Page 3 - Soccer360 Issue 106

FIRST WORD - KICK OFF
TOURNAMENTS
MAKE
MEMORIES
ALTHOUGH THERE ARE MANY THINGS IN MODERN FOOTBALL TO FEEL NEGATIVE ABOUT, EURO 2024 IS HERE AND IT REMINDS US THAT NOTHING CAN BEAT A GOOD TOURNAMENT, EXPLAINS GABY MCKAY.
ABOVE (MAIN):
Italy created memories as they took home the hardware in 2020
ABOVE:
There’s something magic about a country coming together in the name of the beautiful game
As frequently recounted in this Of course, the powers that be appear to
very column, there’s a lot to be negative about in modern football. That said, it is still the most brilliant sport of all. And a summer containing an international tournament is about as good as it gets. Most of us can remember that first tournament, the one that captured the imagination as a child. You probably devoured every piece of information
you could about the teams and players before it started, perhaps even attempted to finish a Panini sticker collection - has anyone ever actually managed it? - and look back on that tournament through the most rose- tinted of glasses.
The passage of time does funny things to international tournaments. For example, you’ll quite often see people on social
media harking back to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as a high point for football that will never be repeated. The thing is, that was actually a rubbish World Cup. The ball didn’t fly properly, winners Spain were dull to watch, there was no real standout star and there was a constant vuvuzela drone
in the background. There were certainly champagne moments - South Africa’s first goal of the tournament leaps to mind - but
if it wasn’t your first rodeo it was one of the more dull editions.
My first ‘proper’ World Cup was 2002. Objectively I’m aware that, too, wasn’t
a brilliant tournament. If you were in
Europe the kick-off times were awkward, a mediocre German team reached the final, the officiating was awful and the big stars seemed leggy after a long club season.
That may be how history remembers it,
but me? Ronaldo and Rivaldo! Those mad South Korean fans! Roy Keane storming out!
Ronaldinho’s audacity getting the better of England! There’s no guarantee Euro 2024 will go down as anything like a classic, but there’s still something mesmerising about a major international competition, and it’s worth remembering that it’s a long time since we’ve had one - in the traditional sense.
The last World Cup was, of course, hosted
in the winter in Qatar and before that Euro 2020 had to be postponed due to COVID-19 and was then held largely in stadiums all across Europe which were half-full at best. This year’s European Championships will see the whole continent really come together in Germany for a festival of football, and that’s something worth celebrating.
be doing their level best to ruin even the magic of a summer tournament. The Euros has already been expanded, the World Cup will follow suit in 2026, and then there’s FIFA’s oft-floated idea to host the World Cup biennially. Let’s not start on Qatar and Vladimir Putin’s Russia holding the last two editions with Saudi Arabia to follow in 2030. That’s been raked over thoroughly and will be again, but let’s try to remember the joy football can bring too.
International tournaments are a great way to spend a summer even if you don’t have
a dog in the fight, and if you do there’s really nothing like the whole country coming together in the name of football. My own country, Scotland, have qualified for just a second tournament since 1998 and while they’ll almost certainly embarrass themselves, because it’s what we do, at
the time of writing they haven’t. Even the smallest nations who have made it to the tournament will be looking at Denmark in 1992, Greece in 2004 and - so nearly - Wales in 2016 and thinking “hey, if the draw falls for us...”, while the big favourites will have the final in the back of their minds already. What we can be sure of, is that for a kid of the right age across Europe, the tournament will go down as one of their formative memories - as will the 2026 World Cup for those just a little too young right now. The actual quality doesn’t matter, so much as how it makes you feel and that’s something we should all try to remember.
So let’s cross our fingers and hope for a real feast of football, some great games, some standout performances from the big stars and a shock or two along the way. Let’s put aside the tribal differences that so often divide us and just celebrate being football fans, and that we can once again enjoy a summer with the beautiful game.
SOCCER360 SUMMER 2024 1