The
triumph in the World Cup: the celebration of words
The
moon made of leather in the rising sun
Jesús
Castañón Rodríguez
From
the 31st of May, in Korea and Japan, nine Latin-American countries
have written a new page in the history of the World Cup of
Football when the most repeated word: dream became truth.
A real dream, due to the change of time spindle, and a mid-summer-night's
dream to get the final triumph, and with it, a redemption
which dribbles adversities. The Latin-American dream for Argentina,
Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal
and Uruguay which has made in the first phase of the championship,
the words took pitches, stadiums and streets under the influence
of a whole of planets, stars and moons made of leather with
windy soul.
The pitch
This
moon has had two faces in the pitch. The voluminous side with
silvery sparkles to illuminate and smile at Paraguay, Mexico,
Spain and Brazil. The obscure side with tears and helplessness
of glory to wake Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Portugal
and Uruguay.
In
the first phase of the championship, the performances of the
referees attracted the attention; the talent in the footballers'
feet with the Costa Rican Ronald Gómez's rabonas (move
based on centering the ball kicking it, crossing the foot
behind the support-leg), the Mexican Blanco's cuauhteminha
(a kind of dribble based on holding back the ball with the
feet and jumping so that the ball can come out by the side
of the opponent this footballer has to dribble), the Brazilian
Edmilson's remates en escorzo (a shot at the goal, but with
the twisted, bent body) or the goal scored by the Uruguayan
Darío Rodríguez and the Latin impulse with cadence
and despair in the last matches contended by means of combinados
(teams) with options to reach the next round. However, there
haven't been linguistic contributions derived from skill,
tactics and strategy of the game.
The
split and out of breath heart reached its greatest expression
in Portugal and Argentina. The evolution of the championship
gave the lyrics to the fate of the generation of gold's noisy
devaluation, world and youthful champion in 1989 and 1991.
However,
the white and sky-blue case and its corralito (the fact of
tying up capital) to the hope was specially intense. The necessity
of giving happiness to 37 million Argentinian gave rise to
several products with quality.
Firstly,
an unanimous and jolly hymn to the sound of the chorus "Tanta
gloria, tanto fútbol desplegado por el mundo/ y en
cada gol, la pasión y la emoción" with
howls of goal at the bottom to refer to the necessity of glory,
to the taquito (spur), the gambeta (dribble) and the memories
of the first win among flags and shower of paper and also
the memories of the second one to proclaim the Maradona's
dream while the throats shouted that Argentina is a feeling.
And secondly, two advertisements with penalty as the main
line: on the one hand, the penalty of the final, whose televised
transmission suffers a breakdown because of a power failure,
but it may be followed by the supporters thanks to the clamor
of the goal shout which encroaches upon the terraces of the
buildings; and on the other hand, the experience of a penalty
against England, where time stops and the footballers of both
combinados (teams) talk to the ball so that it can enter into
the goal or not.
The
failure of this fight against England and Sweden, which ended
in punches of Bielsa against the floor, generated affirmations
in the papers by Olé, Clarín and La Nación
and in the Maradonas' voice-overs or commentaries capable
of appearing in a new tango: "se clavaron las agujas
en el corazón futbolístico de Argentina",
"se jugó nuestra suerte. No entró, no entró
y no entró
", " la derrota que pegó
en el alma" or "el sueño terminó".
The
grandstand
In
the near grandstand, the moon made of leather caused gaudy
brightness and effects by means of tides of rising feelings,
passions which go beyond and never-ending emotions.
Firstly,
it created a celebration as confusion or chaos which wishes
to catch the magic of the instant, moment till pervade the
historical heritage of happy words, slogans and songs so that
stones can hear the people's euphoria and the statues can
known the new achievements of the popular history. The supporters
kissed feminine statues in the known fountain of Madrid named
La Cibeles, touched the sky with the Mexican Angel of the
Independence and climbed up to the highest place following
the arrow which points out to El Obelisco of Buenos Aires.
A healthy madness which sometimes generated acts of vandalism
and damages to the monuments, but it also gave rise to an
improvised carnival in Rio de Janeiro to enjoy uncontrollably.
Secondly,
it caused changes in the productivity. In Brazil, the employees
started to work at noon, the breakfast business increased
and alcoholic drinks were substituted for coffee because the
matches were hold at six a.m. In Spain, a lot of fans justified
their absence in their jobs with unreal diseases. Special
permission was given to the pupils to watch the matches in
Ecuador. Bars, coffee houses, snack bars, restaurants and
squares from all the Latin-American countries filled with
gigantic television screens to make feel the breath by the
side of the touch line.
Thirdly,
the moon tried to invent again each day thanks to the instantaneous
and magic communication, by means of a message with the word
"goal" in the cellular telephones when the favorite
team managed to score.
And
fourthly, it generated spiritual vitamins. It was the case
of the parish priest of Ecuador named Héctor Villamarín,
with his sermons to play without complexes and with values
based on honor, glory, strength and personality. Or the wink
at the history to go beyond the reality thanks to the prayer
by means of which the daily La Nación transformed Bautista
into Saint Gabriel: "Bautista, te suplico ¡Oh,
todopoderoso!, que escuches nuestras súplicas, que
no permitas que hablemos de la cotización del dólar,
que alivies nuestras dolencias y que no nos dejes caer en
la realidad" ("Bautista, I beg you, Oh, almighty!,
that you can hear our pleadings, that you don't allow us to
talk about the dollar quotation, that you ease our ailments
and you don't allow reality "captures" us").
