Sunday, December 26, 2010

Football and Nationalism

 On 14 July1969, a Football War broke out between two Central American countries i.e El Salvador and Honduras.

The war (ended on 18 July 1969) was caused by political tensions between both countries that coincides with inflamed rioting between fans of their football teams during the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. For details on the Football War, please click here.

This Football War shows that a Football match is not just an ordinary sport match but it can also be a competition between national prides of the countries competing in the matches.

This is quite obvious because unlike other sports e.g Badminton, Tennis, Athletics, which rely on individual skills of the player, in Football, a player must not only be good playing by himself, but he must also be good playing with ten other members of his team.

Most countries have their national football teams with members consisting of best players in their country, to compete against other country's national teams.

Like in other countries, football in Indonesia is played by men from all walks of life almost every time there is a celebration, that is why Football is often described as the People's Sport.
But until the recently, the condition of football here was actually not good whereby our team loose many times against other countries.

But all that has changed after the Indonesian national team won all five matches in the qualifying round of the 2010 AFF-Suzuki Cup. Therefore, many people who never enjoy watching football matches before, like children, ladies, famous celebrities, have became supporters of our team. Every day all the news media reported about our national team players, their private lives etc.

Tickets for the 85,000 seats of the main stadium in Jakarta have been sold-out during the last several games

Our national team's fans are so fanatic that they are willing to travel to Kuala Lumpur where our national team will meet Malaysia in the First leg of Final Round tonight, whereby 15,500 tickets allocated for fans of our team have been sold-out.

For the last several days, they have been willing queue for many hours to buy tickets for the second leg which will held in Jakarta on 29 December 2010. This is amazing considering that the prices of tickets are very high i.e. between 50,000 Rupiah (US$ 5+) and 1 million Rupiah (US$ 100+), compared to the prices of tickets in Malaysia i.e. RM 30 (87,000 Rupiah) and RM 50 (144,500 Rupiah). For details on the Tickets, please click here.

I am very happy with this rising nationalism among our people in supporting our national team. I hope that our leaders in the government, parliament and judiciary bodies would be able to use this momentum to gain support for development programs that benefits our country and people.


Logo : Courtesy of AFF-Suzuki Cup.

14 comments:

Vulkanis said...

Salam Cinta Damai dan Kasih Sayang ‘tuk Sahabatku terchayaaaaaank
I Love U fullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Vulkanis said...

This is my first visit here in this incredible information that you provide. I'm so glad to be here, buy the way .... if you have time please visit my site. hopefully we can be friends and exchange information. thank you

warcoff said...

I agree with u, n I hope the euforia not only tempory situation. Hopefully the Indonesian team football can win that match and get the trophy :)

Unknown said...

semoga menang dua duanya sob.biar ga ribut.hehe

colson said...

I really hope all Indonesians will have a party after the finals. I'll keep my fingers crossed, hoping they will win. And I guess they will.

So enjoy, party and have a ball, feel united with all fellow Indonesians after the championship has been won, but let's not exaggerate: it's only a football match.

colson said...

Bad luck this time. I'm sorry. It will not be easy after this result, but let's hope the team will clearly beat Malaysia at the return match.

TUKANG CoLoNG said...

3-0

dee said...

sayangnya kita terpengaruh diawal babak pertama sehingga mungkin kehilangan konsentrasi dan dipecundangi 3-0 oleh Malaysia,, strategi kita dah terbaca lawan,, dengan mudahnya menjebol gawang Markus.. ini sebaiknya menjadi catatan untuk lebih baik lagi pada 29 December nanti,, paling tidak kita bisa seri,, atau menang telak untuk merebut Piala AFF Suzuki Cup tahun ini... Indonesia just not lucky enough! Thanks H. Nizam

Unknown said...

@Vulkanis,
Terima kasih atas salam cinta dan damainya.
And thank you for your visit and comments. I will surely visit your blog.

@Waroeng Coffee,
Yes, let us hope that our team will make lots of goals on Wednesday so that they can be the champion.

@Wisata Murah,
Semoga timnas kita menang besar pada hari Rabu yang akan datang.

@Colson,
Thank ou for your kind sympathy and supports.
I agree that a football match should just be a sport match where winning is not the only thing that matters. But I hope that our team will become champion.

@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Mari kita optimis bahwa timnas bisa mengalahkan Malaysia secara lebih besar seperti belum lama ini mereka lakukan.

@Deasy,
Saya sependapat dengan anda. Timnas harus belajar dari kekurangan selama ini dan bersiap untuk main lebih baik lagi agar mereka bisa menang pada hari Rabu nanti.

StarGames said...

Dear Online Friend,

We wish you prosperious New Year 2011 !

The StarGames Team

Unknown said...

Star Games,

Happy New Year to you too.

Unknown said...

The problem with international soccer is that the teams are made up from professionals playing in a number of competitions, and the amateur players; the latter probably having a better attitude. You only have to look at the success of the NZ All Whites at The recent Football World Cup. They were the only team not to lose a game, but not make the final round. They drew their three games, including Italy. It was team spirit and a dedicated effort to play for their country.

Soccer is a very minor sport in NZ, behind rugby, rugby league, and hockey at times.

Sherrlyna said...

Happy New Year I just started following today. Love your poem!!!

I'm at http://www.BorkgrenPhoto.net and you have to click to get to the blog.

For women my blog is www.oolalaboudoir.wordpress.com

Unknown said...

@Peter/Kiwi,
Yes, international soccer is based team spirit and players' dedications to play for the country.
Thank you for sharing with us about football in New Zealand.

@Sherlina,
Happy New Year to you too.
I will check your blog.