Pragmatism Takes a Dumper at the World Cup…….Thank God

Today I am glad to report that the evil philosophy of pragmatism has taken a royal damper and has exited its usual perch at the top of the football world. For those who are unaware or who just don’t care, Brazil was knocked out of the 2010 World Cup today by the Dutch which, for me, spells a definite hiatus of sorts for those who have reduced the game to such boring and predictable standards and who prey on the game with such pragmatic values that they have for years tortured and crippled it’s entertainment value and freedom of expression.



The Netherlands 2-1 victory over the previously ranked #1 Brazilians is a victory of sorts. But it is also combined by the early expulsions of other boring, defensive minded, cowardly and overly pragmatic disciples such as France, England and especially the Anti-Christ of football herself, Italy. Yes I am being cruel and, although I am letting certain nations have it for their culturally disgusting approach to football, let it be known that I have nothing against these nations or race of people in any other venue or topic of discussion. I am strictly talking football here.

For decades I have sat back and watched the game I love so much be taken over by cowards, chess players and pragmatic types who have reduced the game to a slow, dirty, overly defensive match of chess with the added dash of cheating or gamesmanship. Why did football go away from it’s Renaissance period of the early 70’s when tactically and culturally awake nations like the Netherlands and Germany offered up gorgeous innovative “Total Football” for all to watch enjoy and try to emulate. A system built on imagination, flexibility and constant attack. We were introduced to an era where scoring goals was greatly accentuated and where the style of play offered adventure and enterprise.

This utopian period in the game last almost a decade but died a cruel death in what I call the infamous 1982 World Cup which was stolen by the defensive minded, boring as sin and ultra pragmatic Italians. They showed how a moderately talented club could defeat giants like Brazil and Germany by just reducing the game to its lowest common denominator. A team that drew its first three group games and only scored two goals went on amazingly to lift the World Cup. They were embarrassed on the pitch by the Samba swagger of the Brazilians but somehow won the game 3-2. Brazil should have scored ten in that game had it not been for the heroics of 40-year old Dino Zoff in goal. Italy, for their part had three scoring chances against the run of play and scored, you guessed it, three goals all by the previously invisible Paolo Rossi.

It is my belief that on that day the beautiful game died and pragmatism in football was truly born. That was not justice and it was not in the best interests of the game, but Italy won nevertheless. Why is it that a country with such beauty, culture and history has to reduce itself to sniveling cowards and play the game like scared Borgia’s defending a siege to their castle? Why is it their goal in life not to score goals but prevent any from occurring and in the process zap the life out of every contest and the game of football? I’ll never fully understand their way of thinking or how it actually connects with the people culturally or philosophically.

After the 82 final which Italy defeated a very tired and beaten up German team who were coming off an epic penalty shootout win vs a spunky and attack oriented French side in the semi-final. It is my belief that had the Germans not been so gassed after 120 plus minutes of intense fast paced football in over 40 degree Celsius Spanish heat, that today’s game might very well be different. For that Italian World Cup victory was the birth of pragmatism and gamesmanship and the game has not recovered since.

Manager Enzo Bearzot constructed a system and a team that so sucked the life out of a game and was enhanced by tactical cowardice and despicable gamesmanship (aka Cheating) that many learned from that victory how they must confront the game and help their team’s or nations improve or be more competitive. It opened the doors for the minnows of yesteryear to actually improve so much so that one of them could steal the European Championships in 2004 by averaging a single goal a game. Apologies to my Greek compatriots because although I ma of Greek heritage, my football mind is completely German/Dutch.

Pragmatism so engulfed the game from that period that even the top club teams and the top national squads adopted parts of it. Why risk losing if a pragmatic approach to all problems is to play it safe and play on the law of averages? For those who are not aware, I am a die-hard Manchester united fan. Why? Because up to recently, this club carried the banner in European football for playing fast paced attacking football and not compromising it’s principles for the pragmatic approach. That is of course until their legendary manager faced with aging players and financial calamities within the club was forced to invoke a pragmatic approach to their tactics so that the club could remain successful. And thus Manchester United’s era of champagne football has ended.

Now back to this current World Cup. A competition that has been plagued by injuries to key players, a ball that is closer in design to a beach ball than a football, refereeing that has been abysmal at best, the constant irritating and disabling noise of a cultural embarrassment called a vuvuzela and countless boring and overly pragmatic contests that were being starved of goals and thirsting for entertainment. Up until today the negative pragmatists were still in control. Even though their creators, the Italians had been embarrassingly eliminated and along with them the French and English who had also recently adopted such disgusting methods of play, the World Cup was failing to live up to it’s reputation for entertainment due to the oversaturated number of boring games with relatively few goals.

Today Brazil was the last of the evil four horseman of pragmatic football to be eliminated. Many may wonder how I could possibly lump the Samba loving Brazilians in with those other cowardly lions? It’s very easy really. Ever since 1982 when the Samba Beat died one summer afternoon at the hands of an Italian assassin, the Brazilian way of playing the game with flair, and improvisation also died. Oh many may say hang on there, since that time Brazil has won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups and also lost in the final of the 98 Cup. How can you say that they have died? Well the team’s success hasn’t necessarily died. Instead it’s the team’s mojo and personality, it’s cultural uniqueness and improvisational beauty followed up by a wonderful swagger and artistic confidence that was like watching a living Monet or Picasso painting dance across a pitch. Long gone is the Samba Beat and beautiful rhythm of their game.

Brazil has not been the Samba Kings since after that crushing 82 defeat to the Italians. On that day something died in the hearts and minds of many Brazilian players and coaches. That 82 squad was littered with eclectic talent like the legendary Zico and Socrates as well as wonderful artists like Falcao and Eder to name a few. For that team to lose was a wakeup call in the hearts and minds of many who saw that way of football as being a dinosaur and a sure path to certain failure. So much pressure in this day and age to win at all costs has overtaken the game and it’s various personalities and transformed the once beautiful game into the present pragmatic chess match. Always thinking one move ahead but with your hand on the pawn and always oh so cautious.

In 1994 Brazil was rewarded for their personality change. They beat their pragmatic mentors the Italians in a God awful World Cup final that went into penalty shootout tied 0-0. It was the beckoning of a terrible age in football that has not yet died unfortunately. When attack minded and stylish football nations like Brazil abandon their natural tendencies for pragmatism and gamesmanship, then you start to lose hope for the future of the game. But this World Cup may have been a wake up call to all those countries and especially to FIFA that radical changes need to be made to bring back the life and the energy of the game. Enough with all these boring 0-0 or 1-0 games. People want to see talent on display and goals scored. We are all tired of watching boring football saddled with chess playing tactics, divers, actors and clowns making a mockery of the game in order to waste time or to get the sympathy of the referees.

Now that the major culprits of negative football are eliminated, perhaps this will help open a new era in football where the adventurous and creative once again take over the game. Although the current Dutch team is nowhere near the class, quality and imagination of their previous masters from 74, they are at least trying to win with a positive outlook. They too have a little bit of the gamesmanship problem in their blood but they are not bogged down with negative thinking.

For me the breath of fresh air and the glowing light of hope from this World Cup sit on the laps of Germany and Spain. Even though I am not a fan of Spain, I do absolutely and positively love the Germans who both play the game in the manner in which it was intended, by attacking and scoring goals. More of that and less of the Italians and this game may well resurrect itself from the list of culturally declining entities that are too fat and too greedy to cowardly to ever be saved from themselves. I can only pray that this is the case.