Football, national anthems and national pride

In the past few days, many of us have been living in a state of indescribable euphoria over the victory of the Vietnam U-23 team, even though we have yet to touch the Asian Championship gold cup. Why does football have such a powerful influence, evoking joy and pride?

The "spirited" moments because of victory

Football is called the king of sports for nothing. It is a sport that combines many factors from physical strength, speed, technique… to thinking, strategy and team spirit. It requires players to interact and connect with each other; on the field there is no distinction of race or religion.

Along with that are simple rules, low cost and no distinction between class, age or status. Perhaps that is why football has become a popular sport worldwide.

Looking back at football history, we cannot help but mention the miracles of the teams of Denmark (Euro 1992), Greece (Euro 2004) or France (World Cup 1998)... They created miracles that made their people have sleepless nights.

A typical example is the journey to conquer the Euro 2004 championship of Greece - a team that was considered the underdog of the tournament. However, with a defensive style of play, team spirit and smart strategy, Greece brought the championship cup back to the homeland of the gods. The capital Athens and many other places in Greece stayed up all night to celebrate the victory. They poured into the streets together, sang the national anthem in the central square of Omonia Square, hugged each other and cried in happiness. The whole country of Greece at that time was almost "possessed" because of the victory, a victory beyond their dreams.

Football touches the heart

In the past few days, our whole country has also experienced sleepless nights because of the spectacular victory of the U-23 Vietnam team in the continental arena. It has been a long time since Vietnam has had an event that made the people so happy. The old and the young, men and women all watched together. Every stream of people on the street stopped at the same time to witness the breathtaking penalty shootout. They hugged each other when the victory belonged to us even though just a few seconds before they were strangers.

More than just a sport, football has become something sacred that sometimes, like the past few days, represents the faith and pride of a community, a nation, a people. There will be people who are not into football, but everyone is proud of the U-23 Vietnam team.

And even though they did not win the championship, people still poured into the streets, still welcoming the U-23 team back as heroes. Why? It would not be an exaggeration to say that they, our wonderful U-23 players, have awakened national pride in each of us.

We have witnessed the arduous training path of the players, even bleeding, injuries, always facing great pressure in every match. They have played for the trust of millions of fans, for national pride and patriotism. They are brave warriors!

It is no coincidence that before every international match, both teams must salute the flag and sing their national anthem. It is this opening ceremony of the match, the national flag printed on the players' shirts that has fostered national pride and love for the country. Each individual player does not play football for himself, not only for his team but also for his country!

This explains why when seeing our U-23 players plant the national flag on the white snow and bow, millions of Vietnamese hearts trembled with emotion.

It's clear that football has touched our hearts!

Indispensable ritual before the ball rolls

It is difficult to determine the first football match in history that organized a flag-raising ceremony and sang the national anthem for the national teams before each match. However, the indisputable fact is that the image of athletes solemnly saluting the flag and singing the national anthem has become an indispensable ritual in international football matches.

Andrei S. Markovits, a lecturer at the University of Michigan, said that the first time the entire team of a country sang the national anthem at the World Cup was in 1982. That was the Brazilian team with the generation of Socrates, Zico, and Facao, famous and gallant. However, that was not the first time a flag-raising ceremony was held at an international match.

Not just football, in the US, singing the national anthem before baseball and football games between domestic teams has been around for more than 100 years. SongStar-Spangled Banner(translation:The Star Spangled Flag) was first played before the opening of a baseball game in 1897, decades before it officially became the country's national anthem.