Football: Game of the thinking feet

(The author, a lover of The Beautiful Game, is chairman and chief executive officer of Basic Advertising.)

The most exciting sports in the world is soccer. The World Cup demonstrates football madness to the hilt.

In Europe, South America, Middle East, Africa, and Asia, soccer generates passion, patriotism, and racial pride unmatched by any stereotyped sports event.

Filipinos in general are illiterate when it comes to soccer. Their sports IQ are low and limited to basketball. Compared to soccer, basketball is inferior. Soccer fans are more analytical and sophisticated than basketball fans who are simple-minded, preferring boring and repetitive plays as instant gratifications.

Here are superior soccer thrills that people all over the world experience in watching a world-class soccer games.

Huge Size Matters

The playing field is as huge as a track oval. The grass field is about four times bigger than a basketball court. Ten players (warriors is a better word) on each team totaling twenty can be viewed from the stand beautifully executing offensive in defensive executions.

In a display of the highest capability of the male physique, football players run like antelopes, slither like snakes and attack like leopards. At other times they pirouette like ballet dancers.

On the huge open field you see play patterns evolve to succeed or fail – depending on the instinct and precision of individual acts.

In a World Cup soccer team, everyone is an artist whether he is a striker, a pass maker, a defender, or a goalkeeper.

Every single move counts. To a soccer watcher, the details are beautiful. In a huge soccer field fans see a goal made in sequences of brilliant moves orchestrated by midfielders and strikers. The open skies and huge open field give the picture of a real battlefield. The atmosphere of a battlefield is visualized. The art of war is palpable. The battle goes on in spite of sun, rain and mud.

Specialists are Synchronized

Soccer warriors have specialized skills that contribute to the precious winning goal. Strikers (goal makers) are deadly in the penalty area. Their killer instincts are honed in, their legs are like pumping irons, their speed belongs to a 100-meter dash champ. Their feet dribble the ball with lightning-fast agility, kick a goal score in several styles of kick effects.

Midfielders are superb ball catchers and handlers. Their precision passes are marvelous at any distance, any speed. They initiate attack patterns and elude their guards like escape artists.