Cultural Analysis Of Soccer

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It is an undeniable fact that soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. According to Kunz, “265 million male and female players in addition to 5 million referees and officials make a grand total of 270 million people – or 4% of the world’s population – who are actively involved in the game of [soccer] ”(Kunz, 2007). Due to this popularity, soccer players also became a unique cultural group. However, the cultural aspects of these players are rarely revealed. Thus, this essay is to observe the soccer team of Dragon F.C, a team joined by mainly Chinese international students who enjoyed soccer, and reveal how these members view themselves and others. When I was interviewing Kelly, the captain of Dragon F.C, she said: “a soccer …show more content…
However, members of the Dragon F.C would volunteer to be the first interceptor so that there would be no need for deciding who needs to do the “dirty work” first. This process shows that most team members are, in a certain degree, unselfish. Indeed, unselfishness is a core element of soccer. It is not just a sport about how a person dribble the ball, pass all the defenders, and score a goal. It is also about one is willing to sacrifice himself for the team. For example, in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Ghana was playing against Uruguay. It was Ghana’s attack, and the Uruguayans were overwhelmed. Suddenly, a shoot was taken by a Ghana player. It passed through the goalkeeper and was heading straight to the goal. Shockingly, Luiz Suarez, the Uruguayan striker, punch the ball out with his hands right on the goal line. Because only the goalkeeper can use hands in the penalty box, it would be a serious foul for other players to use hand purposely in the box for damaging a goal. Presumably, Suarez was sent off by the referee and banned from the next matches, and Ghana received a penalty shot, yet the player missed it. Thus, although he was sent off, Suarez became a hero due to his sacrifice. Furthermore, the unselfish collaboration between one another done by all the clever short and long passes was also the spotlight of …show more content…
Though about 20 minutes ago the captain and the players were still joking like very close friend, during the match, the captains stand for the absolute authority. Players would obey the
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captains regardless of the situation and follow their leads, and the captains would clap their hands to cheer their teammates up when the teams were falling behind or yell at the players if they do not listen. This reveals that players’ perspectives of authority can change along with the contexts. The match was 1-1 tied, and after the match, players talked about the game and their performances. They shared bottles of water and laugh. Kelly gave the conclusion of the merit of the session, and ask for more advice regarding the training methods. Lastly, as the session end when Will finished his speech, players were dismissed and clapped their hands as the affirmation of the efforts. They walked out the pitch, and head the different ways