The World Cup Showed Us the Allure of Sports: Clear Winners and Losers

Did you see the faces of Argentinian players and fans exploding with joy after they defeated France in Sunday’s World Cup? Right next to them were the grieving faces of French players and fans, devastated that they came so close and lost.

Now compare that to current events such as the war in Ukraine or the fight against climate change or the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. One reason it can sometimes be exhausting to follow these stories is that there are no clear winners and losers– the battles and the stories are ongoing. Unlike at the World Cup, there is no referee to whistle the end of a match.

This is a key allure of sports— clarity.

While we’re living in a confusing and chaotic time of “misinformation,” “fake news” and blatantly biased news reporting, where it’s getting harder and harder to figure out the truth, along comes the world’s biggest sporting event with an epic piece of reliable news: Argentine wins!

This stuff feels good, because we’re human. Life can get so complicated that it’s refreshing to see anything we can trust, even something as simple as a sporting result. Winner or loser, sports offer us a welcome respite from the annoyances of uncertainty.

It’s important, of course, not to get too attached to this pleasure.

As satisfying as it may be to get clear results, life rarely offers clear victories. “Scoring” a big house or a new deal or a new job won’t necessarily make us winners, if by winning we mean happiness. Many lottery winners are notoriously known to end in failure. The optics of winning in sports are clear—ball goes into the net, you score more goals, you win. In life? Not so much.

Is there a blessing to this uncertainty? Only if you find more pleasure in the doing than in the winning.

Ironically, even Argentine’s coach, who was sobbing with joy after his victory, suggested as much. When journalists asked him after the match what he’ll do next, he replied, to their amazement, “I’ll re-watch all the games to correct mistakes and keep learning.”

There’s wisdom in that sentiment. Winning is a result, not an action. As much joy as we may get from a victory, there’s a deeper satisfaction in the doing, in the struggle.

The Jewish nation, Israel, is named after Jacob, the ultimate struggler, the patriarch who wrestled with God and with an angel. This “struggling” gene has surely marked the Jewish tradition ever since. We’re not meant to seek the temporal joy of victories, but the deeper satisfaction of working, struggling and progressing to make things better.

There is no World Cup for that, but there’s a deeper truth we can trust.