I have been wanting to write something about the World Cup for a long time, but wasn't sure about the angle. I still am not, so I'll try and incorporate some of the angles I've been toying with.
It's not that I'm against people who have all of a sudden woken up to the fact that there exists a sport called football which is otherwise known as the most popular game on earth. In fact, it's good that every single person that I know is pretending to watch every single match and following that show up with a barrage of match updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc., most of them complete with scorelines, goal scorers, missed chances, yellow cards, red cards and all other possible highlights. With these details being splashed over and over again on my FB news feed, Twitter timeline, etc., sometimes I feel whether keeping my eyes glued on the TV screen is really worth it. Luckily, I've been able to overcome those rare moments of weakness.
But it's not just the posts - a lot about this age of the information media and the internet has taken the joy out of many such events that used to be a periodic mainstay in my life till about 6 years back. I barely remember the first ever World Cup I saw on TV - all that I can recollect is being introduced to the term "deferred live" thanks to Doordarshan, other of course than Baggio's missed penalty. But I do have a relic from back then - an amazingly detailed supplement that came with The Statesman that I still refer to for some odd reason. I'll give the earliest major sporting tournament that I very distinctly recall (1996 Wills World Cup) a pass here, and stick to the beautiful game. Euro 96 brought me great joy - my favourite team till date (courtesy of being my favourite non-Indian country back then) won it thanks to "Golden Boy" Bierhoff, but it was only after that tournament that I got my hands on a pre-tournament book featuring potential superstars with loads of interesting tidbits on each.
Next came the only World Cup whose each and every match I watched religiously no matter how late in the night some of them finished (these, incidentally, were also my first bunch of real late-nighters). The four-page newspaper supplement still exists. fave team crashed out in the quarters - an ageing squad was blamed, so on the day of the final, I decided to back the hosts; using sketch pens, made paper flags and shredded paper to make confetti. The hosts won, but more importantly for me, Brazil stayed just one ahead. Euro 2000 was probably the first time that I realized that this continental tournament featured better teams than on the global stage - the first round exit of my team was all the proof that I needed. Relics of this tournament include newspaper clippings (Needless to say I am not mentioning the default relics that include Sportstar special sections and posters, and World Cup special issues of other magazines).
Till then, no one else was interested. Everything changed with Korea-Japan 2002 though. Live coverage on TV was at a very convenient time - I managed in spite of the FIITJEE classes that I'd just joined back then. My team had a dream start, but thereafter resorted to a strategy used to perfection by Greece just a couple of years later and were clearly the 2nd best team in the final and in the tournament. After the 02 WC, even more comprehensive coverage of European leagues esp. EPL started on ESPN-Star, and before you knew it, everyone was either a Man-U or an Arsenal fan. Euro 2004 was the last major football tournament I saw - Greece's "defend-for-85-minutes-then-head-one-in" tactics coupled with college admissions made sure that it wasn't a memorable one. Just a couple of months after that, vanvaas began.
For almost six whole years, I went without a TV (except for a brief period that was the 2006 World Cup which was when I had an external TV tuner card that actually worked) and it is during this time that most people around me took to the game. Some of them really amaze me with their all-round knowledge of the game, and not just in terms of facts - these guys can actually offer their own expert opinions both before and after every match. True Indians, I tell you. The problem with this bunch is that they tend to scoff at the mere mention of the word 'tradition'. But when it comes to the football World Cup, tradition does play a part whether they like it or not.
Patterns are a maybe (So France this time repeated their 2002 performance in a near-identical fashion, but there's no guarantee that Spain will be knocked out in the first round like they were back in 98, or that Argentina will win it a la 86), but you can more often than not rest assured that certain teams from certain parts of the world will raise their game on the biggest stage of 'em all, while many players who are superstars in the club world will come up a cropper when in their national colours. So all your knowledge of the European leagues might not give you an edge when it comes to accuracy of predictions. My very first WC threw up a predictable winner; the first WC that I properly followed resulted in an entirely new team winning. So while chances that a team other than one of the seven that has won the Cup at least once is going to win it are slim, if a team like Spain wins it, I'll be as happy as the next wannabe (oh yes, I love them - I even named my blog persona after them).
I still occasionally wear the Adidas T-shirt that I got as a prize for winning some sports quiz that appeared in a newspaper. I still remember my father's reaction after Bergkamp trapped the long ball and converted it to ensure a Dutch victory over the Argentines which was, compared to the '78 WC final loss, a mere consolation. The bloody awesome book that was given to me for winning a Durga Pujo quiz at my neighbourhood temple (thanks mainly to the clean sweep of the sports round) is a proud item in my personal collection; the Milo watch that I got for winning the ESPN School Quiz North Zone Quarter Final beating Doon School Dehradun by a huge margin is one of the many in my dysfunctional watches collection.
I have been out of touch for long but sports, hello again. Thank you World Cup.
PS. About this ongoing WC, tomorrow. Pakka.
It's not that I'm against people who have all of a sudden woken up to the fact that there exists a sport called football which is otherwise known as the most popular game on earth. In fact, it's good that every single person that I know is pretending to watch every single match and following that show up with a barrage of match updates on Facebook, Twitter, etc., most of them complete with scorelines, goal scorers, missed chances, yellow cards, red cards and all other possible highlights. With these details being splashed over and over again on my FB news feed, Twitter timeline, etc., sometimes I feel whether keeping my eyes glued on the TV screen is really worth it. Luckily, I've been able to overcome those rare moments of weakness.
