How To Choose Your Soccer Team

By Rachel Ang, 21, Singapore

This is slightly outdated, but the girl who has never been interested in football has watched her first soccer match!

Having read my previous article, my friends were ready to explain to me the rules and mechanics of the game as we sat down to watch Germany play against Argentina in the semi-finals. Thanks to them, I was able to grasp the mysterious concept of offside.

In spite of myself, I actually did enjoy the 90mins of 20 men, minus the goalies, running after a ball. But now that I have one foot through the doorway of soccer fanaticism, I’ve met another roadblock: the question of which team to support.

Unlike the extensive and exhaustive lists of traits that people produce when considering their future life partners, I only have five simple requirements.

1. The team must be strong. It probably takes a certain amount of knowledge of a team’s history and details in order to sympathize with them, but, not having that, supporting the under-dog is a noble notion I would prefer not to apply. Who would ever want to be on a losing side?

2. My friends must support that team. Strength in numbers is the key. To pull it to an extreme, I’m sure we know how “dangerous” it can be to be alone in wearing, for example, a Brazil jersey while touring England during the World Cup season, or vice versa.

3. My friends must not laugh at that team. Putting aside the element of potential “danger”, I’m sure anyone can understand when I say that it is not a pleasant thing to be ridiculed! At the Germany verses Argentina viewing, the number of Germany fans happened to outnumber the Argentina ones, and it was slightly uncomfortable for me watching the Deutschland supporters mocking the unfortunate fans.

4. The team must sport a distinct and unique jersey color. This is for the very practical purpose of being able to follow the game, and is especially important to inexperienced viewers such as myself. I don’t want to be mistaking the opposing team for my own, nor cheering idiotically when they score a goal against my side!

5. The players have to be fairly good-looking. This is an auxiliary point, but I think having handsome players on the team makes watching the game a much more pleasant experience. It is also a factor that is fairly important to consider in the event that I decide to become slightly more hard-core and put up their pictures and posters on the walls of my room.

Pretty reasonable, right? But when I shared my list with a friend, he commented, especially regarding No. Five, “Don’t you think that’s quite superficial?”

The interesting thing is, we sometimes apply similar guidelines in the way we choose who we want to associate with. It’s easy to understand why we would want to hang out with the “in” crowd. This includes people who have strong characters, who are popular with other people, who are respected and never ridiculed, who wear nice and fashionable clothes and are considered pretty or handsome. We seldom want to interact with those who are considered eccentric, different, or for some reason or other have been labelled simply uncool.

But that isn’t how Christians should act. In James’ letter to believers, he warns them about showing favoritism to some people over others. He pointed that we shouldn’t give special attention to the wealthy or those who dressed fancifully (James 2:1-9). Such discrimination reflects evil motives—a desire for material benefits rather than loyalty to God.

Also in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus explains that the people whom we should show love to shouldn’t consist only of people whom we like, or who have high status and recognition in society. We are to show love to even the socially despised*.

Soccer players will not suffer much for the lack of one fan’s support, but to some people among us, having someone who cares enough to smile and say “Hello” could mean a world of difference in their lives. Let’s learn not to look at people’s social standing, clothes or appearance, but to truly see them and their needs through the eyes of God’s compassion.

Loving our neighbors will not always be easy, and will sometimes need us to make personal sacrifices. But with all the energy and enthusiasm we can have in supporting distant soccer stars, surely we can spare some to share God’s love to a lonely soul closer to home, in the same way that He first loved us?

No one has ever seen God.
But if we love each other, God lives in us,
and His love is brought to full expression in us.
1 John 4:10-12

*The Jews were scornful of the Samaritans as the Israelites from that region had intermarried with foreigners. Samaritans were regarded as half-breeds, pagan and unclean, and Jews refused to associate with them.

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