Sports, defeat, and stories · 3:33am Jul 13th, 2014
This week, the Brazilian football (or soccer, or whatever you wanna call it) team suffered the most humiliating defeat in its long history. I doubt you care, but let me drop some facts, and see if I can show you how significant it is.
In Brazil, football is a powerful national passion, an obsession above all others, to the point that World Cup match days are almost national holidays – you go to work in the morning, nobody cares even a little bit about anything going on, then you rush home or to bars to watch the game with friends. Streets get painted, people only go out in the national colors, and flags are absolutely everywhere, in a country where such things are extremely uncommon, and patriotism isn't seen as a good thing. In fact, it is practically the only moment you see widespread national pride in display. It certainly helps that Brazil also has a very accomplished national football team, being the only to attend all World Cups since 1930, and is the team with the most victories between all nations. It hadn't suffered a single defeat at home since 1975!
Last time Brazil hosted a World Cup, it lost to Uruguay at the finals, playing to a live audience of almost 200.000 people. That happened in 1950, but is an event that still figures strong in national memory, even more than any war the country went through.
This year, the World Cup is being hosted by Brazil right before an important presidential election, amidst corruption charges, street demonstration, terribly over priced venues, and a strong climate of people looking for some abstract "change", after 12 years of the same party being in power. The president, Dilma, refused to make a speech before the game, or any kind of overt public appearance, for fear of being booed by the crowds – a first in the history of world cups. Nonetheless, a full chorus of what translates to "Dilma, go fuck yourself!" could be heard many times during the games. It has always been an event with political overtones, but this year even more so.
This was the Semi-Finals. The main player from Brazil and rising star in the football world, Neymar, had been kneed in the back during the previous match, and wouldn't be able to play for at least 6 weeks. Cries of support from the players and the population were everywhere in the days before the match, and all during the introduction of the players, there was a strong sense of "we are doing this for you". The players sung the national anthem proudly displaying his shirt.
It was a brutal match, with 4 goals happening in just 6 minutes, absolutely insane by football standards. It ended with a 7x1 score favoring Germany, in itself a one in a thousand occurrence in professional matches. However, it would be even more humiliating had the germans not held back out of respect or shame. In fact, some of the players even clapped when Brazil finally made his only goal at the last minute.
The after-match was what I can only describe as a country in mourning, all enthusiasm of the previous days gone. There was still a 3rd place match, but most simply decided to watch the games by themselves, and had to see a disorganized team be squarely defeated by the Netherlands. Argentina, traditional rivals, will still face Germany for the first place, in the same Maracanã where Brazil once lost, and whatever the result, it will be, at best, bittersweet.
I know that I will hear about the day Brazil got crushed by Germany by 7x1 in a Football match in 2014 for the rest of my life. Like the 1950 defeat, this is something that will grow deep barbs in the national conscience, and of which much will be said in the next months and years.
Outside Brazil, you may hear a few rumors of the match itself, see the pictures of crying people, but this silly little event where a football team didn't play well during a specific match will more likely than not cause impactful sociopolitical changes in a 200 million people nation. In fact, 50 years from now, brazilians will list important world facts from the turn of the century as "November 11th", "The 2008–2009 Crash", "Arab Spring", and "Brazil loses 7x1 against Germany during the 2014 World Cup".
This is a story outline. It has an introduction, rising action, a climax, and a falling action and denouement that are yet to come. It has characters, a complex setting, elements from before the start of the story that give impact to the narrative, and consequences that go far beyond what happen in the story proper. It is different from other stories only in that it is unscripted, and was played out by people paid millions to train their bodies in order to enact such improvisations – which isn't that different from live actors.
Sport is so compelling, so universally popular, precisely because it presents a narrative. However, while it is certainly as fake as cinema, it uses real people running after made-up goals. This is terribly effective, in that it breaks right through your suspension of disbelief far more effectively than anything else. Suddenly, it isn't 22 guys running after a ball, a bunch of dudes running into each other in the middle of a field, or people driving their bikes around France, but something powerful, something moving, something that justifies just how much we as a species invest in it.
Even more, sports reward your dedication in very interesting ways. When you understand the craft of writing, you might gain a different appreciation for the medium, for the writer, but it won't make the story more immersive, and might even work in the opposite manner. In sports, however, the more you know about what you are watching, the more invested you get. In fact, things like "Miracle on Ice" or "Justin vs. Dango", to name a few from the top of my head, aren't nearly as significant without the proper context, and the more you understand about the mechanics and backstories involved, the better they get. Classic matches gain importance that way, and it is how you can finally see how it is a war metaphor.
At the end of the day, nothing that happens in the playfield may actually matter, but never forget we are a narrative driven species. Powerful stories change the world by shaping how we see it, and ideas of virtue often comes from the stories we idolize. And this applies to our relationship with politics, knowledge, tolerance, and the kind of spaces we try to inhabit.
And it is in this that we get to an important lesson in stories: meaningless things aren't, and small details may have a big influence, so long as it has meaning to the characters. As silly as Quidditch in Harry Potter may be, it resonates strongly with the magical nature of the world, and is often used as a way to establish themes that will play during the book. Populations are moved by these meaningless things, and keeping in mind that they exist are important, even if they never appear. Ignoring the importance of the insignificant is a sure-fire way to create a poor or inconsistent world.
I hope you forgive me this little detour, but I mostly had to blow off some thoughts about this whole thing. I am not kidding when I say that it is probably the thing I will hear the most about in the next few months. Fic Reviews will recommence as soon as I can tear myself away from the Dota 2 International. Go Team Liquid!
The third paragraph from the last (beginning, "At the end of the day...") may be one of the most perceptive things I have read in a very long time!
Very interesting post. And woo, another Liquid fan!
I was already planning on following you once I saw that you do fanfic reviews, but this solidified my choice. Thank you for preaching to my personal choir flawlessly, and for forever saving me the effort of having to rephrase this exact same sentiment the next time someone asks me why I love sports.
(Also, just to save space, thanks for the review on Far From The Tree. Really means a lot to hear you say all that.)
I like the idea of a country where patriotism is discouraged, but I don't know if I'd trade that for a nation that's this obsessed with a given sport. I guess I would, since the dangers of nationalists at in the voting booths outweighs the annoyance of the streets being clogged with cars and pedestrians during every home game in the college areas where I've lived.
I also almost but not quite feel guilty for the complete disinterest in sports that I've held for most of my life. I never understood a thing about what was going on, I keep hearing about how sports are a huge fucking money sink that leave things I care more about destitute by comparison, and while I get that there's a narrative aspect at play, it really does seem like the same damn story being told over and over again to me. I hate sports almost as much as you hate modernists.