Football vs Futbol

Watching the World Cup with Aldo made me acutely aware of the reasons why the average American has no idea that the world cup is even going on. In fact, The Onion had a hilarious satire about it, writing about how devistated the US was for thier loss, including rioting in the streets, businesses still closed three days after the game, and all the national monuments draped in black bunting.

For the uninitiated, the World Cup is a soccer (Futbol) tournament elayed every four years by the top 40 teams, more or less, from around the world. The US has been in the World Cup only in the last few times. In contrast to the World Series, this is truly a global event on the scale of the Olympics, with the notable exception of the far east, which is a whole other story.

Anyway, just comparing it to American football highlighted our differences from the rest of the world. Futball is amorphous, almost organic, constantly shifting, with as few interruptions as possible. If there's a fault by one of the players, they take possession of the ball and keep on playing in a blink of an eye. I get confused watching it because I'm still trying to keep track of which team has the ball. In contrast, Football is about precision, regulation, and operating within a rigid and meticuous framework. After every burst of running, passing, or kicking, the teams regroup, fall into cordinated positions, the system resets, and after everything is equal, the game resumes. We are a nation which lives by order, rules, and in a hierarchy of systems.

In Futbal, you can expect anyone to score a gol, and the players roles are not really fixed at all-save that of the goalie. In Football, there are players who block, players who throw, and players who run. Their roles are much more defined. Its part of a deeper cultural rift as well- our national sports are those which highlight the individual-we talk about the star quarterbacks like south americans talk about the entire Brazilian team. The Europeans and the South Americans communicate by touch, looks, body language, and the team is much more whole and organic. Today I saw the Mexican goalie giving a "calm down" sign to his team, and they listen to him and respect him, Aldo was explaining that he really acts as the heart of the team.

In Football, the players communicate in huddles; meetings where assignments are doled out to individual players. We pride ourselves on our individualism. Our other national pastime is also extremely organized, and evey player gets a single turn at bat and to run on his own. We're a much more analytical nation. The games on TV show every angle of a play, reconstructed, replayed, picked apart by the commentary, and much of what is great about American football is that so much of it is the strategy, the tension between plays, almost like a game of chess on a big field. Plays are analyzed, drawn on the screen, and scrutinized. The line of scrimmage is digitally highlighted. You never ever see that with Futbol.

Personally, I'm torn between them. It's not uncommon to watch Futbol games where no one ever scores, and it gets really boring because the game looks the same no matter the part its at. Football drags on and on with all of its interruptions and stops. If a ref calls a foul in Football, and its not clear what happened, the coaches and players will stop and argue with the ref. They'll stop play and let the refs look at the tapes. Americans get really agitated if they think something is not FAIR.

In Futbol, the ref's word is law. There's no looking at tapes, no arguing. So many times, I've seen on the TV faults make that the ref's don't catch, or players that take a dive after bumping into another player so they get a penalty shot. Other times, players are really hurt by the opposite team and the ref doesn't see it, so they get up and go on or off the field. It's NOT FAIR, truth be told, and frustrating to me as an American. Especially as the crowds began to chant "Asshole!" when someone is taking too long to get up or get off. At my high school football games, if someone on the team got hurt (even with all of our padding, helmets, etc.) everyone hushed and both sides of the team took a knee until the player heroically staggered off the field to applause.

It's interesting. To me anyway.

While we're on the subject, I worked late at work today, up until three PM instead of the usual 11:30 AM. We're finishing up the presentation. Talked to the project architect over lunch and he thinks that the result of fewer architects being licenced coupled with a demand which is soaring, that in the near future, there's never been a better time to be an architect. This has a few implications, he explained. 1) We're going to be better paid and better recognized. 2) As our fees increase, we'll work higher level jobs for bigger clients. 3) Subarchitects and developers will move in even more and dominate the fast food places, strip malls, etc, things which really only require slight modifications to a general standardized plan. 4) when the economy does eventually cycle back into the toilet, we'll really be in trouble because the niche for desinging Taco Bells has already been filled.

Sounds like a fun ride anyway.