Football, Futbol or Soccer, whatever you call “The Beautiful Game” it’s currently in a stage of frenzy commonly called, “World Cup Fever,” and the only cure is more of it.
In fairness to the other sports, it is only really in the United States where you either get it or you don’t. Otherwise, you get it and it’s a matter of degrees between passing fancy or religion.
In places where it is a religion, almost every beyond American borders, although factions do exist within the US, it’s hard to explain to Americans why it’s so important.
You could say it’s like the NFL or MLB or NASCAR, if you describe it in terms of sport. But more factually, you could say it’s like Star Wars and Dr. Who, where the fans know everything there is to know and dress up for an occasion to celebrate. That’s the reason it’s more like Star Wars than the National Football League, because of the World Cup implications and the fan base’s fanaticism.
For example, most European fans, know all there is to know about their favorite club, whether it’s Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or even Crystal Palace, but they also retain that same knowledge for their country as well. This is similar to a Star Wars fan knowing not only about the movies and television, but about all of the comics and novels, as well.
They also know the names and numbers of their mythical legends; Bobby Charlton leading England to a World Cup championship in 1966, Diego Maradona for the “Hand of God” goal and leading his Argentinian side to victory in the World Cup. In fact, the World Cup means so much that even though Lionel Messi is one of the greatest club level players of all time, in his country, until he brings Argentina a World Cup like Maradona did, he’s not on the same level. There’s also Miroslav Klose, who is basically a mythical player when putting on the uniform for Germany, but not so mythical at the club level.
These are the little things and nuances of the sport, knowing the difference between club and country and who performs better where. It’s like memorizing baseball stats, but with less categories and everyone plays for two teams! It’s also like knowing the actor who played R2-D2 was Kenny Baker or being able to name all of the Battlestar Galactica crews from both versions and the actors who played them. The information fans have for the beautiful game is just that intricate and thorough.
The FIFA World Cup SoccerFest & Viewing Party in Bethlehem PA
But World Cup Fever isn’t relegated to outside of the United States, it’s catching on here with astounding vitality. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has it’s own Soccer Festival and Viewing Party for the World Cup, which was officially sanctioned by FIFA. How can a community create such a large event, be featured for live look-ins during a worldwide broadcast and still only be home to one minor league level soccer team, that doesn’t draw too well even with both a men’s and women’s team?
The answer is America. Bethlehem is a melting pot, like the rest of the United States, of many different cultures. Sure, they were 10,000 strong or more to root on the USA, but the fans also came out to cheer their ethnic roots; Greece, Colombia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ecuador, Germany and the rest. Once more, the World Cup, like the Olympics, is an event that takes place only every four years. In geek terms, this would be like having the San Diego Comic Con once every four years and that’s not a mismatched comparison.
USA fan group The American Outlaws march to the viewing party in Bethlehem
Viewing Parties, like the SoccerFest in Bethlehem and others like it around the world are very much like a comic convention. People dress up and paint their faces, they wear official merchandise and talk in a different language, although at SoccerFest, they talk the language of Football, Futbol or Soccer and not Huttese, Sith or Tusken.
Another thing to consider, for the average, novice or beginner fan of soccer or the World Cup or both, is that this isn’t hooliganism, although that certainly still exists. This is just a fandom on an epic scale, that again, only real hardcore Star Wars or Star Trek fans might be able to relate to. Only, in “The Beautiful Game,” the good guys (whatever team you’re rooting for), don’t always win, this isn’t science fiction, this is real, this is drama, this is the essence of sport. But unlike some things, drawing (tying) or losing doesn’t diminish the passion for the fans of a country or for the event, it actually infuriates the passion, making the next fours years utter agony, until the loss can be redeemed.
By an order of magnitude, the World Cup is the Super Bowl times 1,000 and instead of captivating most of America, it captivates most of the world. So, if you’re a boss or coworker of a person who has World Cup Fever, remember, it’s not an isolated incident. It’s something that happens every four years and just gets bigger and bigger. Oh, but it doesn’t just happen once every four years, it actually happens twice every four years, as the year after the World Cup, fans can catch Women’s World Cup Fever and European fans can catch EURO Fever the year after the Women’s World Cup, so in some places, it happens three out of every four years.
World Cup Fever? Yeah, I have it.
(I!) I!
(I believe!) I believe!
(I believe that!) I believe that!
(I believe that we!) I believe that we!
(I believe that we will!) I believe that we will!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!
