"Si, Senor, It's War" read the headline in an English newspaper a few days before the national team of England and Argentina met in their semifinal soccer game during the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The headline was an exaggeration, of course. It was just a game. Yet, the Falklands War was fresh in everybody's mind and for the Argentine players a soccer victory would help make up for their loss of the war. Argentina won that game, yet the English will get another chance for revenge when the two national teams meet again in the 2002 World Cup.
This year's World Cup, which will be held in South Korea and Japan in June, is not a war, but there is plenty of nationalism at stake. The popularity of the game throughout the world is due in part to its simplicity, but also to the national fervor that a winning team creates. When France plays Germany or Italy plays England, sports may create a little competition, but history and ancient rivalries make that competition important.
Ten years ago, when Holland defeated Germany in the European championship, delirious Dutch fans threw their bicycles in the air and shouted that they had got their "bikes back," a reference to World War II, when the Nazis confiscated all the bikes in Holland.