The World according to Galeano and his catalog of unusual. Great!
Pacho Maturana, Colombia, a man of vast experience in these conflicts, said that soccer is a magical realm where anything can happen.
The recent World has confirmed his words, was a strange World.
• Unusual were the 10 stadiums where they played, beautiful, huge, which cost a fortune. No one knows how South Africa will maintain active giants cement waste billionaire easy to explain but difficult to justify, in one of the most unequal countries in the world.
• Unusual was the Adidas ball, soapy, half mad, who fled from the hands and feet disobeyed. The Jabulani that was imposed, but the players did not like one bit. From his castle in Zurich, the masters of soccer imposed, not propose. They are accustomed.
• Unusual was that at last the powerful bureaucracy of the FIFA recognized, at least after so many years, which would have to consider how to assist the referees in the decisive plays. Not much, but it's something. It was time. Until these voluntary deaf deafness had to listen to the cries triggered by the mistakes of some referees, who in the last game became horrors. Why do we have to look at the television screen what the referees did not see and perhaps could not see? Cries of common sense: almost all sports, basketball, tennis, baseball and even fencing and racing cars, normally use modern technology to be sure. Soccer, no. The arbitrators are authorized to consult an old invention called clock to measure the length of matches and time to be discounted, but is forbidden to go there. And the official reason would be comical if it were simply suspicious: the error is part of the game, they say, and leave us speechless discovering that Errare humanum est .
• Unusual was the first African World Cup in the history of football ran out of African countries, including the host, in the early stages. Ghana survived only until his selection was beaten by Uruguay in the most exciting match of the tournament.
• Unusual was that most African teams mantuvieran viva su agilidad, pero perdieran desparpajo y fantasía. Mucho corrieron, pero poco bailaron. Hay quienes creen que los directores técnicos de las selecciones, casi todos europeos, contribuyeron a este enfriamiento. Si así fuera, flaco favor han hecho a un futbol que tanta alegría prometía. África sacrificó sus virtudes en nombre de la eficacia, y la eficacia brilló por su ausencia.
• Insólito fue que algunos jugadores africanos pudieran lucirse, ellos sí, pero en las selecciones europeas. Cuando Ghana jugó contra Alemania se enfrentaron dos hermanos negros, los hermanos Boateng: uno llevaba la camiseta de Ghana y el otro la de Alemania.
De los jugadores de la selección de Ghana, ninguno jugaba en el campeonato local de Ghana.
De los jugadores de la selección de Alemania, todos jugaban en el campeonato local de Alemania.
Como América Latina, África exporta mano de obra y pie de obra.
• Insólita fue la mejor atajada del torneo. No fue obra de un golero, sino de un goleador. El atacante uruguayo Luis Suárez detuvo con las dos manos, en la línea del gol, una pelota que hubiera dejado a su país fuera de la Copa. Y gracias a ese acto de patriótica locura, él fue expulsado, pero Uruguay no.
• Insólito fue el viaje de Uruguay, desde los abajos hasta los arribas. Nuestro país, que había entrado al Mundial in last place, just barely, after a difficult qualifying, played with dignity, without giving up ever, and became one of the best. Some cardiologists warned us from the press, the excess of happiness may be hazardous to health. Many Uruguayans, who seemed doomed to die of boredom, we held that risk, and the streets of the country were a party. At the end of the right to celebrate their own merits is always preferable to the pleasure that some feel for the misery of others.
finished ranking fourth, which is not bad for the only country that could prevent this World Cup ended up being nothing more than a Euro. And it was not Diego Forlan accident that was voted player of the tournament.
• Unusual was the champion and former World Championship runner-up went home without opening the bags.
In 2006, Italy and France had met in the final. Now found in the airport departure gate. In Italy, multiplied critics of football played to prevent the rival plays. In France, the disaster caused a political crisis and on to the furies of racism, because they were black almost all the players who sang the Marseillaise in South Africa.
Other favorites, like England, does not last long. Brazil and Argentina suffered baths cruel humility. Half a century earlier, the Argentina had received a shower of coins while returning from a disastrous World, but this time was welcomed by a crowd that believes in embracing the most important things that the success or failure.
• Unusual was that missing the appointment announced the superstars, and more expected. Lionel Messi wanted to be, did what he could, and saw something. And they say that Cristiano Ronaldo was, but nobody saw him: perhaps he was too busy to be seen.
• Unusual was that a new star, unexpectedly emerge from the depths of the seas and rise to the top of the footballing firmament. It is a live octopus in an aquarium in Germany, from where he formulates his prophecies. His name is Paul, but could be called Pulpodamus.
Before each World Cup match, gave him a choice of mussels carrying the flags of the two rivals. He ate the mussels of the victor, and he was right. The oracle octopod
decisive influence on betting, was heard in the world with religious reverence, was hated and loved, and even maligned by some felt to me that we came to suspect, without proof, that the octopus was corrupt.
• Unusual was that the tournament finally see justice done, which is rare in football or in life.
Spain won for the first time the soccer championship.
waiting almost a century.
Octopus had announced, and Spain denied my suspicions: he won in good faith, was the best team in the tournament, by the grace of his football solidarity, one for all, all for one, and also by the amazing skills that little wizard named Andres Iniesta.
He proves that sometimes, in the magical realm of football, there is justice.
* * *
When the World began in the door of my house hung a sign that read: Closed for football.
When I took it down, a month after I had already played 64 games, beer in hand, without moving from my favorite chair. That feat
fried left me, the muscles hurt, broken throat, but I'm already feeling nostalgic.
'm beginning to miss the unbearable litany of vuvuzelas, the excitement of the goals are not suitable for heart, the beauty of the best plays repeatedly in slow motion. And celebration and mourning, because sometimes football is a joy that hurts, and music that celebrates a victory of those who make the dead dance sounds very close to the resounding silence of the empty stadium, where night has fallen and a follow up sitting alone, unable to move, in the midst of the immense no one stands.
Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer
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