It's World Cup season, so no list of Argentine maladies would be complete without futbol fever. I could go on and on about how soccer is the worst sport ever, but that yarn has been spun many times. I will thus try to be brief. Soccer is an effete sport full of fruity men in short-shorts hungering after balls. It rewards style over substance and encourages its players to fake injuries and over-dramatize everything in hopes of drawing a foul. It often is low-scoring, with ties being common. So, not only is it a stupid sport, but half the time NO ONE EVEN WINS. What a mess.
As far as Argentina is concerned, well, where to begin? Their vaunted history in the sport is due to them cheating in order to win. The fans are obnoxious. I hate how the entire country shuts down during soccer matches, and the loud auto parades that subsequently follow. We Americans really like sports, too, but I'm pretty sure that even during the most alluring football or baseball game, if my house burned down, the fire department would still show up. That's not a guarantee in Argentina.
The national obsession with the sport is perhaps the most maddening. I don't begrudge anyone enjoying some good athletic competition...that's all in good fun! When practically the entire nation worships at the altar of futbol, neglects their lives, families, and jobs (even more so than normally) in order to salivate over it, something is quite wrong. As I told one Argentine friend, Americans just don't care about soccer. We have two wars, and oil spill, and a global economic crisis to deal with. On top of that, we already have plenty of sports that appeal to us much more than soccer.
Wisely, this friend replied that, "Futbol is just a distraction for all of us...yet another thing to make everyone forget the chaos our country has."
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