I saw this documentary last week and given that the World Cup Final has just been contested, the timing was entirely apt. This film details the build up to an unusual football match played on the 30th of June 2002, the day of the World Cup Final. In that game, watched by a global audience of one billion people, two titans of the game played each other for the ultimate sporting prize. The final outcome had Brazil defeat Germany in a high-tech stadium in Tokyo. Meanwhile, another football match was simultaneously being played in another corner of Asia. But this one was nothing like the one dominated by Ronaldo. It was instead contested by the two lowest ranked international football teams in the world. A Dutchman Johan Kramer had taken inspiration from his own team's failure to qualify for the big tournament. He started to focus on all the other teams in the world who mostly lost games of football; the natural result of this quest led him to the two countries listed as 202nd and 203rd in the world – Bhutan and Montserrat. Contact was made with both federations and it was agreed that they would play each other on the same day as the 2002 World Cup Final.
What this film really is all about is the joy and beauty of the game; and the way it can bring people of different cultures together, no matter the skill level. Where the top level of football has been taken over with corporate sponsorship, astronomical wages and a win-at-all-costs cynicism that often results in extremely unattractive gamesmanship and play-acting, the people in this film are completely unaffected by any of these afflictions. By going back down to the lowest level of the international game, Kramer has discovered an important truth about the sport in general. He has encountered players and fans who love football without any of the unattractive qualities that poison the game at the higher levels. The players are earnest and perform for the love of playing, while the fans are un-contaminated by the nasty element that some supporters develop when the stakes are high.
The game itself was the highlight of the film for me. While it was a friendly with no meaning outwith itself, the players gave it their all and it was beautiful to see both the players and the fans having a ball. The local commentator was an absolute riot. His lack of exposure to the game meant that his observations were refreshingly original. His heartfelt empathy with the Montserrat goalkeeper after conceding a goal was touching while being very funny. As too was his confident assertion later that the said keeper 'really knows what he is doing with the ball at his feet' just prior to the player kicking the ball hopelessly to an opposing striker. His commentary was both hilarious and charming. We even had the always amusing sight of a dog running onto the pitch and walking around without a care in the world. These sorts of things just don't happen at Old Trafford or the San Siro.
I won't give away the result, although ultimately the score doesn't really matter. What does matter is that this football match was played and conceived in a way that is truer to the spirit of the game than the one played at the top level often is. For the record the big game two days ago was won by Spain, who played a passing game that was in the best traditions of football, while the Dutch tried to cynically kick them off the park. Luckily the best side won. The Dutch team maybe should look to one of their compatriots, Johan Kramer, and learn from him; at least he, eight years previously, had done something on the day of the World Cup Final that truly celebrated the best of football.
