“Is life without the World Cup really life at all?” asked Molly Doneho on Twitter, sadly, a day after the battle between the nations ended.
The matches began on June 12 and ended on July 13 and a full month of fun was not enough for this football fan who echoed the feelings of millions of others across the globe.
At work, I was a bit wary to say that I was not a football fan as I could get trampled into the desert sands in disgust and bitten by Shaheen the soothsayer camel that was watching the goings-on in Brazil with a keen eye of a Maradona.
“Are you watching today’s match, France versus Honduras?” asked my friend at the office and not to be left alone in the crowd or seem like a nerdy journo whose only passion is obesity and diabetes, I blurted out: “Go, Blues”! The only reason I was rooting for France was that I liked their indigo-blue jerseys that looked kind of cool.
The Russians had an even better jersey in dark red and I went on eBay to check out the cost. Then looking at my skinny frame in the mirror I decided it would be uncool if I wore a football jersey and eye glasses and walked around in the mall. When everybody on Earth is watching something and you don’t, then you get a feeling of being left out. But as the days passed, I started getting into the game and even looked up Wikipedia to check out what the heck an ‘offside’ was.
This is what I got: “Offside (sometimes referred to as offsides) is Law 11 in association football and one of the most misunderstood laws of the game. The law states that players in an ‘offside’ position, when the ball is touched or played by a teammate, may not become actively involved in the play. A player is in an ‘offside’ position when he or she is in the opponents’ half of the pitch and closer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-to-last opponent (usually the last defensive player in front of the goalkeeper). ‘Offside position’ is a matter of fact, whereas an ‘offside offence’ is purely subjective to the interpretation of the referee. If, in the opinion of the referee, a player in an ‘offside position’ interferes with play, or gains an advantage from being in an ‘offside position’, the referee stops play and awards an indirect free kick to the defending team.”
Now, I too wanted to stay up the whole night as some of the matches started at an unearthly hour of one in the morning, Dubai time. I called my cable TV service provider and the guy at the other end said I would have to shell out Dh400 to have the matches beamed live into my living room.
I refused to pay and checked with my friend and he pointed me to some sites where I could live-stream the games.
Sadly, I have an ancient laptop. I clicked on the link that my friend had sent me and I gloated and patted myself on the back for saving some cash. But just before the commentator could go crazy and shout, the laptop hung. I felt awful and depressed and cursed myself for being so cheap.
Then I decided to rush to the nearest watering hole to watch the rest of the game. Ordering a Seven-Up with ice (heeding the doctor’s advice to never drink colas as they are full of caffeine and sugar and to drink colourless fizzy drinks only, if you have to) I sat with a British group that was shouting a battle cry at the top of their voices.
Four more years! Who can wait that long?
