Secret-Rivals: Argentine-Dutch P.O.

Narrated soccer-fanfare 'love' and praise of a 'secret' world-soccer rivalry revealing the 'human-romance' of pure democracy.

A sports-fanfare soccer 'style' diorama featuring the under-celebrated 'parity' of Netherlands-Argentina (soccer-rivalry) as a 'foreshadow' of this year's very globalism-symbolic Qatar Cup [2022], inspired loosely by Hotshot. Enjoy, 

DISCLAIMER: I've no personal/formal ties to the two national soccer teams cited in this public work of sports-fanfiction/diarism and cast this only as a presentation of society discretion. 

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I've been a fan of many a sport/game, but soccer stands out because of its highlighting of special ideations of teamwork and energy-driven game theory, which makes it an unusual re-presentation of color/dance in comics and media and storytelling, outside the bounds of 'formal' philosophy or academics!

My name's Amlan Satan, and I've been a fan of Argentine soccer ever since I started following the game on world-TV in the United States. I played soccer myself as a young lad in New Jersey and then again very casually with friends growing up and then again in college but never pursued a formal/professional ambition, but I continued to flower my love of soccer-TV fanfare, following mostly Argentina and its national/club teams and legends of the older and newer era. I even posted my fanfare-IQ on social-media and became an Argentina cyber-advocate.

I consider myself a 'solid' if amateur chess-player and enjoyed competing against many types/levels of players in chess on the Internet (e.g., Facebook-chess) and drew stalemate/draw (no-win!) decisions against tough challengers, and thought about in general why chess-parity/equivalence reflected real-life political balance intrigue (e.g., Cold War). Well, as an avid-fan of Argentine-soccer cyber-chat(s), I weighed my fanfare of the South American soccer team/stars and wondered in all seriousness if there'd been a 'real' national/style team that would 'equal' the magic and 'shine' of Argentina in world-soccer. I came up with only one side/team/nation that offered such 'chess-equivalence' --- the Netherlands (Europe). Yes, it's the Dutch national team of the Netherlands which had produced many legends in its history that provided key rivalry matches in the World Cup tourney-stage that really rivaled the 'magic' of Argentine-soccer, in my 'good' estimate(s). In fact, two particular matches, separated by 20 years, in 1978 and 1998, between the Netherlands and Argentina, with the latter winning the first and the former the second, highlights the 'sportsman's' luster of this 'immaculate' if under-explored creative sports (soccer) rivalry. In 1978, it was Argentina who came out on top, winning 3-1.

However, 20 years later, it was the Netherlands in the 1998 World Cup that outplayed Argentina and won 2-1. This time around, neither team would reach a World Cup final, but this pre-final matchup once-more showcased why this national/team matchup offered world-soccer fans something no other 'brand' of soccer-team rivalry offered to the media-era --- a showcase of 'pure' dance! It was lovely and amazing (both times!).

As an Argentine fan, I'd not 'boast' that the 1978-1998 matchups of great 'shine' was against the rival-team the Netherlands, were it not for the pure parity/balance between the two very differing soccer-teams in style/mechanics. Argentina had always played with a more libertine, 'ant-like' egalitarian style of soccer, while the Netherlands always boasted a rather 'well-oiled' team-efficiency driven creativity-intelligent style of soccer. It made for a beautiful rivalry!

Such a sports-rivalry of beauty-magic in the media-era of broadcast-sports on the world-stage it seems to me highlights/showcases what and why competition-consciousness inspires regarding 'real' distances, a symbol of modern Earth 'toy-and-tech' driven human network(s) design(s)! It's a symbol of humanity's 'face' for socialized democracy (really)!

So, I started simulating 'mock' scenarios in which I'd envision Argentine-Dutch soccer-sides competing as 'chess-sides' on a board that would eventually/certainly lead to stalemate-condition(s) play! I realized such chess-diagrams would be a real density/intrigue for choreographed ideations of competition itself. It became an obsession with me --- this sort of 'dynamics-diorama' erection using chess and the Argentina-Netherlands soccer-rivalry.

Then, I met my wife, a beautiful Dutch professor of linguistics at Dartmouth named Elka who, incidentally, was a huge fan of Netherlands soccer legends (Cruyff/Bergkamp) and realized she drew out of my fascination with Argentine legends (Maradona/Aimar) and began to think seriously why/how my lifelong 'bias' for Argentine soccer had suddenly become a 'compromise' for the metaphysics for shared Earth-network driven optimism/romance.

ELKA: It's ironic and maybe reveals why Argentina is lucy to have a Western cyber-advocate in you, darling.

ME: Yes, yes; in fact, had I not met you, I'd not share why the Netherlands-Argentina soccer-rivalry is so...democratic.

ELKA: Maybe it's 'love' that brought out a diagram of 'complete' sportsmanship chess.

ME: Yes, yes; in fact, the Netherlands-Argentina soccer rivalry/equivalence erases (for me now) the Leviathan of war.

ELKA: Excellence, darling...and honesty (very American!).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)