The Dreams Of Nations

I have been watching a series of documentaries on the impact of football success and failure on nations, during the lead up to the World Cup - that's the game of soccer that is played by amost every nation in the world, for those americancentric amongst you who believe a world cup can be played by the United States teams only!
It has been interesting to see the social and political impact a sport event can have, especially on countries that are struggling beneath oppresive regimes or economic downturn. Throughout the history of international football the game has been used by both dictators and freedom fighters alike, as a means to gather the masses and to provide a symbol of what they wanted to say.
In Australia over the past few weeks we have seen a groundswell of support and glorification of our team that rivals anything to date, including our Olympic efforts. There is something about the "team" schema that invokes a sense of belonging. We are the Socceroos and they belong to us.
At a time when our multicultural experiment in the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne was in danger of going horribly wrong, the World Cup success of our team has united cosmopolitan suburbia. Football in Australia has historically been played by new immigrants attempting to find something familiar in this strange cultural landscape. Until recently teams have been divided on ethnic lines which unfortunately has prolonged the conflict our new citizens were fleeing from in their old worlds. That was until a huge shake up and reorginising of the game on a national scale four years ago. The ethnic teams gave way to a new national comp with a melting pot of talent. The final result of this was seen in our world defying team.
Although Australia has hit the wall and the euphoria has melted away, the unity and acceptance remains.
Hopefully we will be able to look back in a few years and say that this was the turning point and that we will no longer see our young men involved in the ugly riots we saw last summer.
All power to you boys and thanks for the great ride to the second round!