But it's not just the posts - a lot about this age of the information media and the internet has taken the joy out of many such events that used to be a periodic mainstay in my life till about 6 years back. I barely remember the first ever World Cup I saw on TV - all that I can recollect is being introduced to the term "deferred live" thanks to Doordarshan, other of course than Baggio's missed penalty. But I do have a relic from back then - an amazingly detailed supplement that came with The Statesman that I still refer to for some odd reason. I'll give the earliest major sporting tournament that I very distinctly recall (1996 Wills World Cup) a pass here, and stick to the beautiful game. Euro 96 brought me great joy - my favourite team till date (courtesy of being my favourite non-Indian country back then) won it thanks to "Golden Boy" Bierhoff, but it was only after that tournament that I got my hands on a pre-tournament book featuring potential superstars with loads of interesting tidbits on each.
Next came the only World Cup whose each and every match I watched religiously no matter how late in the night some of them finished (these, incidentally, were also my first bunch of real late-nighters). The four-page newspaper supplement still exists. fave team crashed out in the quarters - an ageing squad was blamed, so on the day of the final, I decided to back the hosts; using sketch pens, made paper flags and shredded paper to make confetti. The hosts won, but more importantly for me, Brazil stayed just one ahead. Euro 2000 was probably the first time that I realized that this continental tournament featured better teams than on the global stage - the first round exit of my team was all the proof that I needed. Relics of this tournament include newspaper clippings (Needless to say I am not mentioning the default relics that include Sportstar special sections and posters, and World Cup special issues of other magazines).
Till then, no one else was interested. Everything changed with Korea-Japan 2002 though. Live coverage on TV was at a very convenient time - I managed in spite of the FIITJEE classes that I'd just joined back then. My team had a dream start, but thereafter resorted to a strategy used to perfection by Greece just a couple of years later and were clearly the 2nd best team in the final and in the tournament. After the 02 WC, even more comprehensive coverage of European leagues esp. EPL started on ESPN-Star, and before you knew it, everyone was either a Man-U or an Arsenal fan. Euro 2004 was the last major football tournament I saw - Greece's "defend-for-85-minutes-then-head-one-in" tactics coupled with college admissions made sure that it wasn't a memorable one. Just a couple of months after that, vanvaas began.
For almost six whole years, I went without a TV (except for a brief period that was the 2006 World Cup which was when I had an external TV tuner card that actually worked) and it is during this time that most people around me took to the game. Some of them really amaze me with their all-round knowledge of the game, and not just in terms of facts - these guys can actually offer their own expert opinions both before and after every match. True Indians, I tell you. The problem with this bunch is that they tend to scoff at the mere mention of the word 'tradition'. But when it comes to the football World Cup, tradition does play a part whether they like it or not.
Patterns are a maybe (So France this time repeated their 2002 performance in a near-identical fashion, but there's no guarantee that Spain will be knocked out in the first round like they were back in 98, or that Argentina will win it a la 86), but you can more often than not rest assured that certain teams from certain parts of the world will raise their game on the biggest stage of 'em all, while many players who are superstars in the club world will come up a cropper when in their national colours. So all your knowledge of the European leagues might not give you an edge when it comes to accuracy of predictions. My very first WC threw up a predictable winner; the first WC that I properly followed resulted in an entirely new team winning. So while chances that a team other than one of the seven that has won the Cup at least once is going to win it are slim, if a team like Spain wins it, I'll be as happy as the next wannabe (oh yes, I love them - I even named my blog persona after them).
I still occasionally wear the Adidas T-shirt that I got as a prize for winning some sports quiz that appeared in a newspaper. I still remember my father's reaction after Bergkamp trapped the long ball and converted it to ensure a Dutch victory over the Argentines which was, compared to the '78 WC final loss, a mere consolation. The bloody awesome book that was given to me for winning a Durga Pujo quiz at my neighbourhood temple (thanks mainly to the clean sweep of the sports round) is a proud item in my personal collection; the Milo watch that I got for winning the ESPN School Quiz North Zone Quarter Final beating Doon School Dehradun by a huge margin is one of the many in my dysfunctional watches collection.
I have been out of touch for long but sports, hello again. Thank you World Cup.
PS. About this ongoing WC, tomorrow. Pakka.
Football + Nostalgia; must have had great fun writing this one. :P
ReplyDeleteAs breezy as always, and I'm looking forward to more.
Alas, all this about tournaments made me wonder why I've had that 3 Lions shirt ever since 2002.
Good job.
great ! post! i do agree about tradition .. esp.. tradition of english team screwing up and french staying unpredictable..
ReplyDeleteyou inspired me to write a similar post..
man you reminded of the days when people used to say "You watch football? Are you a phirang or something?"!
ReplyDeleteI don't watch the WC matches, don't pretend to either.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is South Africa is doing surprisingly well and a few of the favourites have crashed out.
But I do love the Waka-Waka song :)
smart post eh?? nice one :)
ReplyDeletewell WC is different from other leagues and series or whatever..probably that is the reason why people at least follow the results or highlights..if not watch the whole match. And soccer is a quick game.the players do not idle around.It sets the mood. There ain't any sine qua non for anybody to watch soccer WC.
(I chastise cricket for that reason though I was passionate about the sport before they made a dirty business out of it in India.)
Of course needless to say the overwhelming updates cannot be avoided. :)
And I was not really aware of the tradition thingy as my tryst with football for the first and last time was in 2006 WC and right now directly after that.M a new bee
I guess you posted your next one while i was writing this gigantic comment. So I will not say ' waiting for the next one'. :)
Lookin at you never ever did i think that e1 actually liked football :P :P
ReplyDelete