‘GOOOAL’ Scores for Cantor
Eight.
That’s how many times those who turned to Univision, the Spanish-language network, to watch the Major League Soccer and FIFA all-star games at Giants Stadium on Sunday heard the word.
It’s not something they could have missed. It’s an unmistakable sound, a cry from the heart, says the man who delivered it.
“Gooooooooooooal!”
Just how many vowels the word contains is uncertain. It depends on the nature of the goal, and the state of Andres Cantor’s lungs. If both are good, the word can echo on endlessly.
It’s a word Cantor has made his own, like a signature tune. Hear it and you see him.
Now, the Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster has also made it the title of a volume that deserves a place on every soccer fan’s bookshelf.
“Goooal!” (Simon & Schuster, $23) is something that is long overdue. Finally, after almost 20 years of relying on Englishman Brian Glanville’s estimable but ultimately rather shop-worn “The History of the World Cup,” fans have a new way to view the sport’s ultimate event.
Written in conjunction with Cantor’s friend and fellow Argentine, Daniel Arcucci, of El Grafico, Argentina’s leading soccer weekly, “Goooal!” is what its subtitle states, “A Celebration of Soccer.”
But it is more than that. In part, it is autobiographical, telling the story of Cantor’s rise from boyhood “futbol” fan in Buenos Aires to teenage Los Angeles Aztec fan in San Marino, to television “sports personality of the year” for his coverage of World Cup ’94 in the United States.
More important, it offers readers something that has been sadly lacking until now, at least in English--a South American view of the World Cup. Glanville’s book, while fair to all, was nonetheless a view through European eyes. Now, we have a fresh perspective.
And we see the 15 tournaments played since 1930 not only through Cantor’s eyes.
“Goooal!” with a curiously self-centered introduction by Carlos Salvador Bilardo, Argentina’s 1986 World Cup-winning coach, contains a chapter on each tournament, followed in most cases by an interview with a participating player.
Sadly, it will not be long before such a book is impossible to duplicate. The few surviving participants from the 1930 tournament in Uruguay are in their 80s or 90s now. Cantor tracked down one of them, Francisco “Pancho” Varallo, 85, of the runner-up Argentine team, and got a fascinating glimpse of what that first World Cup was like.
The book also features interviews with Brazil’s Pele, England’s Bobby Charlton, Argentina’s Diego Maradona, Hungary’s Ferenc Puskas and the Netherlands’ Johan Cruyff, among many other notable but less-illustrious figures.
And rather than rehashing old tales, Cantor has managed to bring fresh insights to each interview, drawing from his subjects opinions and quotes not heard before.
A few examples:
From Maradona, talking about his infamous “Hand of God” goal for Argentina, which--combined with a brilliant second--knocked England out of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico: “The first was like stealing an Englishman’s wallet, and the second covered it all up.”
From Charlton, recounting another controversial goal, this time Geoff Hurst’s shot for England in the 1966 final against West Germany that bounced down off the crossbar and--perhaps--over the line: “I always thought and I still maintain that it was a legitimate goal. . . . But, either way, we knew we were the best, with that goal or without it.”
From Puskas, on why he was disappointed by World Cup USA ‘94: “Most of the teams played with a goalkeeper, nine defenders and a lone striker. I don’t know what this is called, but I don’t like it, nor will I ever like it.”
From Cruyff, remembering his Ajax Amsterdam days, the beginnings of “total football” in Holland and what he termed his “religious belief” in the importance of ball possession: “I can’t forget that every kid who comes to Ajax wanting to be a star is given a ball to write his name on and keep for the rest of his life.”
Among the almost three-dozen photographs in “Goooal!” there are two that Cantor could not resist including. One shows a sheepish-looking teenager holding a soccer ball while posing alongside one of his idols, Cruyff. The youngster is wearing shirt with the wording “San Marino Soccer.”
The second shows that same youngster appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman. The two of them are leaning into the microphone and yelling that word again: “Gooooooooooooal!”
It’s amazing how far it has carried Cantor, but as he explains in his book, its origin lies elsewhere. He borrowed it while trying to launch his television career.
“The next match was the Mexican club America against AS Roma of Italy, and it was then that I shouted “goooal” really loudly, for the first time,” Cantor wrote. “It came from my soul, from my heart. It had the power that comes only from things that spring from one’s essence. I put my dreams, my childhood, my life into that scream, one that I had been hearing forever from listening to Jose Maria Munoz, the legendary Argentine sportscaster, on the radio at home. . . . It was my starting point.”
Having flourished behind the microphone, alongside mentor and sidekick Norberto Longo, Cantor has tried his hand at sportswriting and succeeded brilliantly. His “Goooal!” is a game-winner.
