Last night, I went to a bar in Belgrade with my friends to watch Brazil, the number one soccer team in the world, play against North Korea, one of the longest shots in this year's World Cup. None of us expected much of the game and, if anything, we thought it would be a game full of Brazil's easy scores, one similar to when Argentina scored 6-0 against Serbia in 2006. Little did we know that North Korea's goal against two Brazilian goals would feel like victory for all of us.
As the North Korean anthem played and one of their players was shown crying his eyes out, an incredible sense of support and fellowship toward this team spread across the room. I kept thinking what it was like for the players to fly over to South Africa only to be uncertain whether their efforts would be broadcast home. I think that most of us remembered the 1994 World Cup in the US, when the UN Security Council imposed sports sanctions on Yugoslavia for political reasons and our teams had been prevented from playing in any international games or tournaments from 1992 to 1995. It would have meant the world to the broken moral of our country at the time to have played the World Cup.
Spontaneously, the entire cafe began cheering for the boys in red, whose no-name jerseys looked as if from a different era in comparison to the flashy Nike yellow-green outfits. Here and there, I would even imagine that the Chinese "fans volunteer army" was honestly cheering for North Korea. And perhaps it was. Perhaps it was too swept away with hope and sympathy like I was.
In Serbia we have a saying that goes like this - "There are few things money can't buy... Everything else is available at the Chinese market." Did North Korea actually manage to purchase support, not only from the Chinese but from people in Serbia and all around the world? Rumor has it that the player was instructed to cry during the anthem. Maybe we, the "spontaneous" supporters, were all just a part of President Kim Jong-il's game... But maybe, and hopefully, we simply remembered that all humans deserve a chance.
As the North Korean anthem played and one of their players was shown crying his eyes out, an incredible sense of support and fellowship toward this team spread across the room. I kept thinking what it was like for the players to fly over to South Africa only to be uncertain whether their efforts would be broadcast home. I think that most of us remembered the 1994 World Cup in the US, when the UN Security Council imposed sports sanctions on Yugoslavia for political reasons and our teams had been prevented from playing in any international games or tournaments from 1992 to 1995. It would have meant the world to the broken moral of our country at the time to have played the World Cup.
Spontaneously, the entire cafe began cheering for the boys in red, whose no-name jerseys looked as if from a different era in comparison to the flashy Nike yellow-green outfits. Here and there, I would even imagine that the Chinese "fans volunteer army" was honestly cheering for North Korea. And perhaps it was. Perhaps it was too swept away with hope and sympathy like I was.
In Serbia we have a saying that goes like this - "There are few things money can't buy... Everything else is available at the Chinese market." Did North Korea actually manage to purchase support, not only from the Chinese but from people in Serbia and all around the world? Rumor has it that the player was instructed to cry during the anthem. Maybe we, the "spontaneous" supporters, were all just a part of President Kim Jong-il's game... But maybe, and hopefully, we simply remembered that all humans deserve a chance.
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