Journalese:
the oriental cyclone
Journalese
has not had important changes or modifications with regard
to other summonses or citations, but the influence of the
voiced and graphic expressive aspects in the concepts it transmits
is important and stands out in relief.
The
first one keeps on doing the letter R can vibrate, especially
the one of a recovered Ronaldo whose goals are greeted to
the sound of the epic song "Rro Rro Rronaldinho"
and has given the newness based on the fact that the commentator
or announcer in addition to shout the word "goal",
also accompanies his song banging the table, the same case
which happened with the radio journalists of Mexico when Blanco
transformed a penalty in his match against Croatia.
The
Latin-American journalists verbalized images: to get a "victoria
con dientes apretados" (win with gritted teeth, that
means, to win with difficulty), "llenar la canasta de
goles" (to fill the goal with goals, that means, to score
a lot), "sacar chispas al centro del campo" (to
create sparkles in the center of the field, that means, to
work, to play hard, quickly and eagerly in the pitch) or to
take "el tren de la euforia" (the train of the euphoria,
that means, to have an intense feeling of happiness and pleasant
excitement). Once again, they proved the diversity of language
to refer to a team which can be named ("combinado"
in Argentina and Uruguay, "sele" in Costa Rica,
"selección" in Spain), to their affective
naming (with the curious case of "el Tri" for Mexico
and "la Tri" for Ecuador) or also to refer to the
coach ("estratega" in Ecuador; the "DT"
in Argentina and Uruguay
). And they also created some
curious headings: "Luna de cuero y alma de viento"
(Moon made of leather and windy soul) (to refer to the ball
in Uruguay), "A Croacia le sobran las arrugas" (Croatia
has a lot of wrinkles) (to refer to the physical tiredness
in the first match against Mexico), "El país del
gol naciente" (the country of the rising goal) (to throw
into relief the Japon's wins), "El sueño iberoamericano"
(the Latin-American dream) (to define the longing for glory
and freedom by means of the triumph in the championship) or
"Sillón gol" (Goal armchair) (which gave
the name to a spot based on television criticism in the Asturian
daily La Nueva España for all the ones who follow the
World Cup by means of the "little screen").
A
novelty based on the editorial staff has been carried out
by the daily named Marca, when it has recreated the goals
with lively graphics in its digital edition together with
the rotary diary El País of Madrid which has incorporated
into this same labor the radio narration of the Cadena Ser.
Literature
Writers
aren't beyond all this football fever either, who take sides
by means of their favorite team's colors. Starting from what
has been produced for the moment, some story lines in Colombia
attract the attention.
It's
the case of Óscar Domínguez who defined the
action of Rivaldo in the feigned aggression against Turkey
as "telebobela"; the fact of excluding Verón
Batistuta, Crespo or Simeone from the selection team as "hacer
una antología de cuentistas gauchos in Borges, Cortázar
or Bioy Casares" (to make an anthology of gaucho short-story
writers without Borges, Cortázar or Bioy Casares);
some consequences based on the time change as "reloj
biológico" ("biological clock") and
the fact of having the "ojos empiyamados" ("empiyamados
eyes"). And it's also the case of Ricardo Bada, who jumps
in the pitch of the literary creation after commenting on
football poems by Blanca Varela, Günter Grass and Vinicius
de Moraes, to comment on the development of the championship
humorously in tenths.
Goal armchair
The
living-room spectator has also had his helping of fantasy.
He has been able to contemplate the Fernando Lázaro
Carreter's match against an oriental cyclone of "kicks"
on the criteria of linguistic correction: disappearances of
articles, distortion of prepositions, excessive use of unnecessary
possessives; substitutions of meanings (sensations and vibrations
by means of guess or conjecture, presentiment, premonition,
omen, portent or hunch) and the comments like for example
the ones based on the fact the footballers can "be joined"
to the field and can join "sportingly" over another
football player like if was allowed to bounce over the fallen
competitor.
This
spectator has also learnt vocabulary by means of the BBC's
Internet service,
www.bbcmundo.com,
thanks to "El inglés de la cancha" ("The
pitch English"), a glossary with football sentences and
phrases based on teams, tactics, skills, football pitch; pastimes,
stories about football and history.
Moon with color and warmth
The
first edition of the World Cup in the 21st century goes on
with the tradition based on joining together goodness and
art in creative products to give color and warmth to the event.
In this first phase, the shooting of remarks by the film-maker
José Luis Garci stands out and as far as the musical
aspect is concerned the official CD of the event is important
as well-with the Latin-American contribution of the Portuguese
Nelly Furtado, of the Mexican OV7, of the Spanish girls Mónica
Naranjo and Malú, of the Puerto Rican Chayanne and
of the Brazilian Carlinhos Brown- together with the Brazilian
albums Gol!- with songs by Marcos Valle, Milton Nascimento,
Elza Soares, Wilson Simonal or Junior- and Música de
fútbol- with themes by Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque,
Jorge Ben, Elis Regina and Carmen Miranda-.
Moon like tambourine
During
the second phase, from eighth of final to the final of the
tournament, the Latin-American dream keeps its aspirations
to become truth and to transform the moon made of leather
into a tambourine which can make vibrate their people's eagerness
when they rediscover themselves again in the countries of
the rising sun.
Traducción:
María Elena Martín Pérez