The champions of the world

It may not be a revolutionary thought, but it amazes me how much politics are the heart of the World Cup. It's easy to think of it as the Olympics of soccer, but there's nothing very feel-good about the World Cup and there's almost nothing of the "triumph of the will" stuff that you see in the Olympics. It's sports on the surface, but war at its core.

It's not too much of a surprise that people around the world are rooting for the US to lose (and the US has so far made those people very happy), but this feeling has extended even to people in my highly-international office, people who live in this country. And while I do really love the game of soccer, my rooting for the US team is because I'm American, not because I'm a huge fan of the game.

The politics really becomes fascinating when it's politics or history colliding when two countries go up against each other. Argentina vs. England (well, England vs. almost anyone), Brazil vs. Portugal, and today's matchup: Germany vs. Poland. When the US played and beat Mexico in the last World Cup, I was thrilled of course, but it also hurt to read the stories of how significant that loss was to Mexicans; that Mexico has so much less than it's northern neighbor and this one match meant so much more to them than just advancing. I wouldn't take back that US victory, but it was clear that it was more who the loss was to than the loss itself.

Of course, there's plenty of hard feelings and histories when cities within the same countries go against each other in pro leagues. But the weight of the feeling of politics in the World Cup is so much that it almost makes me uncomfortable. It's when a game isn't just a game.