Football - The Magic That Unites The World
Thursday, May 4, 2023
Football!! The most popular word in everybody’s mouth. Wins, loses, misses, penalties, free kicks, and all those terms have been springing in and out of the tongues of every passionate football fan, including me. Actually, football originated way back in 2500 B.C, when the Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Romans, played games involving a ball and a foot. The Chinese game called Tsu-chu meaning ‘kicking the ball’ is very similar to modern day football. But modern-day football was invented in England when people started playing ‘folk football’ and it finally evolved into how we play football. ‘Soccer or football’ is actually a very hilarious debate between Europe and America. Americans prefer to call soccer, while Europeans prefer it to be called as football, in either way you are literally playing the same game.
This world cup has witnessed a very successful and expensive one, which the world had never predicted that a tiny, Arab, desert country can host such a prestigious and famous tournament. When Qatar was awarded the task of hosting the 2022 FIFA world cup, the entire world was surprised and believed that Qatar would struggle to reach the task within the allowed time frame. But Qatar proved them wrong and started the arrangements from the root level. Initially they only had one large football stadium that could accommodate more than 40,000 people. Further they had to construct seven brand new stadiums, a new airport, more new hotels and many more other facilities. They had spent almost 220 billion dollars for this world cup and that is by far the most money spent on any world cup by a hosting nation.
Another key fact about this world cup was its record-breaking wonders, there were many great records broken in this world cup and happened many twists and turns throughout the tournament. A great example is that this world cup had the most goals than any other world cup with 172 goals. And another thing is that this was the last world cup of 3 world recognized legends Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar Junior. It is believed that these astounding players have played their last world cup matches in their career, and probably this could be the last time we watch these bright shining stars on the pitch, but still their legacy will remain in the air.
Morocco’s achievements in the world cup literally shocked the entire world as they became the first African nation to enter the semifinals. And there were even more twist and turns happened such as the Argentine defeat against Saudi, the German defeat against Japan, Portuguese defeat against Morocco and the Brazilian defeat against Cameroon and many more. This world cup was truly full of unpredictable twists and turns. Another unimaginable and unbelievable fact is that 4-time champion ITALY!! was even unable to qualify into the group stages.
And finally, when we talk about the matches, to be frank I am a big blind fan of France and I actually do feel a little sad of the loss against Argentina in the final, but still it was just a game, and have to take it in that spirit. Argentina became the champions of the world, and Messi is finally proven to be the true goat. The semifinals were actually quite quick and fair, but the finals were too dramatic and loooong, even after a hat-trick by Kylian Mbappe, France was unable to score, and Argentina took it to the penalties and defeated France 4-2. But still I think so it hasn’t created a major impact on France, as they have won the last world cup and even came to the finals in this world cup too. But surely this world cup must have been the best for every true Argentine fan. Mbappe was thrashing and killing every single match, that hat trick scored by him really smashed some energy and thrill into the French team. And that’s when I started to get excited. These young French players have a long and rough road ahead.
Another thing we witnessed in this world cup is what happened after the matches, many of the players were in tears, and some were in joy and some in mixed emotion of sorrow and joy. In the Brazil vs Croatia match Neymar and many of his teammates were in tears after being defeated by the ‘checkered ones’ who qualified into the semis. And there were even many heartbreaking moments in this world cup, such as in the same match itself Croatian star Ivan Perisic’s 10 year son consoled tearful Neymar after Brazil got knocked out of the world cup. Such a heartwarming and soul stirring moment. And in the semis match, between France and Morocco, after Morocco’s defeat against France, Moroccan star Archraf Hakimi exchanged shirts with France’s lead scorer Kylian Mbappe, who solaced him, and comforted him that he had made history for his country. This was truly a moment of friendship and sportsmanship.
This world cup has been a great success, all thanks to the volunteers, the workers, the officials and all those who had worked behind the scenes to make this a grand World Cup. And we could not forget the teams, their hard-work, preparations and determination to win the title of the 2022 World Cup champion. Each player of each team have dedicated and devoted their entire life to play the game of their passion and make their motherland proud. And last but not least the fans, they are the real stars of this world cup. Without the fans cheering and support neither team would be able to play properly with the spirit and enthusiasm. And on the other side there have been many controversies took place, like physical attacks and fights between the fans happening all over the world due to a loss or win of a team. Such a kind of extreme and obsessed patriotism towards any team should not be encouraged and promoted, as they lead to clashes and disputes between the supporters of different teams.
Football is a magical game that makes us stand up from our seats and make our jaws open and our hands to start clapping. It is a game that absorbs every single person who watches it with interest, it has an extraordinary power to weave in a fan spirit into our hearts and make us feel enthusiastic and exuberant. Football is just like a pen drive, when we plug it into our mind it inserts the music, the zeal, the passion and the ethos, it has an alluring power to firmly stitch the gusto of witnessing a match. When we think about FIFA, It is quite surprising and confusing about the reason of people being so engrossed towards football.
To sum up, this world cup has been an interesting, unforeseeable and emotion-charged world cup. From 20th November till 18th December, every single fan’s heart must have had zest and the fire, the dream of their team winning the FIFA World Cup 2022. And we’ll have to wait for another four long years to enjoy, cherish and witness another world cup hosting in North America (USA, Canada, and Mexico). World cups are actually a time when people unite together to support and cheer for their teams, it crosses the boundaries of states, countries, oceans, continents and unifies the world into one.
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