Football is beautiful to watch. It is characterized by chaos, hype, and celebrations, especially when one team scores against the other. Soccer commentators add to the excitement when competing teams score against each other. Beautiful goals are scored through open play, set-pieces, out-witting defenders, and the artistry of build-up play when players combine to make the game beautiful (Kittleson, 2014). The game has gained much popularity across the globe; hence, today, it is regarded as a “beautiful game.” Therefore, this paper will illustrate why soccer is regarded as a beautiful sport and help us understand the complexities of modern Brazil.
Skills and athleticism in football require much training to reach the top level. The strength associated with skills like sprinting, jumps, winning duels, and tackling, among others, contribute to the athleticism needed when participating in this kind of sport. The agility, reflexes, and hand-and-eye coordination shown by the goalkeepers exhibit athletic ability. On the other hand, defenders need a strong body physique and a small quantity of footwork for these skills to assist them when tackling strikers from the opposing team. During winning air balls, the defenders must jump higher than other players. Midfielders exhibit the greatest skills when watching this game, making the sport beautiful to watch and celebrate. Notably, the midfielders’ strength, endurance, footwork, dribbling, vision, and agility when covering a big ground area, making passes, and ball recovery exhibit top-level skills and athleticism that are nice to watch and celebrate. In forward play, strikers and wingers display high skills and athleticism that contribute to scoring goals that create hype, celebrations, and fun moments in football. The speed of the ball, passing through the defenders, and putting the ball back on the net makes this soccer a beautiful game (Kittleson, 2014). Watching a strike take a defender one-on-one is much more appealing than moving into open space and making the score. The balance between skills and physical attributes associated with every player in each position emphasizes the need for top-level athleticism and the skills needed to make this game beautiful.
The global nature of football, from fan base, sponsorship, broadcasting, club ownership, main stars and legends to its universality, makes this game beautiful. Kittleson (2014) suggests that more than four billion people worldwide account for the soccer fan base. The fans either support their national teams, clubs, or certain football players. Ranks involving national teams and players in FIFA rankings clearly illustrate the global nature of football. There needs to be more national and regional representation in soccer from South America, North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Far East Asia. New technological investment on and off the pitch has significantly changed the football ecosystem. Arguably, artificial intelligence has greatly impacted the global nature of football through video referencing, cloud computing, goal-line technology, performance tracking, and blockchain technological advancement.
Drama and excitement associated with soccer contribute greatly to making this sport a beautiful game. The atmosphere associated with football is electric, combined with the enthusiasm of fans and players, which helps bring together many spectators. The excitement starts from pre-game hype associated with match build and enhances fans’ engagement in rituals that result in a sense of belonging to a certain club. Face painting, the team’s anthem, and slogans exhibit unwavering support for their team of choice. During the kick-off, the intensity and excitement fill the stadiums with fans roaring and their faces filled with the determination to win the match. This sport’s sheer joy also adds to the drama associated with this beautiful game (Kittleson, 2014). The drama during actual play, teamwork, and game flow shown through brilliant and wonderful attacks, defending, and goal savings put the fans on the edge of their seats. Most exciting and memorable moments occur during the goals’ celebration. The stadium erupts in joyous moments and happiness when one team scores against the other. The goal celebration happens as a communal ritual for players and fans, contributing to the fondness of players, fans, and coaches. Tactics and strategies coaches employ in the player style in a given team make the fan appreciate such thoughts, especially when their team wins.
The game’s unpredictability, simplicity, and elegance contribute to its beautiful nature. Kittleson (2014) indicated that football unites people from different parts, cultural, ethnic, social, and religious settings. The simplicity of football enables people to uphold diversity and unite people. Unpredictability plays an important role in enhancing the beauty of soccer. Despite thorough training, tactics, strategy, a good and strong squad, and preparation, only some aspects guarantee the match’s outcome. Thus, team dynamics, player performance, and coaching tactics greatly influence the games’ unpredictability and outcome. Others include weather patterns, injuries, and lack of contribution to football predictability.
Football portrays various advantages to players, fans, coaches, and other stakeholders. This sport teaches players important skills such as teamwork, hard work, commitment, communication, leadership traits, and time management. Players have a role in individual hard work and overall effort to achieve greater results. Regular playing of football has a great advantage for physical wellness, which is characterized by players’ flexibility. Consistently, football contributes to mental well-being since it allows people to socialize with one another, avoid loneliness, and is a stress reliever; hence, it helps avoid depressive symptoms across all ages. Soccer teaches resilience and perseverance, boosts self-confidence, and contributes to social interaction, thus helping create friendships and online and offline fan base communities.
References
Kittleson, R. (2014). The country of football: Soccer and the making of modern Brazil. University of California Press.