Life versus the fiasco of Brazil 2014!

Do we take ourselves too seriously in life? Or we should relax and take things easy even in the face of the most trying circumstances that come our way? 

What are those circumstances anyway? Are they man-made or providential? When we say things are destined to be what they have been, is this some acknowledgement of the role, real or contrived, of forces beyond the power of men and women to control, direct or overcome?

If everything that happens has been predicted in the dim unfathomable past, what then is the purpose of living it out again in the flesh and calling it reality? 

For me, these musings are not the realm of philosophy at all, but the daily bread of existence as I seek both understanding and acceptance of things that consume our passions and interests and resources as if the very essence of life itself can be understood beyond our daily exertions of walking, eating, drinking, working, playing and sleeping.

As I sat glued to the chair last Tuesday watching the Brazilian national team barely survive a standing count, to use a boxing phrase, I could not help but reflect on the themes above as they related to the calamitous performance of our own Black Stars at the ongoing World Cup competition in Brazil.

Do we take life too seriously, in the end becoming self-created victims of a massive hoax of unfounded certainties, or is it really true that adequate preparation and psychological reinforcement can take us anywhere in the crazy world of soccer? Or, for that matter, any human endeavour?

Immediately after a match, strands of analyses which never occurred to anyone before the encounter suddenly appear to be the obvious cause for how the game shaped up, proceeded and ended. All to what end? To relax our bruised egos, becalm our hurt souls, or just to find an escape from deep sadness?

Let me give you an example of such brilliant analyses that never occur to the generality of us before significant events. It is from a soccer-crazed classmate of mine who is a pharmacist:

“Brazil are not ready yet to win the World Cup. Imagine Oscar, William, Neymar, etc., in four years. With all those champions league titles under their belt in the best clubs in the world, regularly reaching the quarters, with continental cup experience. They would be unbeatable. These are the best and coming players who were overrated at club level. You are a world-class player at the world competition and nowhere else. Did you even notice Hazard, another overrated player? But are they useless? Answer is, “no!” I say their time will come in 2018. The Germans learnt this reality in 2006 and 2010. Now fully grown men, ready to take on the world. Just check their attacks, in any one by the time they get to the opponents’ penalty area, they have minimum of four players to pass to. That is a team which is ready.”

A perfect example of the scales falling from our eyes as the evidence of reality unfolds before us. Thank you Sanaco.

Transpose this level of insight to the Ghana Black Stars experience. For soccer-loving Ghanaians, the fiasco of Brazil has since last Tuesday’s match become two-pronged— the embarrassing Ghanaian participation and exit, and the brazen daylight rape of five-time champions, Brazil, by the Germans. 

Why? Because the Black Stars held the absolutely fearsome Germans to a pulsating 2-2 drawn game which has since then been adjudged the best game so far. The obvious inference punctuated by enough ifs to sink the Titanic. Did we know that each English player had his sweating patterns mapped by doctors and appropriate liquids made to fit concocted. Where is England now? Safely back home. Just like the Black Stars.

Even worse, each and every team had its own marabouts, with the African and South American contingents with a double dose of these specialists in spiritual mumbo-jumbo. I do not see the difference in function or effect in the work of the African juju men and the so-called rational team psychologists. Who has ever calculated the real benefits to teams of these professional wordsmiths? How can you take $100,000 to play and yet need somebody to psyche you up in addition before you will give your best to your own country?

I accept and believe that many, many things went wrong, or could have been done better in the lead up to, and during the short-lived Ghanaian participation. I also believe that many of the things we don’t like now after the event would never have pricked our consciences if we had done better on the playing field. 

Indeed, if we had reached the semifinals, I am absolutely certain Ghanaians would have screamed at the President to airlift more money to the players, and more supporters to cheer them on; party supporters or not.

I do not accept that how we end is necessarily linked to the level of our preparations or the intensity of our zealousness. This is because these universal factors always fail to account for the better preparation and psychological readiness of opponents, whoever they may be. 

We studiously refuse to accept that the goddess of luck plays a large part in the eventual results. Luck cannot be easily tamed, or even gained simply because we wish for it. 

Perhaps the beginning of acceptance begins with acknowledging that our unreasonable love for the sport fuels the propensity to cut corners in our preparations, either to meet unrealistic dreams or create the opportunities for illegal self-enrichment of officials, from FIFA down to the village manager of colt teams. At the global level the whole scenario is a massive con game in which we, the helpless spectators whose monies keep the game going, are the victims of our unreasonable passion for the game.

The most critical thing we discount whenever our passions take over either in victory or defeat is the stunningly simple and obvious fact that, at the end of the day, irrespective of the boost to personal and national egos, soccer is only a game. A beautiful and intensely consuming game, but a game nonetheless.

In victory or defeat, our lives should go on, and the pleasures we get from participating or watching must remain so, and not be permitted to take over our lives to the exclusion of everything else.