The most beautiful game is currently run by the ugliest of men

Rodrigo S-C reminds us that the Men’s Soccer World Cup begins tomorrow and interrogates our interest in it. On an upward scale of 1–10, mine registers 11. However, it’s not that simple.

If Donald Trump did not have his small hands over everything happening in this beautiful country and world, my engagement would be 15.

Sadly, and I mean very, very sadly, if there is one institution more corrupt than the Trump Family mafia running my country, it is the Gianni Infantino-led Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). If you want proof, here is Infantino awarding Trump the first FIFA Peace Prize last December. Truly, it could have been a Saturday Live skit. If it weren’t so pitiful, it would be funny.

What dilutes the stench left by the dirty hands of the elites currently running my country and the Men’s World Soccer Organization is that this year’s version is hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the USA.

So, for the first time in my life, I have a ticket for one of the 104 matches. How many quadrennial events does a 77-year-old man have left? My game, a quarter-final match, will be played on July 11 at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the American football team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Sorry, faithful Medium readers. I don’t usually begin my stories with a rant. It’s unseemly and self-indulgent, so I’ll now get to the point of why I’ve grown to love what Brazilian star Pelé called “the most beautiful game,” a game that, on the pitch, between the goals, can’t be debased by the frailties of the humans currently running our institutions.

Soccer and Me

It was the fall of 1966, my senior year of high school. In our first gym class, Mr. Kemp brought this funny colored ball into the gymnasium. He told us he had spent the summer in England learning a new game, soccer. What I didn’t know at the time was that that summer, the English men’s team had also won the World Cup, its only first-place finish to date.

Coach Kemp taught us the rudimentary rules of the game, and for a few classes, we kicked the ball around.

That was my only exposure to soccer until my family and I spent a year in England in 1999. By that time, the popularity of soccer had been spreading across America for two decades. Two of my nieces played the game in college. My son Ben had played on youth soccer teams. But I didn’t really understand the game until I started watching it on TV in England.

I grew to love the buildup to a shot on goal by athletes, many of whom were no bigger than my 5-foot-7 frame. The overhead camera angles captured the ballet-like synchronized movement of the 11-member teams as they reacted to one another. And it seemed that the nature of the game, with so little scoring, favored the underdog team, which fit into my anti-bully worldview and, perhaps, justifies my bit of petulance toward the strong-arming of Trump and Infantino.

The 1999 Women’s World Cup, hosted and won by the United States, was my first international soccer experience on TV. In addition to the games, I loved the idea of national teams competing against each other without casualties.

For the last quarter-century, my TV sports viewing has been confined to the international men’s and women’s football competitions every four years. I grew up playing and watching American baseball and basketball.

I still love those games and how each has internationalized as well. But I don’t watch the games, except for my home state of Iowa’s most famous athlete, Caitlin Clark, and her Indiana Fever professional team.

Mostly, it’s soccer, soccer, and more soccer.

Donald Trump corrupts everything he touches, but not this most beautiful game. Like the Papacy and its current occupant, some earthly things are beyond his grubby claws.

Goal!!!!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rodrigo asks which of the 48 national teams we think will win. My long-long-shot choice is Senegal.

My long-shot selection is Mexico.

The experts pick Spain or France. My guess is France.