COMMENTARY: Why the World Cup matters

There’s probably no other place any fútbol fan would rather be right now than Brazil. The World Cup, the most important sporting event on the international playing field, has set up in the South American country for the next month. Fútbol players who are sports celebrities — men like Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema — are quickly becoming household names, even in the United States, where soccer still trails American football, at least culturally.

This worldwide contest is a celebration worth enjoying. Much like the Olympic Games, the matches bring together the best of the best from 32 nations around the world. Audiences flock to stadiums, communal TV sets and radios to take part in the convivial spirit, hoping against hope that their team will prove victorious. Come the middle of July, one country will party all night long; 31 other nations will walk dejectedly back to their home fútbol pitches, licking their wounds and wondering what went wrong.

Is there anything wrong with international competition at this level? Sure, there are the criticisms and protests about the amount of money involved in the FIFA contest, and it does seem like Brazil has been forever changed because of their hosting responsibility. But the tradeoff is not simply monetary in nature. This is the time every four years when countries, sometimes struggling for respect on the global scale, are able to dominate in the spotlight.

The matches so far have been exhilarating, even with a few TV-perfect upsets (Uruguay losing to a resurgent Costa Rica; Spain dropping five goals to the Netherlands). Many matches have been thrilling up until the 90th minute (Switzerland’s win against Ecuador), even though they have gone the way of commonly held opinions (Brazil had to win the opening match against Croatia, and they did just that).

But the takeaway from the World Cup has less to do with the individual countries and the nationalistic fervor. The lesson to be learned is that fútbol is a unifying force for so much of the world — and thankfully that force now firmly includes the United States. The U.S. is often seen as a football nation and not a fútbol nation, but the tides are changing. Major League Soccer has taken off, and more stadiums are being built. Heck, even the New York Cosmos are back. Sentiment for the month-long competition is high, and ESPN/ABC’s coverage has been wall-to-wall expansive and quite thorough.

These are 32 teams in a hard-fought struggle to win it all, for sure. But let’s not forget that this seemingly simple sport, which is actually quite complicated, has enraptured millions of fans throughout the globe. A ball and a field of green. That’s all that’s needed to play like Neymar or Messi. Children around the world can take to their backyards, their street corners, their XBox controllers, their parks, and play like the greats. They’ll likely never make it to the big leagues like these mythic men, but they learn the same skills and aspire for greatness. Skills like leadership, teamwork, respect, personal drive and dedication are sometimes hard to come by, but fútbol, like many sports, overflows with these positive qualities.

Brazil is playing host to a cultural phenomenon, and everyone is rooting for a fun, thrilling competition. And then it’s back to life.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com