Baby Don't Cry
Here's how lame I am:
A while ago I mentioned that I like to see people win. It's true, even as I'm the guy that can construct a nice taunt, I'll also cheer for you. I like competition, I like trying, and as much as I like winning, I like good play. It makes me feel good.
Gator Ade has a new commercial out promoting Team USA, or you could say honoring Team USA, for qualifying for the World Cup Finals. It's a montage that condenses what I enjoy about sports, soccer especially. My face gets flush just writing about it...
Why am I writing about it? You can watch it-
Anyway, I get farklempt watching it. I know that's a bit lame. But how about something a bit more lame?
ESPN is running World Cup promos narrated by Bono, the Edge, and the One I Didn't Know Talked. Two of them during the UEFA Cup yesterday made me cry. Eating lunch with Cyndi, I tried to tell her about the comercials and how goofy I am, I cried.
The one that really gets me is about the Ivory Coast. This is their first time qualifying for the World Cup Finals and it occurred in the midst of ongoing hostilities between Muslims and Christians with a team composed of, strangely enough, Muslims and Christians.
So Bono narrates this commercial, giving a very brief overview of their conflict, images of war, tension, and suspicion set the tone. Then we see that it's not an angry mob at all. The team passes through this crowd gathered to see them off, people are waving their Nation's flag and colors rather than party banners- fighting becomes dancing, crying becomes singing and all that. Their team has done what leaders couldn't do, and the commercial is set to the intro of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Peace and Sport- good grief what a set up.
You can laugh if you'd like, Cyndi did.
Of course it's an idealized snapshot. The 30 second or so narrative doesn't capture everything. But I cried. 'Cos I'm a baby, and because it's true. Things are still tenuous in Ivory Coast but there are also stories like this:
-Kone and Oulai live near each other in a poor neighbourhood in the main government-held city of Abidjan. Kone says he warned his relatives to avoid their neighbour - until the Elephants qualified last year for the 2006 World Cup.
"Everyone was exultant. Oulai ran into my house and he yelled 'We won!' We spoke for the first time since the war began, thanks to the Elephants," Kone says.-
How's that for maudlin, heart-string manipulating, treacle? And as united as people might be behind their Elephants, I bet you wouldn't want to be in Abidjan if you were from Sudan or Cameroon. Still, sometimes, this is what I'm looking for-
Just those moments.
2 comments:
I watched it. It seems "we" were getting a feel for each other 'til the final 20 minutes or so. That's when play seemed to match the talent on the "pitch" a bit more. Morocco came out ready to play and kept up a good pace throughout the match. Team USA easily matched that, even with sloppy play. When "we" picked it up they were on their heels and Jarmouni had to work a bit more than a goalie likes.
It was a bad defensive move that gave Morocco the ball for an easy text book cross and shot. Cherundolo should have put the ball out. I don't know if that was just a simple mistake or shows we lack the instincts necessary for better play in some key areas. They didn't wear us out though- we played better at the end than the beginning. We gave it away; we lost more than we were beaten.
I don't think it was necessary to win this match, but it was important to see how we play against a good beatable team that really wants to win. I would have had a different run up schedule- especially if we're playing our friendlies here. While I think we should've been in Germany to play against qualifying teams, in this scenario, I think we should have played the best team second and had a priming game first.
Oh- and I didn't cry watching the first one. I just got a little throat lumpy from th GatorAde commercial. It was the ESPN commercial that made me cry.
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