The things you don't know about football (Spain 2 - Sweden 1)
On life, on chance, on a semi-final
The day before Sweden met Spain in the World Cup semi-final, their manager, Peter Gerhardsson, told the press in Auckland that he’d prepare for the match by having a swim, taking a walk, and reading a book.
As I heard this remark, my mind flipped back to an uber ride in Melbourne two weeks back. We were discussing La Roja; the Spanish team tearing through New Zealand looking like a team that might menace everyone through to the final match.
Turns out… that’s precisely what they’ve done. Tuesday evening in Auckland Spain beat Sweden with a dramatic 2-1 finish, officially grasping hold of their first-ever World Cup final.
But back in that uber ride, which was a ride to the airport, long enough to encompass a wide-ranging conversation touching on subjects from the American-Australian relationship (“we’re in bed, mate”), the Australian-Chinese relationship (“they can’t invade us if they own us”), to the state of the World Cup, we talked about more than just the results La Roja gets.
We also talked about how fun they are.
For beyond the menace of their deep and technical squad that’s often caught playing the prettiest football… Spain entertains, off the field and on it. They do things like run through the mixed zone cheering (Jenni Hermoso) after a big win in the semi-final, or stand before the English-speaking press for a rather long time, speaking at length emphatically from the heart (Aitana Bonmati).
They also do things like offend small New Zealand towns for leaving them out of alleged boredom.
As I was relaying the boredom kerfuffle to the aforementioned uber driver, elaborating that also, apparently, Spain’s creative and versatile-wonder Aitana Bonmati had been spotted watching the other football games at a bar, he responded: “Ah Europeans, and their enjoyment of life”.
And so for whatever reason, it was to that, “Ah, Europeans…” that my mind went when Peter Gerhardsson said he planned to prepare his mind on match-day eve by having a swim, taking a walk, and reading a book.
What book? Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World, by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. The book’s first line of description reads: “The pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content.”
According to Gerhardsson, this book holds deep correlations for the way football plays out.
For part of its beauty, part of what makes it the “best sport in the world”, he said, is that you just never know.
Gerhardsson:
“He [Rosa] talks about the world. If you as a human being know everything, it’s not exciting. And that’s why football is so exciting. Because you never know. As a coach, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You can prepare, you can know things. And that’s why football is interesting. It’s for everybody. It’s the greatest sport in the world and it’s just… these things.”
Just these things. Like the curve of a ball when it's spun right. A diving save, guessed in the right direction. The bounce off a post.
He added: “I cannot have any answers before the game. And I can’t have the answers after the game, even if everybody wants that.”
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