Thursday, April 19, 2018
Romanticism and the Champions League
Ahh, the Champions Leauge. What a fantastic time of the year. The best teams come together to play one of the best sports in the world, soccer, futbol, football or whatever you want to call it. In this year's Champions Leauge, Liverpool is back in the tournament. The Reds came out strong to beat FC Porto 5-0 in the first match and then move on to play one of the Champions Leauge favorites, Manchester City FC. Now Man City is quite a powerhouse team. With a spending budget of 221 million euros (or 288 million dollars), how could they not win? Even with contenders like Real Madrid, and FC Bayern Munich, who have the same budget, they could keep up. But we all know how the story goes. They lost in the first match putting them down in the aggregate score, and Liverpool takes the victory to move on to the next round. Now you may be wondering," how does romanticism fit in all of this? Why is he not talking about love and stuff?" While romanticism is about "love and stuff," it's also about the spontaneity and the things that shouldn't be. For example, in class, we watched a video of a girl going out and reading a William Wordsworth poem to a bush. That's pretty spontaneous and against the grain, if you ask me. It's not like winning a game, to move up in a tournament where you can win millions of dollars and fans though. Liverpool winning can also be seen as anti-romantic as well. All the people saying, " They beat the best team in the Premier League! I'm definitely a fan now!" are not at all romantic. Others stick with the team through thick and thin. They could also be seen as anti-romantic because they're singing "you'll never walk alone" in the stands. There is a lot of romanticism in the sport, between this game and everything else that has happened so far in the tournament. The fact that Liverpool won still shatters my mind. But hey, I'm an Arsenal fan, and I guess its kind of romantic for me to want them to lose.
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The Brazilian legend Pelé, among many other things, was known to refer to football (soccer) as ¨the most beautiful game¨ and I think your argument gives merit to his famous saying. One could argue that a multitude of people cheering on an organized club goes against the whole individuality idea of romanticism, but I would say that it within one´s undying love for their team where their romantic side shines through. I like your idea of an underdog, a team like Liverpool in this year´s Champions League, 15/16 Leicester City, Iceland over England in the last Euro Cup, etc. embracing the true true meaning of the sport and the Romantics of its endeavor. Football has a way of bringing people together but not in such a way that it reeks of ´lack of individuality´. It brings out our ability to love something unconditionally and holistically as human beings. This is something I particularly see during the World Cup in which entire nations of conflict unite under one supportive entity of community and commonality for a few months every four years. If this love and appreciation for a common goal to which we commit our hearts and minds to isn´t Romanticism, then I don´t know what is.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, as a Chelsea fan speaking to an Arsenal fan... hahahahaha