World Cup Experience

I am not a football fan.

Never was.

I never did get what all the fuss was about, 11 men streaking across a field, fighting for possession of a rather small, insignificant ball.

I never did get all the loud, crazy shouting and the cheering (and the swearing) that more often than not, disturbed my beauty sleep. (Even if I were not asleep by that time, it annoyed me all the same >.<)

I would declare: "I don't like football."

And my brother would challenge me: "Have you even watched football?"

*pause*

Then he'd tell me: "How can you say you hate something you don't know anything about?"

He was right. I knew zilch about football, yet I claim to hate it. Why?

And so I made a new resolution.

With the World Cup this year (and during my 2 months holiday at that), I thought I would make an effort to, well, get it.

I followed the qualifying rounds, watched as many matches as I could (which is a limited precious few since I don't have Astro and I had to depend solely on TV1, a channel which deserves to be cursed to hell for airing non-top matches live and matches with gargantuan teams like Brazil a whole day AFTER everyone knows the results !) (It is so NOT fun watching matches that you already know the results to, and even the time at which the goals are scored =.=)

I pulled out the centrespread of the Galaxie magazine which was the table for the World Cup matches (with their dates) and stuck it on the door of my bedroom.

I followed the goings-on of the World Cup almost religiously, asking my brother what the scores were for the matches we missed (stupid TV1 >.<) and scouring the newspapers for the latest results. A friend introduced a website to me (www.livescore.com) to get the current status and updates for matches that were even going on at the moment.

I filled up the tables, calculated the scores.

Of course, I started off eyeing the star hot players like Christiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Kaka. But I realized that there are more cute guys on the field than I knew of. Elano, Fabiano, Klose, Mueller. Well, there is something rather attractive about a man after they have scored a goal, or are part of a spectacular assist. Rawr. XD Aheh.

Can you blame me? These guys are HOT. :P

But.

As the tournament progressed, I watched the matches without caring so much about which players had washboard abs, or if C. Ronaldo was going to take his shirt off at the end of the match.

To be honest, it is much more exciting watching the matches when you actually know what is happening, how much is weighing on the outcome of a particular game.

It is more interesting when you pay attention to the skills of the players (and the eye-candy :P) and support a certain team to win.

Suddenly, football is not just about 11 men streaking across a field, fighting for possession of a rather small, insignificant ball.

Lionel Messi for Argentina - the world's

best football player

Football is about skill. Football is about strategy, tactics. Football is about rules. Football is about plays. About teamwork.

Yes, maybe I'm strung on football. But only for the moment. :)

World Cup fever? I doubt it. I'm not football-crazy.

Let's just say that I'm beginning to appreciate football a little better. :)

And it's so much fun talking football on Facebook (which is plagued with World Cup news on statuses everywhere !)

It feels like a whole new world has been opened up to me !

I'm glad I made an effort to get football.

The cute guys are so worth it ! :D

It is rather sad though when things happen and, according to the rules, what is final is final, and nothing else can be done about it.

(I'm referring to the controversial goal by Lampard during the England vs Germany match. If you don't know what I mean, you can watch this. That goal was not counted during the game, the referee had waved them to play on.)

This seems to be the rule - but only for England

(picture taken from http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000405663155&ref=sgm#!/photo.php?pid=288901&id=100000299550015)

I was rather upset that night, watching the match. Very clearly, England suffered an injustice that match. I'm not saying that England deserved to win, because maybe they did not, despite the fact that I am an England-supporter. They played horribly >.<

But that goal could have made a difference in terms of the players' morale and motivation. That not-counted-goal when it so clearly was one, proven by the video replay, must have been so frustrating for the English.

Although the better team won that night, things could not have been more unfair. England lost 4-1 that night. It could have been a 4-2 instead. :(

(If all this doesn't prove to you that I'm a reformed football-hater, I don't know what does !)