Spanish Soccer: The Dream

A Story by Abishai100

Fernando Shah is an American soccer fan who travels to South Africa in 2010 to cheer on Spain at the World Cup tournament, hoping to see modern world dials.

One more post-retirement sports vignette, and this one's a toast to the symbolic and awesome 2010 World Cup in which Spanish soccer was finally spotlighted and toasted and triumphed on the world stage finally. Thanks so much for reading (signing off again),

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Fernando Shah, a half-Asian half-Spanish soccer fan, traveled to South Africa in 2010 to attend the World Cup soccer tournament. This was a symbolic international athletics tournament held in South Africa, since it was the new decade of the new millennium, and South Africa had already been host to multiple humanity-symbolic sociopolitical events including an Apartheid-symbolic rugby match hosted by Nelson Mandela. Fernando considered himself both a soccer super-fan and politics critic.

FERNANDO: Spanish soccer fans are superior. They really give the game and the crowd and the stadium and World Cup arenas a special flair and offer some real human fireworks. Soccer is so exciting, and the fans of the World Cup hailing from Spain, especially during this incredible 2010 tournament in which multiple teams are hot, including Portugal, Brazil, England, and the Netherlands, are making this soccer event really stunning. Spain arguably offers the world's dressiest soccer fanfare. I'm so happy to watch all this and take photos of it on my iPhone, man!

Of course, Spanish soccer fans had much to cheer about in South Africa 2010. FIFA had organized the World Cup year in and year out, and multiple nations had shined in its glorious history, especially England, Brazil, France, Italy, Argentina, Germany, and Cameroon. However, two teams who'd never won a title despite offering immaculate play were Spain and the Netherlands. Spain boasted three superstars in the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup --- Fernando Torres, David Villa, and David Silva. This terrifying trio were great friends and alarmed their opponents. Fernando Shah was busy taking photos of the trio on the field in South Africa with his handy-dandy iPhone.

FERNANDO: I used to play soccer video-games as a kid quite often, on the Sega Genesis mostly. Soccer is a great sport to translate into video-games, and the games offered on the Genesis and Playstation have become quite iconic among video-game aficionados. I enjoyed pitting rival nations in video-game soccer-play, and when I went to South Africa to cheer Spain's national soccer team at the World Cup, I thought about all those times I enjoyed playing soccer video-games with my friends at home in America.

Of course, an actual World Cup game in South Africa, with waves of soccer fans cheering and waving their national flags and boasting their national colors, was far and away different from the video-game soccer-play Fernando Shah was used to in America. This was high-profile high-energy global fanfare. Spain wanted to see their terrifying trio of Spanish soccer superstars, Torres/Villa/Silva, simply destroy the competition and dance through the tournament with flair. This wasn't going to be easy, since the Netherlands seemed just as intent on winning the trophy. However, Fernando Shah noted that the waves of Spanish fans at the South Africa World Cup made the event nothing less than a sociocultural postcard.

Spanish people love life and art and culture and street fare and dance and music and of course art. They love soccer and they cheered their national team to see them win. It was therefore dismaying to see that their two stars Torres and Silva were seriously struggling through the World Cup tournament in South Africa, putting all the burden on the cool-headed captain David Villa to steer the Spanish national ship on his own. In fact, Villa orchestrated a tightly-controlled one-man field general show through every level of the tournament, taking down all the big rivals and nations with a nail-biting score of 1-0 at every level. Writers remarked, "Seeing Villa help Spain win each game by a consistent tiny score of 1-0 reminds me why the Spanish consider life itself a sort of 'dreaming' art."

Meanwhile, back in the USA, Spain saw fanfare at bars and pubs, as fans of the international sporting event cheered on the South Africa FIFA World Cup from TV screens. While Americans had not really seriously invested in men's international soccer, despite investing in women's national soccer and collegiate soccer rather impressively, the 2010 World Cup was so symbolic politically and drew in the interest of various social clubs in the USA. Fernando Shah was in the crowds at the actual South African stadiums while Americans were watching on TV in the homeland.

Well, Spain had reached the Finals of the 2010 World Cup and would have to face the equally-gritty Netherlands team, led by the superstar Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Netherlands wanted to capture their first World Cup title as much as Spain. David Villa, Spanish soccer team captain, had to marshal something purely genius to make sure his national team didn't falter at this final level after having reached the Final with a tight consistent score of 1-0 at every jaw-dropping turn. The fans were simply tense, hoping Spain would grab their first trophy in symbolic South Africa.

FERNANDO: Soccer isn't really as popular worldwide as, say cricket or tennis or ice-skating or ice-hockey or numerous other sports. However, what makes soccer so thrilling internationally is that it spotlights the sort of teamwork on the field that reminds people what makes each team, from every nation, so symbolic and revealing of the cultural identity and pride of their countries. It seems each country, England, Netherlands, Brazil, etc., offer their own unique splash into the sport of soccer. If you have a video-game or video-game app for soccer in America, you might find that this sport is nothing less than pure design and simple joy.

No one wanted to see any kind of politically symbolic antisocial anti-globalization terrorism at the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup. No one wanted to see some terrifying gesture of terrorism placed somewhere else symbolic such as New York City or Vatican City or Geneva during the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup. Everyone simply wanted to see if either Spain or the Netherlands would grab their first trophy. In the end, the cool-headed Spanish captain David Villa managed to squeak by the Netherlands in the Final game with, yes, yet another tight 1-0 jaw-dropping score. Spain had triumphed.

American super-celebrity Tom Cruise had attended the 2010 South Africa World Cup to cheer on his favorite team Brazil which had honored Cruise with a magazine photo-shoot featuring a gifted jersey with a stylized rendition of his Hollywood (USA) movie-star name, presented by Brazil's soccer star Zico himself. Cruise was delighted, though he wasn't going to be cheering for Spain that tournament. This was positive media for a sport that could potentially be referenced as an anti-terrorism global activity.

FERNANDO: Wow, what a tournament! Spain has managed to capture its deserved title, thanks to the leadership of the cool captain David Villa. I took hundreds of photos with my handy-dandy iPhone. This tournament in South Africa reminded me why sports downplays the intrigue of modern terrorism and reminds us how social activity can encourage basic media diaries. I'm a bigger fan of Spanish soccer.

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)