#MeTwo

The situation of Mezut Ozil has pissed me off so much that whatever little support or any big respect I had for German football hangs on a thin thread. I can totally understand that he has left the national team of ungrateful and hateful fans, who indeed treated him well when things go well, and badly when things go badly, as they did for Germany in the last World Cup.
Now this is a symptom of the much wider problems of nationalism, where too many people think that you cannot love or identify with more than one nation. Nations are mental constructs! They only exist in people's mind. And from that mind comes a lot of symbols in the form of paper, cloth, songs, stories, etc., that basically just exist to constantly reconfirm this mental construct.
Football also contributes to recreate this mental construct. That is basically the only reason for having the World Cup at a time when football is a global sport: I can sit in Liberia watching an English League match where a Frenchman of Malian descent plays alongside a Spaniard of Catalonian heritage to score a goal against a Belgian (Waloon) goalkeeper for a club owned by a Russian. In this global mixture a player or a fan may love multiple teams, may love multiple countries and may count his heritage from many parts of the world.
I admire Mr. Ozil because he, like so many of us in the world with mixed heritage says what we all know: that you can belong and feel proud of having a multiple cross-national background, so incredibly rich in its diversity, and so incredibly open to the wonders of this world that I often pity the people whose narrow minds limits them to a particular mental construct.
Quoting the fantastic writer Mr. Amin Maalouf:
"I am at the edge of two worlds, of two or three languages, of many cultural traditions. It is precisely that which defines me… I do not have many identities, I have one, made up of all these elements…. "but deep inside, what do you feel you are?": this reoccurring question made me smile for a long time. Today, I do not smile at it anymore. It seems to me that it shows a dangerous way of seeing the world that is very wide-spread nowadays. It supposes that there is, within each of us, only one belonging which matters, an essence which is determined once and for all at birth and which will never change; as if the rest – your journey through life as a free person, your convictions, your preferences, your sensibilities, your affinities, in short your life – counted for nothing. And we push others to strengthen their identity as we so often do nowadays, it is as if we were telling them to find, deep within themselves, this theoretical original belonging, which is most often ethnic, national, religious or racial, and throw it in the face of others."

Europe 2-Africa 0

Today's two matches saw clashes between two European powers and the two remaining African teams in the tournament. Sad for Africa, both African sides were eliminated. But they can leave with their heads held up high.

Nigeria played well against France, who steadily worked themselves into the match and capitalized on their big chances only in the end with a 2-0 victory. This is not the last we will see of this Nigeria side, although coach Stephen Keshi has just announced that he will leave. But if Nigeria manage to build on what Mr. Keshi has built, Nigeria will continue to steadily improve and take over its rightful position as one of the football powers of the world.

Germany had much more trouble defeating a brave Algerian side that fought their hearts out. It was impossible not to support them. It was also incredible that the first 90 minutes ended 0-0, as the match had many chances, but also two outstanding goalkeepers. In extra time it was clearly Germany who had more energy. Andre Schurrle made it 1-0 on a heel goal that was a clever combination of brilliance and luck. Mesut Ozil made it 2-0 in the last minute before Algeria got one up in the final second of the match.

The Algerians were understandably disappointed, but they have given fans a great world cup.

Germany and France will make one quarterfinal, so at least one European side will be in the semifinals. With Netherlands also as favourites to go through, and Belgium and Switzerland both with good chances, it does look that this will be a European World Cup, yet again. At least Europe beat Africa today.