.

Having said that, I love watching soccer highlights, mostly because they show the action from better angles and I get to see the game's crucial moments up close. Case in point: as I typed the previous paragraph, a South African player broke away and charged down the field for a goal. It was mildly exciting in the real-time aerial shot, but when they showed replays from various closer angles, it was truly impressive - a perfectly placed shot in the upper right corner of the goal.

So I guess my main reservation about soccer (the camera angles) isn't one that can be easily solved. Hopefully as the World Cup progresses I will begin to grasp the nuances of soccer despite the bird's-eye view. Besides, the sport of baseball proves that you can have all the close-ups and fancy camera angles in the world and still be mind-numbingly boring. (I wanted to bookend this post with another Simpsons clip, but couldn't find the bit where Homer realizes that baseball is unbearably boring without beer. Try to imagine it yourself.)

In summary, GO BRAZIL!!!