The World Cup and International Relations

My first introduction to what Americans call soccer (even though FIFA stands for Federation Internationale de FOOTBALL Association) was in Tonga, where my village of Ha'ateiho made sandwiches for the Ha'ateiho team, and a student priest (somewhat like a student prince) was the star player.  The other team complained that it wasn't fair because he had God on his side.   Games were on the palace grounds--or so it seemed.  The king was driven from the palace in a black limousine so he could watch the game from the back seat.  I think he and Langi  or maybe Mike Monti introduced the game of soccer to Tonga.

So now, with the World Cup, I think of how this sport connect with people I know.  I just wrote to 'Ana to ask about the name of the field.  I wrote to Mike in New Zealand to find out who introduced the game to Tonga. (I also acknowledged the death threats the New Zealand referee got for apparent errors he made in the match between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Nigeria--not good for international relations.)   I wrote to Daan in the Netherlands to wish him both a happy birthday and a FIFA win when he played Chile.  (In 2006, I had friends here to watch the match between the Netherlands and Spain before going to Stern Grove to hear the SF Symphony, and besides serving Dutch cheese and beer and Spanish cheese and tapas, I decorated a cake to look (a little bit) like a soccer ball.

I wrote to a former student who's a soccer coach to get his impressions and got a charming response.
I wrote to a former student who's from Algeria to congratulate Algeria on its win over Portugal.  I even wrote a few things on Facebook for Algeria and Mexico.  "Se se puede!" responded a former student.

And of course, I love a man who loves soccer.  After deciding the game between Croatia and Mexico was going to stay 0 to 0, he turned off the TV at a friend's house, but he had to pull over when I, on my iPhone, saw a different score as he was driving us back to San Francisco.