Fifa World Cup Thoughts: Part 1

During every Fifa world cup, I try writing. Don't want to make an exception for 2014 as well. It's better late than never. 

This year's world cup kicked off with the somewhat non-memorable Brazil Vs Croatia clash. I have started watching the world cup since 1990, which makes 2014 my 7th consecutive cup viewing. As I've progressed through life,  interest level and circumstances dictated the number of matches I ended up seeing. The timing of the matches played a key role too.  

I very, very vaguely remember watching my mom and dad supporting two polar opposite teams in 1986. Mom was happy and jubilant after the "short guy" (not the imp!) lifted the cup, and dad had a long face after some bearded guy missed a penalty kick and the yellow jersey clad players got kicked out. 

Well, that's what I can recall, and I am surprised to remember such details. 

1990

I have a better memory of 1990 cup. At that time, my dad gave up his job in KSA and we were living in Dhaka permanently. I, like many others of our age, got addicted to collecting "View Cards" of the players of the Fifa world cup. I had a huge collection, and it was a very exciting time for us. That was also the time when I figured it out that I would be supporting the white blue ones for the next two decades; hoping every four years for a miracle only to be left heart broken. 

Roger Milla, Goycochea and Schilacci--the previously unheard names became the biggest household names. 

I remember buying an exercise book with the picture of a tear sullen Diego Maradona, with a funny anecdote written below -"The Black Hand of Codesal Mendez denied Diego from lifting the cup again". People alive around that time would be able to relate to this, I am sure. 

1994

All I remember about 1994 is Ephedrine and a superstar's stupidity. Enough said. By the way, Baggio had a cool pony tail and Brazil played a boring but effective game to lift the cup. Romario was on fire, though.  

1998

1998 became great because of Fifa 98. I spent more time playing the game than watching the games. I made Bangladesh win the cup and Alfaz become the top scorer for at least 20-25 times. Wasn't so easy, trust me. Zidane, Beckham, Ronaldo, Maldini, Batistuta, Bergkamp, Klinsmann, Rivaldo, Suker, Baggio --all of them played in this cup, and I really don't think people will see such fine stars in another world cup anytime soon. 

The final wasn't anything to write home about. France dominated the game, and Brazil seemed helpless, which was definitely something new to me. 

2002

This was the most painful world cup for me. As it took place in Asia, most games happened during the day time when I had long classes in the university. I skipped a class to watch Argentina's crucial game against Sweden, but they failed to win the game and got kicked out of the tournament. 

I don't really remember much about the rest of the tournament (this is called selective forgetfulness) but I heard the other Latin American team won it!

2006

By now it is more than obvious that I am a big supporter of Argentina. But that doesn't mean I hate Brazil (nor should the usual trend be like this; but facts suggest otherwise). Every year (world cup year, that is) I see Brazillian fans smart talking about Argentina fans, and vice versa.  Previously, it was just verbal conversations and storm in the teacups, but with the emergence (read dominance) of social networks, these days we only see best buddies sniping, pinching and inadvertently hurting each other through snide remarks on their facebook profile.

But this wasn't the case even in 2006. Whenever there was a good match, I'd coordinate with my buddies to sit together and watch the games. On such a day, my friends came to my home to witness the Argentina Vs Serbia Montenegro match. That was a historic match because Lionel Messi scored his first world cup goal in that match. He came in as a late substitute and added to the 6-0 victory of Argentina.

But....we missed all that. The electricity went off 10 minutes before the match, returned briefly during the half time break, and went off again for another 60 minutes. We didn't get to see a single shot. My friends were courteous enough to hang around. We went to the roof and felt anguished as we heard people shouting after each goal was scored.

We could actually go somewhere else to see the game, but it was raining heavily in Dhaka that evening and we were basically stuck.

Wasn't such a bad experience, and I watched many games. The final was memorable for the Zidane fatality on Materazzi. Since Argentina and Brazil failed to convert, I supported Italy for the remainder of the tournament and gladly saw Cannavaro lift the coveted trophy.

To be continued..