The Game Before The Game

The Game Before The Game

A Football Report
The Game Before The Game
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....
The Game Before The Game [[MORE]] Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold....

The Game Before The Game

Every four years, as we lick our chops and zealously await the arrival of another World Cup, we get our new kit together, plan parties, and dream about all the various possibilities that one magical month can hold.  As we take in the match previews and predictions, photo spreads and feature pieces, a flurry of commercials fly by our wide eyes. 

A lot of them amount to no more than “this player hawking this thing” or “look how cool these boots make your feet look” — but some of them stand for something much more powerful. In these, adverts cease being adverts and become, at their best, odes to the game we love. The following video from Beats by Dre is a brilliant short film that whispers “oh, by the way, headphones,” but, far more importantly, examines the way expectation, anxiety, and hope all unite so powerfully and synchronously every four years for the World Cup.  

This is much more than a commercial; this is a panoptic survey of what a tournament (and, indeed, football) can mean to so many around the world, both on and off the pitch. [Posted by Zack]