Years of Poems and Spirits

It was kind of funny that I was posting an entry bitching soccer in the middle of the best game in this World Cup, Brazil vs. France.

It was a pure attack football: both sides launched beautiful attacks and counter-attacks, each only ended in the box area. Zidane was spectacular. The Brazilian dance wasn’t bad either. After watching the England/Portugal game, this game felt like a thunderstorm in a muggy summer afternoon.

I stayed up till 5am to finish watching, never once felt bored or sleepy. It was a déjà vu experience: 20 years ago, when I was in highschool, I woke up at 3am to watch the same teams played in a world cup quarter final which ended in the same: the favored Brazilians were eliminated by a heroic French team after a game of constant fast attacks.

I always questioned whether European sportsmen had the same kind of desire to win as those touted in America. Here is one glimpse:
真正了解齐达内的是罗纳尔多，交手前，他不忘在《世界报》的专栏中向大师致敬：“齐达内是真正伟大的球员。……几个月前一次商业活动[sic]，我们一起到了柏林，下榻酒店的人说，这家酒店将为参加决赛的球队预留房间，当时，我和齐达内情不自禁的对视了一下。”

I missed more than half of the games but I didn’t feel like I missed much.

Soccer is such an imprecise sport that a referee’s judgement plays a bigger role than it would in American football. In modernity where everything is measured, regression-tested and forecasted, soccer preserves the role of “fate” as if paying homage to Greek Mythology.

Watching the World Cup in China is painful: first of all, the time is not right. Secondly, having to listen to CCTV commentators doing live broadcasts amounts to being “Abu Ghraib”-ed. The commentators are, technically, central government employees. Although they often display a passion unseen in typical bureaucrats, almost everything else qualifies.

The commentators are pretentious and presumptuous, constantly speaking as if on behalf of the entire audiences, fans, players or referees–just as People’s Daily opines as if it represents “the people”. They are knowledgeable of their profession but at the same time are below the qualifications required for the position. Some of them made up the deficit by playing the passion card. After the Italians beat the Aussies at the last minute, the commentator screamed into the mike in such a high pitch that, if you hear it, you will understand the term “unisex” instantly.

Last but not least, they abuse the Chinese language. Before one game, a commentator remarked how peaceful the arean felt right before the game by saying, “清风吹来，水波不兴”.

It is known that government monopoly breeds rentier practice. But what the political economists didn’t capture is its effect on culture and language.

I did not know the role Mara played in NFL history until seeing the orbituaries in Washington Post and NYT.

I thought Revenue Sharing epitomized “capitalist vision”. Can’t imagine that in China. Absolutely no way.

According to the WP article, he was an incredibly kind person. History scholars seldom gave much thought to “agents” of history rather than “structures” (as in Structuralism). Without Mara, it seemed, Football wouldn’t be where it is today.