Major sporting tournaments! They turn us into experts and we go on to commentate on all that has been as well as on what should have been. The almost inevitable discussion about whether the team that won should have won gets followed by discussions that come from rational assessments or absolute frustrations. As for the purpose of the game? It often gets all but forgotten.

For the longest time, the principal aim of the beautiful game has been to get a spherical air-filled leather object through a rectangular vertical plane demarcated by two posts coming from the ground and connected at their top ends by a crossbar. The winners of contests have always been teams that get the vertical plane on their side breached less times than their opponents’. It has always been about the ball crossing the goal line and technology has finally been allowed to help ensure all incidents of this sort count. Other sports, with air-filled contraptions different in shape to that used in soccer, prefer the plane above the crossbar and have extensions to the vertical posts above the horizontal connecting bar.

True, the skills used to achieve the objective has provided great entertainment to followers of football but legends of the game have been persons with great abilities to either put the ball through the goal, facilitate others doing so, or prevent the opponent from achieving this objective. Pele, Zidane, Cryuff, Gullit, Weah, Best, Ronaldo, Platini, Rossi, Hamm,Marta, Sawa, Zoff, Banks… the list of legends grows but the purpose of the game remains goal scoring.

The importance of ball over goal line is at its clearest when both teams either fail to score or suffer equal breaches of their respective goals.  The chance of producing a winning goal is offered through extra time but the process of last resort is one that strips the match of all the fancy stuff and leaves goal scoring as the only business. The teams will alternate in a ritual of one of their players trying to put the ball past a player from the other team and through the rectangular plane.  The ritual ends when one team can be declared to have achieved a greater number of breaches  of the plane out of a set and equal number of attempts as the other team. Yes, penalty kicks save the game from X-Factor like ‘saved by the judges’ charades because it is not the beauty of the performance or the sympathy of supporters that wins the world cup or any other major football trophy. This by no means is intended as a slight on sports that have contestants somewhat seeking the sanction of judges in order to emerge triumphant. Figure skating, gymnastics, synchronised swimming, and other judged sports get my attention and I accept judging is the only option. Nonetheless, I am also grateful for the sports that offer the clarity offered by football, volleyball, athletics, squash, cricket, and a whole heap of others.

In athletics, the Olympic motto of ‘faster, higher, stronger’ says it all. The sprinter must travel faster than his opponents between two points, the jumper must leap higher than the competition, and the lifter must prove himself stronger than anyone else who made the trip. Style and appeal to the eye have nothing to do with it and Michael Johnson’s gong collection despite his “odd” running style is proof of that. So why this rant by me?

We were all so disappointed when Nigeria’s Super Eagles failed to soar when they met Iran and expected the Single star of Ghana’s flag to eclipse the fifty on the Stars and Stripes of the USA. Alas, the eagles barely flapped their wings while the Black Stars were far from illuminating. The chat on social media and other places is mainly about the Ghanaians outplaying the Americans with little mention of the Americans doing what matters most. Team USA got that air-filled thingy through the Ghanaians’ plane more times than the Ghanaians could return the favour.  The Ghanaians did fancy things and improved my understanding of the term ‘champagne football’; It was sweet but left no one intoxicated. It made for entertaining viewing without producing effect. It looked good but produced less goals than the focussed hard work of the Americans…  And at the end of the day, it still is all about goals.