Boring Super Bowl was boring

Well, that was bit of snoozer, wasn’t it? I’ve been watching the Super Bowl since the ill-fated trashing the Oakland Raiders received at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2003, and I cannot think of another game that was less entertaining than the one played last night.

If I’d watch the game by my lonesome, I seriously would have wished to have those four hours back.

But of course I didn’t watch it alone; a huge joy of the Super Bowl is hanging out with friends and or family, and indeed that time spent together is worth its weight in gold, no matter how utterly disinteresting the game may be. Because the game comes secondary, especially when the two teams playing in the Super Bowl are not of your particular rooting interest.

So I had a splendid time chatting with friends, eating some fried chicken, and debating the sordid details of the many Super Bowl commercials (the Microsoft one was the absolute best). I was semi actively rooting against the Patriots because haters are going to hate the most excellent team of this century, but I’m not overtly disappointed at the end result.

If the game could have just been a bit more exciting, honestly.

Best quote of the night award goes to Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth; after the surely displeasing lost in the Super Bowl, he threw out this particular golden nugget:

“At the end of the day, we’re all gonna die.”

Memento mori. Death is the greatest equalizer ever invented. No matter the volume of achievement or depths of downtrodden, it is absolutely guaranteed that we will all end up in the same place: dead. Neither you or I are superior or inferior in that regard. It’s not morbid thinking, but rather motivation to continue on living, no matter the circumstances, like losing the biggest game of your career.

Keep calm and carry on, as the British like to say.

Vine star.

No World Cup for China. Again.

World Cup 2018 is in full swing and as us Chinese are doing that once-every-four-years pondering on why China have once again failed to qualify for the tournament. In the entire World Cup history the Chinese national team have only qualified once, quite a while back in 2002. The team then had a dreadful go of it, failing to score a single goal in group play. 

How can a country of 1.6 billion souls, in a football region that isn’t exactly competitive (you’ve got the twin titans of Japan and South Korea and that’s it), can’t ever seem to form a competitive team? One would think that simply by law of large numbers China would at least be able to scrap a group together and consistently qualify for the games. 

It isn’t for the lack of money: god knows China is full of wealthy corporations and millionaires. My father tells me China’s football federation and the clubs are awash with capital, able to attract foreign players away from Europe to the Chinese leagues. On the contrary I think it’s because of the immense prevalence of money that's preventing China from playing football on the world stage. 

I see a succinct lack of national pride in Chinese athletes. For footballers in other countries it is an absolute dream to represent their national flag. Just this past weekend the Mexican players was in tears of joy because they won the match against the defending German champions. I seldom see this sort of elation and emotion from Chinese athletes. Look at the Olympics games: where are the signature shots of Chinese athletes standing on the top podium step bawling their eyes out while the national anthem is playing?

In every Olympics China wins a ton of medals, but how many of those are for team sports?

My father says sports in China is too focused on the individual, not nearly enough on team and country, and it’s largely due to the corruption of money. Athletes are selfish towards their own achievements in order to maximize the amount of money they’ll receive - there’s no play for fun or for the love of the game. A player gets upset his teammate scored the goal rather than himself. The lack of unity and playing for the collective have hugely contributed to China’s futility in getting into the World Cup tournament. 

I don’t know if the team China will ever get its act together and fight with some national spirit, but I constantly hope. I would love nothing more than to root for my birth country in future World Cups. 

I dig awesome restroom tile-work, especially public ones where I can look like a creep taking my phone out to take a photograph. 

World Cup fever

It's World Cup season once again and it's always a special time because I get to enjoy watching the games with my father. Every four years we'd spend the month of June in front of the television taking in all the matches - or at least endeavor to. The 2018 edition is held in mother Russia and the time-difference makes things difficult: the games are held during the day our timezone so we can only properly watch on the weekends.

On campus the games are shown at the Student Union which is great because none of us need to work during the Summer, right? (Wrong). 

Attending a World Cup game is on the bucket list so I am happy about the announcement the the 2026 games will be cohosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. it's Great news for America because Team U.S.A won't have to worry about not qualifying because host countries receive automatic berths - a genius move by our soccer federation. Anyways, I look forward to going to a live match with my father in eight year's time.

Might even kill two birds with one stone and go to a game in Canada because I've yet to travel to our northern neighbor. 

FiveThirtyEight has a quiz that will tell you which team you should root for in the World Cup. I got team Deutschland so I shall root for them since USA is not in the tournament. Sadly Germany's first match against Mexico didn't go so well (spectacular game, though) but it's still early days for the defending champions. 

The next three weeks should be quite exciting. 

The many shades of purple.