The World Cup + Global Connectivity

For the past few weeks, the World Cup has been taking place in Qatar. While parts of the World Cup are still confusing to me (I still do not know what the different groups meant before they entered the single-elimination bracket), I have loved seeing the world come together in this way. The last time the World Cup happened was four years ago, and I did not pay attention to it then. This is the first time that I have watched the World Cup take place and seen all that goes into it. Thirty-two teams started, and at this moment, France and England are playing to figure out who will be the fourth team in the semi-finals.

Around two and a half million people have attended the games so far in Qatar, a tiny country in the Middle East. That is an insane amount of people, and they have traveled from around the world to be there. While in the United States, we do not perceive soccer (or football) as big as it is in other countries, it has even brought out that side of us, with so many people cheering for our star player, Christian Pulisic. I have seen people in the stands completely decked out in their respective countries’ gear and flags. I have seen people I know who are more American football fans get into soccer more than I have seen them yell at the TV for OU football.

Meachem Theatre in the Union has aired some of the games, most notably the US vs. Iran, the win that got us into the playoffs (even if we ended up lasting only one of the rounds). I heard shouts from approximately 20 people that went throughout the Union when we scored our one and only goal.

But the US is not the only team that people have been watching. Not only were there Iranians also watching that game, but when I walked into work last Friday at the College of Nursing, my coworkers were watching the South Korea vs. Portugal game, where they ended up both qualifying for the bracket due to South Korea’s win and Portugal’s high number of points. The World Cup has brought people around and throughout OU’s campus together, and this can be seen throughout the world.

One of the ways that I believe has shown that people come together has to do with the people on the teams. I learned that a majority of these soccer players play on teams around the world, and when it came time for the World Cup, they went home to play on their respective country’s team. For example, Christian Pulisic regularly plays in the Premier League for Chelsea, which is in England, but he played on the US’s team in the World Cup. Lionel Messi, the top soccer player in the world, plays on the Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain team, but he is on Argentina’s World Cup Team. I watched the US/Netherlands game last week, and after the US lost, some of the players on opposite teams were talking to each other and giving each other hugs. While I cannot say this for sure, I would guess that a lot know each other from playing in the same leagues or even on the same team. While they were playing against each other, they still were each other’s friends, and they still supported each other.

I think that that is one of the ways this has differed from the Olympics as to how it brought people together. This is also people rallying behind one sport, with people who know each other, as opposed to opposite sports. This has brought people together more than the Olympics has, and I have loved seeing that.

There is obviously still a large amount of competition, and there are injuries and tears and lots of emotions, but it has been interesting to watch people all tune in to the same event from around the world, creating a sense of global connectivity.