For Algerias gutsy football team , this World Cup, a global hit from one of that countrys great singers ( I think a political exile for quite a while and maybe still ) Khhaled - a courageous ambasador for human rights at home where to be so is life threatening I read. Even in the song he has to hide behind the lyrics in an apparent poetic love song to a girl callled Aicha but the line Reine de Saba ( Queen of the Sahara ) gives it away that it is about his beloved country. Hard for me to get, for example, behind most European teams in Brazil , with all the relative luxuries players enjoy (and even in their formative years) when players who have emerged from real or virtually third world backgrounds , as kids , in relative poverty , playing on any relatively level open space, maybe in bare feet, and without kit or even a real ball, emerge with skills, incredible enthusiasm and a work ethic we dont tend to see in the cosseted national players from England and elsewhere. So often when you are growing up in harsh places, where work, access to education and so on are all lacking hope can be pretty much all that helps to keep you going and how many players and lovers of the game are there in those places against the relatively few they dream of being, who found football as an escape from poverty. Two players in particular seem to have grabbed a disproportionate share of media frenzy, Ronaldo and Messi both bringing glimpses of brilliance to bring their teams out of failing and certainly Ronaldo is raking in huge amounts beyond what he is actually paid for actually playing the game and yet has not been a shining light throughout any game as we might have been led to believe. Great to see African and other teams doing so well and bringing this competition to life and making it so much less predictable through dint of passion and effort for the shirt and teams like Australia and the USA , relative newcomers ( and two on the longer list of media appointed underdogs) putting up such a great show. If this World Cup teaches us anything it surely must be show respect and not under-estimate any countrys national side and have no room for complacency. https://youtube/watch?v=RvK19xgAxSU
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 12:46:28 +0000
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