Kazakhstan vs. England

Sometimes no news is good news. After my organization’s success with the Peace Corp Partnership (see last post), the rest of May passed very quietly. This is a "long" list of things that I helped out with during May:

• Planted potatoes with my host family
• Taught whiffleball to kids
• Learned how to cook монты
• Played soccer

Even though it is Peace Corps…some days (or stretches of days) are more boring than others.

However, June has already been more exciting than all of May. Last Saturday the Kazakhstan national soccer team played England in a World Cup qualifier. The game was in Almaty and the tickets were rumored to be around 10,000 tenge (way out of my budget). So my friends and I did what any fan of any major sport would do: we went to a local restaurant and watched the game on a projection tv.

I am happy that I am in a place where soccer is a popular sport. Volleyball is also popular in Kazakhstan, but now that the weather is warmer there is is always a pickup soccer game going on in the afternoons in my town. I don’t speak Kazakh, and my Russian is horrible, but everyone can appreciate a good save, or a pretty header off of a 30 foot crossing pass. I met most of my local friends just by approaching them and asking if I could join a game.

As for the game between Kazakhstan and England, the first half was great. The Kazakhstan squad, while young, inexperienced, and visibly smaller in comparison to the English footballers, played with a lot of heart. They held off the English for about 40 minutes. They even had two good scoring opportunities, with one ball that bounced off of the post and another that missed just wide. However, the size of the English players were too much, and it showed on a goal off of a corner kick where the English player didn’t have to jump to head the ball into the net.

The second half was boring. It reminded me of a high school JV- varsity scrimmage. The Kazakhstan team seemed flat on their feet as the English squad put in three more goals, including a beautiful Rooney full volley/bicycle kick combination which surely must have been an “ESPN’s top ten plays of the day” candidate.

Kazakhstan’s soccer team is very young, and lacking in experience on the world stage. However, I believe that these things can be solved with a little bit of time, money, and talent. Kazakhstan has the money to find, train, and attract top talent and coaching (Through a sponsorship maybe?). They already have a pool of talent to develop and train in its national soccer league, and small youth leagues and school teams are springing up everywhere, ensuring the future of the sport and the development of very young talent. Most importantly, soccer is already a part of the culture. Soccer is everywhere; perhaps not as intense as Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico, and the traditional soccer superpowers. However, it is there: the will to play, the love of the game. Those things can’t be taught nor bought.

Kazakhstan won’t have a cakewalk in any international competition. Since it is actually a member of the European soccer association , they will be consistently playing against the best squads in the world. This means they will be always get a mouthful of the traditional soccer superpowers: Germany, Italy, England, France, Holland and the (re)emerging national squads such as Ukraine and Russia.
Whatever the case, Kazakhstan soccer surely has the time. After seeing the squad against England, I don’t think they will fare any better against the other teams in their group, which includes England, Belarus, Croatia, Ukraine, and Andorra. Kazakhstan has played all of them, and the only squad that Kazakhstan has beaten is Andorra. Hope for this World Cup cycle seems bleak if not impossible at this point. However, their future can be bright. Perhaps one day, Kazakhstan will be able to secure a World Cup berth, if not by 2018, surely by 2030.