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The triumph in the World Cup: the celebration of words

The moon made of leather in the rising sun

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.

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".

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 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.

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.

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.

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-.

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.