We’re Getting There
Perspective is deciphering between a goal being beyond you or a goal being laid out in front of you.
The year was 2018 and my Xbox One, which had recently celebrated five years of trash talk, irrational outbursts and late nights, huffed and puffed begging for relief. It was being fired up yet again. By age 22 I’d grown an interest in soccer only in the form of FIFA 15. I didn’t bother getting any new iterations of the game because I didn’t know the players and I didn’t care to get to know them. I enjoyed the game. I found it therapeutic — like chess in a way — but I played on easy so I would always win.
That summer was the World Cup. Americans have this interesting spike in fascination for soccer once every four years. So, like every other American Football fan longing for the season to start I tuned into a few soccer games. I commenced a cyclical series of gambiling, pretending to be knowledgeable of the sport and taking periodic naps. I would run to the bathroom and that would be when a team scored. I would stare intently hoping not to miss a screamer or even a tap in and — much to my chagrin — nothing.
Along came France.
My argument for the National Football League’s growing interest in European markets is for them to send their best teams overseas to play as opposed to their worst. I am a living, breathing case study for this. I admit, I still don’t know much about soccer but the most popular gripe regarding the game is that it is “boring” and “nothing happens.” True, watching two teams participate in continuous cardio for sport at a clip of 90 minutes without seeing any sort of payoff can drive a person to believe there isn’t any true positive outcome to watching. But, my stereotypical and near sighted understanding of positive outcomes in sports was regulated to wins, losses and points. Short of golf, all sports operate on the platform of “more points is better” and so does soccer. But in 2018, I watched France’s world cup run and I learned to appreciate the art of build up and the beauty in one moment out of 90-plus minutes.
The 2019 Champions League, Alexander-Arnold to Origi
Finally, I had a vested interest in the sport. It was funny because — as many of my peers who hadn’t yet embraced soccer will tell you — I stared down my nose at people who couldn’t grasp the entertainment factor of watching 90 minutes for maybe one or two goals. 2019 brought about the first time I felt my emotions shift in any direction because of a soccer team. As France drove me to embrace soccer I counted myself a Paris Saint Germain supporter. When they lost to Manchester United in the UCL that year I felt real disappointment. This disappointment was odd — and in a peculiar sense — a bit exciting…I cared. As the UCL waged on I watched Trent Alexander-Arnold take a corner kick quickly which would be netted by Divock Origi, I hadn’t missed it napping or staring at my phone or even running to the restroom. I elevated from my seat.
“Wow,” I felt myself noticing a shift, I cared. From then on I found it easy to wake up on Saturdays and Sundays and watch and enjoy.
Back to FIFA
The world around me sunk into some of its darkest days in 2020. We were “going to the bar” on zoom and we became infatuated with mediocre documentaries on Netflix. The United States saw a reckoning in video games while there was nowhere for us to go. Every day I’d get home from my job at the hospital and fire up FIFA 15. Eventually, I found myself looking for players I’d become accustomed to watching and in an effort to fully enjoy myself I’d purchased the latest iteration of FIFA.
In a way, my foray into the modernized world of FIFA coincided with Americans’ growing interest in the sport. Prepared by NBA 2K culture, Americans found themselves using the best teams and so if you look around, the United States is scattered with Manchester City and PSG fans. The big European leagues owe a lot to video games and oddly to the stagnant lifestyle brought on by the pandemic. It seems we care now, which brings me to my final point…
UltraFooty
Across New Jersey there is special attention being paid to American football, basketball and baseball. Personal training camps and gyms can be found in just about every town across the garden state. As people begin to show more interest in soccer, its professionals should work to treat it with the same importance that other athletes do with their sports.
Enter Dylan Evande.
I spoke on the phone with Dylan for about an hour. One sentence kept replaying in my head after we’d finally let each other go.
“It’s easy to be one of them,” he said.
For Dylan, “one of them” is someone who exhibits a subconscious complacency. They’re not doing anything wrong in theory, but in practice, “one of them” conforms to the understanding that to be successful it takes hard work, talent and luck, which would be correct if not for the fact that “one of them” pilots their life’s trajectory only as far as their body will take them. Foolishly, but to no real fault of theirs, “one of them” is neglecting the reality of how much their mind can extend the bounds of their potential.
It’s easy to be one of them, but much like Dylan and his clients, I have no desire to be.
