Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

All the world's a football

Come tomorrow, and the grand football season comes to an end as also the month of sleepless nights. Fans of the game tell ANAND SANKAR that many of their predictions have gone topsy-turvy

PHOTO: AFP

GOAL! The world waits to see if Italy or France will celebrate come Monday morning

It has been an unforgettable month for football fans (and non-fans) in the city. The World Cup has finally reached its climax and now there will only be one winner. While there is the academic play-off for the third place today, the game everyone is waiting for is the clash between the Les Bleus and the Azzuri tomorrow to decide the champions of world football for the next four years.

Predictable course

As soon as it got under way, we realised this was no World Cup of surprises. All the favourites were in fine form and sailed through to the knockout stages. There was no South Korea or Turkey to spring a surprise, with only the Ghana Black Stars showing glimpses of being the dark horse. But the bigger the teams, the bigger the heartbreaks. Some fans in the city are plainly inconsolable after their favourite teams found themselves taking the next flight home. The most depressed lot in the city are the fans of Brazil and Argentina.

A. Bhattacharya comes from that part of the country where Brazilian football is revered and he can't digest the fact that Latin American participation ended in the last eight. "Brazil have lost and I have lost interest. The way Brazil played, and the performances of Ronaldinho and Kaka looked as if they were simply not there. Maybe there is a story behind their bad performances. I love Brazil and Argentina because of their artistic game. But I feel the refereeing in this World Cup was below standard and biased. The African teams especially were singled out for the cards. After watching Ivory Coast and Ghana, I feel African football is going to offer us a lot of excitement in the future."

Another disconsolate lot are the England supporters who believed that this was England's year. Arindam Vishwas, an advertising executive who watched the England matches with a friend from Oxford, summed it all up. "My friend was just so depressed. I tried telling her that there was Euro 2008 to look forward to and that made her even more depressed."

When it comes to rating the tournament, feelings are mixed and most say that it did not live up to the quality of the previous ones. "I felt the standard was low. Compared with the previous two or three editions it was poor. The Europeans are playing a technically good game and effective football. But it is sad Brazil and Argentina were shown the door. I supported Germany from the beginning and Spain," says 69-year-old veteran sports fan, P. Janardhanan. His favourite moment during the competition was Argentina's 24-pass goal against Serbia and Montenegro.

Though a Brazil fan, Bhattacharya says that the organisation of the European teams was something to marvel at. "The coaches and managers play a big part with them. They are fantastic. Even penalties are planned."

Both Janardhanan and Bhattacharya feel that it is the turn of the Italians to lift the World Cup.

The city has a sizeable expatriate community and for its German and French members, the World Cup has been nothing but a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Two representatives of the communities are Eric Rousseau, Director, Alliance Francaise, and Evelin Hust, Director, Max Mueller Bhavan. Both confess to not being football fans (Rousseau describes himself more of a music fan) but have been magnetically drawn to the matches and have been stayed up late to catch all the action of their teams.

"I am exhausted. I was up till three in the morning watching the semi-final. I am a very atypical Frenchman. For me, the winner will win, the best will win. I am a true European, I am happy whenever any European team wins. I have had a lot of calls wishing me luck. I have watched three or four matches in my life, with one being the 1998 final. I will watch the final tomorrow," says Rousseau, while adding that it makes him happy to see football bringing people together.

"For me it's the international brotherhood. To see so many people watching together makes me warm. Also I am proud of the multi-racial French team. It shows what the new France has become. Zinedine Zidane represents the dreams of a generation."

Like most Germans, Dr. Hust is delighted over the atmosphere back home. "I am extremely pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere in Germany even though we lost in the semi-final. Nobody thought we would survive the first stage. I am not a football fan but in the game against Argentina I found myself sitting and willing every German penalty to go in. The greatest benefit of the World Cup is looking at Germany and seeing something one does not expect. I did not expect Germany to be so good."

A sporting month

Neutral sports buffs in the city say that the past one month will probably take a long time to better. First there was the World Cup. Then India's tour of the Caribbean, and finally the Wimbledon. Many tried to catch as much of all the action as possible.

"I tried not to miss a single football match. Then there was Wimbledon. But watching tennis was easy as it was happening at the same time as football, so you just keep switching channels. The ultimate loser was cricket. The main problem was the odd timings in the Caribbean and secondly, if I sat in front of a TV any longer I would have been out of a job," laughs Neeraj Choudhury, HR Manager.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail