I am never an avid football fan but whenever the World Cup approached, I did have my favourite teams to root for : Argentina, firstly; Brazil, my second favourite. This time was no exception mainly because it was Diego Maradona who had started my interest in watching the game.
My world cup fantasy however ended when Argentina was shown an exit after losing miserably to Germany in the quarter-finals playoff with Germany (0-4). I thought Lionel Messi displayed a superb performance. Well that’s in the humble opinion of the not-so-avid football fan in me, with no knowledge of when a free kick or corner kick would be awarded. Penalty kick I knowlah. For me as long as the ball gets past the goalkeeper and lands beautifully and convincingly inside the set, that is already enough to make my heart pumping in excitement, for the team I root for of course. -__-
But I am happy that Spain won instead of Netherland. For reason that Spain is currently embroiled in political squabbles with its people having some tough times financially. To have something of monumental significance as this would temporarily take their mind off from the hardship that they are facing right now and to just for the moment bask in the glory of the victory of their national team.
The Spanish people truly deserve this golden moment. Their absolute ecstasy…
I honestly did not watch the live telecast, too tired after a balik kampung trip and I ended up retiring to bed early. I however watched the replay match the following day.
But there are snippets that are endearing to me which is how I would like to remember the FIFA World Cup 2010:
1. During the early morning match between Germany and Uruguay and I was back in the village, three adults i.e my elderly 81 years old father, eldest brother and younger brother were all laying on the living room sofas, each occupied one long sofa,still sleepy with blankets as cover from the early morning cold, watching the live telecast with the ooh & ahh every time during heart-stopping performances. I woke up with bleary eyes, came out from the room to take a peek as to which team was leading then sneaked back in to go back to my sleep. I was helpessly distracted by the ever persistent buzzing sound of vevezulas coming from the audience plus the very high-pitched and at times almost at screaming tone of the commentator commenting the many exhilarating moments during the match. The scenario was interspersed with the blaringly loud sound produced from an audio set played by the Timorese worker of my neighbour, who was having a grand party of sort to celebrate his only daughter’s full moon occasion. My mother kept saying this man must have won the lottery or else he definitely would not hold such a celebration for he is a very thrifty man.
And the Timorese man played the audio set till dawn, long after the live telecast had ended!
As if the birth of a daughter warrants a party of that scale to disrupt the sleep of the entire village . Sigh.
2. The next day (Monday), when I reached my work place at about 7.30am. The parking lot in front of the office building was almost empty. Like eerily empty. Those who always turn up early were not in the office. Must be staying up late watching the World Cup Final lah tu. My colleague who showed up later asked: `semua orang cutikah?’
The thing World Cup can do to you -__-
3. My boss Mr. Lee who is an avid football fan showed up a bit late than the time he normally would. Even though most of the times he’s late also, understandably, being a boss he has an excuse to be late. -__-
4. The sport club of the company I work with held a `teka bola’ contest where for every contest form of RM5 you may try to guess which teams will advance to the group of eight, quarter finals and the finals. The one with the correct or near correct guesses would win. I joined but all my guesses were wrong ( I voted for Argentina as the World Cup Winner). My colleague who won the contest with more than RM100 prize money treated us with makan-makan.
5. I have developed a liking for Diego Forlan from Uruguay and the team itself. Again in my humble opinion I thought the team fought hard to be placed in the quarter final and Frulan displayed world-class skills hence his team deserved to advance to where they were. He wears a head band too which looks kind of cute to me. -___-
So that’s a post written to remember the World Cup 2010. For many years down the road I think my memory will play a cheeky game with me, and I won’t be able to remember any of these events again.
I am looking forward to World Cup 2014 in Brazil. And like always I hope to see Argentina in the finals and hopefully Lionel Messi would still be in the team and Diego Maradona as the couch, who with his charisma and crazy antics would surely entertain many a crowd.
I would like to join the `Teka Bola’ contest again. This time I would definitely follow the unmistakable instincts of Paul the Oracle Octopus. Hope he would live long enough to see the next World Cup though. Funny when colleagues mentioned the word `sotong’ during lunch time in the office pantry, I initially thought it was a nickname given to an orang putih who was based locally who could predict accurately on the outcome of most of the matches in the World Cup. -__-
And I would like to see the same endearing scene with my elderly father and brothers laying on the living room sofa watching the early morning telecasts with their own `professional’ comments like `yi geh tendangan zhing sui’ (it’s an excellent kick), `jing vui hiam’ (it’s dangerous, in reference to an imperfect finishing by an opponent team) etc etc..
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