Team Talk : The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
World Cup - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
As we digest and reflect on World Cup 2010 - here are some of the good, bad and ugly highlights and what we might make of them.
The Good
South Africa - the Rainbow Nation proved to be a vibrant host. Almost all the players and pundits commented that they'd never experienced match atmospheres like it. Notwithstanding the din from the vuvuzelas (see ‘the bad' below!), the atmosphere for even so called peripheral matches was electrifying. The South African people were so energized and excited by the World Cup, and their excitement was infectious.
The quality of football. True many of the ‘big names' didn't perform to their expected levels, but nonetheless there were some great moments particularly the first and last goals of the World Cup: who could forget Tshabalala's opening goal for South Africa, or the perfect poise of Iniesta - a moment that's now fixed in Spain's national treasure. Truly the Bible speaks that man is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made' (Psalm 139:14).
The Bad
The vuvuzela! If South Africa got one thing wrong it was putting a 115 decibel toy trumpet in the hands of excited fans. Anyone who knows anything about Africa knows that they don't need a vuvuzela to show the world how to celebrate.
The brutality of the Dutch in the final. Whether it was an explicit tactic, or whether it was just the pressure of the occasion getting to them, the deliberate and persistent fouls in the final were nearly as painful to watch as they would have been to receive. It's easy of course to over-react and join in with the condemnation, but the truth is that we weren't seeing anything that's not common to life. Man may be fearfully and wonderfully made but as we saw on Sunday evening our sin spoils the good gifts that God gives us.
The Ugly
Paul the psychic octopus! Come on - have you ever seen a pretty octopus?! The World Cup always throws up some oddity, whether it's players' peculiar pre-match superstitions or an eight-legged ‘psychic' mollusc. The surprising thing about this one though is that people believed it. Paddy Power the bookmakers reported a 10-12% swing in betting depending on the octopus' prediction. That's thousands of people believing that a marine animal with a brain smaller than a walnut has some kind of predictive ability, and believing this with enough force to bet money on it! Little wonder that God sees us without Christ as having become ‘futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened' (Romans 1:21).
Overall then it's been a memorable World Cup with some notable moments whether good, bad, or ugly. But perhaps the thing that excites me the most is the glimpse that the World Cup gives of the globe united in a common passion. These last few weeks it's been the passion of football, the Bible fixes before us the day when we'll be united in our passion for Christ.
Pete.
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