Okay - World Cup begin your seduction... take me back to those first 7 years in Argentina, infancy and childhood, going to the River Plate stadium with my father, his endless stories of playing professionally as a keeper, of listening to games on the radio from his childhood, seeing him watch and exchange games with his friends on VHS tapes, and the Grafico posters of Messi in his kitchen over his wooden yerba maté and metal toaster. Rooting for Maradona when he played for Boca Junior, a nineteen year old when I was 3. Oh... and all the years of being on the pitch, cleated up, since I was 3 years old through high school and college varsity as I participated in the religion...um, sport of futbol. My father and I watching Messi youtube compilations on an Ipad in the ICU days before he passed away. From birth to death: the beautiful game. So -- no big thing. Just the thumping bass line to my entire life. I changed nationalities, but not national teams. In the basement, a giant box of 20 years of El Grafico magazines, about 100 pounds of photo illustrations of flying balons, of nets and goals, grassy tackles, complaints, exasperation, ecstasy and celebration in the vibrant colors of nations, clubs, fields and fans. A goal in the 89th minute, penalty finalizers, all those intense moments of suspense, of resolution when Germany is vanquished or has vanquished us: few names that I hate with such intensity as that of Michael Ballack (prick). Few things I love so intensely as that moment, the quick pass and the unbelievable, unexpected, surprising shot from outside the box that sails in a trajectory, comet like, towards and into the net -- the keeper helplessly watching - there is nothing like that -- the game changer, the release, the shock: beauty of sudden instantaneous change. Love, hate, beauty, awe, childhood, death, and father: all conjured up in the televised smell of leather and grass, of the whistle, and of the first pass across the white line. The blue and white, the flag of my childhood, of the Seleccionado, worn now by Aguero, Di Maria, and Messi.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:44:29 +0000
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