Friday’s final day of group play was anti-climatic after such an exciting week. Brazil and Portugal settled with their draw, 0-0 (yawn), which puts them both through to the Round of 16. They seemed to have come to a gentleman’s agreement to hold back. Although the Ivory Coast beat North Korea (which was out of reach of advancement anyway), the 3-0 victory failed to move the team forward. Chile and Spain seemed to have settled their differences by the 55th minute and just played to finish (like the Brazil/Portugal game). Chile did well with ten players after an ambiguous red-card, and the Portuguese racked up numerous yellow cards as well which could hurt next week.
The Schadenfreude inspired by the upset of 2006 World Cup Champions (Italy) and the 2nd place team (France), provided a boast, but now the tournament is in a bit of a funk. Maybe it is just that last day of marginal play. Maybe it is just the result of watching too much TV in general and ESPN in particular.
The Fog of Futbal has been a huge distraction from other things, like work, family problems and the really bad news around the world. It is like TV and Sport combine into a Marx/Chomsky cocktail of opium and the manufacture of passivity/consent. Televised sports are what we have so we can feel sorry for millionaire idols when they lose. Maybe that’s why newspapers and magazines advertise Angela and Brad’s divorce with such glee---we feel good, feeling sorry for the elite.
We can occupy ourselves with how much the rich, famous and athletic are suffering as a way to avoid all this bad news, for example;
1) From June 26th New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.
2) Juan Cole on www.juancole.com shares:
3) And of course the Permanent War(s).
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