Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man.
– Pele, Brazilian soccer megastar
There are two major events I am eagerly looking forward to. I am just counting the days!
One is the 15th general election (GE15) polling day on November 19 2022 where I will be casting my vote in Bandar Kuching to elect my MP for the next 5 years. And the other is the 22nd quadrennial FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar from November 20 to December 18.
Polling is just a one-day affair; I will cast my vote in the morning and get it over and done with and wait for the results later in the evening to see if the candidate I voted for will make it to Parliament. I know it’s going to be an uphill task for him (or is it her?), but I will keep my fingers crossed.
The World Cup, the greatest show on earth, is what I am anxiously waiting for after GE15.
I am going to eat, sleep, drink – and dream – football for nearly a month. And my family is going to cry over the exorbitant power bill, empty snack packs strewn all over the living room and the mess which they have to clear every day for 29 days of football madness.
Well, World Cup comes only once every four years. We won’t know where we will be the next tournament in 2026. So might as well make the best of it now.
Bosses will be fuming mad as their workers will feign illness and produce medical certs or come up with the excuse that their aged grandpas and grandmas had gone to be with The Lord just to stay away from work! Even if workers appear the next day at work they will be sleepy and not be very productive. I think most of the matches will be ‘live’ on TV in the early morning. Therefore, since many employees will want to watch the World Cup it is worth for bosses to consider some form of flexibility for their football fanatic workers.
Since I am semi-retired, my bosses can rest easy. Anyway, I am a multitasker, so no worries!
I am a football freak, so nothing or no one can get me out of soccer addiction. In my column several months I mentioned I have been following the World Cup since my primary school days. Some people just have to live with that!
Talking about predicting the outcome of the match results, my fellow colleague in her column yesterday (29 days of World Cup) mentioned about an octopus, a feline and a panda predicting match results in past World Cups. Well, Achilles the Cat, Paul the Octopus and Ying Mei the Giant Panda had their fair share of glory with their accurate predictions which I think was just pure luck.
Anyway, I don’t have to depend on some creatures from the animal kingdom to tell me who will win this time. I won’t predict the individual match results (I will do that later when we are nearing the tournament) but allow me to pick the champion, and second and third placed winners of the Qatar World Cup.
The final will be between England and my all-time favourites Brazil. The latter will win the cup for the sixth time after having emerged champions in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.
The third place play-off will see Portugal beating Argentina.
And finally, while the World Cup creates legends and joyous moments, it can also be a stage for horrendous human error. The blunders are often amusing, and can lead to a lifelong haunting of a player’s career, creating devastating consequences, including death.
Here’s my ranking of the biggest World Cup blunders in my list.
* Andres Escobar’s own goal
In the USA 1994 World Cup, Columbian Andres Escobar’s costly own goal resulted in his tragic murder. Colombia, seen as a promising dark horse at the tournament, just needed a group-stage win against the United States to progress to the next stage. But a fateful blunder midway through the game by defender Escobar diverted a US player’s cross into his own net.
Columbia lost the match 2-1 and the hosts made it to the next round. And 10 days later, Escobar was shot dead in Medellin, Colombia. Apparently, Colombian narcotics lords had lost heavily in gambling bets after the team’s loss and put out a contract on him.
I watched the delayed telecast (or was it ‘live’ telecast? I can’t remember).
* Zinedine Zidane’s infamous head-butt
In the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy, Italian defender Marco Materazzi said something offensive enough to prompt French midfielder Zinedine Zidane to head-butt him in the chest. With the best French penalty taker red carded, France subsequently lost the shootout.
The incident was watched by millions of soccer fans ‘live’ on television.
Later, Materazzi told officials: “After the third clash, I frowned and he retorted, ‘I’ll give you my shirt later’. I replied that I’d rather have his sister than his shirt.”
* Rene Higuita’s fanciful dribbling
Columbian goalie Rene Higuita – famous for his scorpion kick – made a blunder a long way from his goalmouth in a round of 16 match against Cameroon at the 1990 tournament in Italy.
The Columbians down 1-0 in extra time when Higuita advanced into the middle third of the field and attempted to navigate the ball past Cameroon forward Roger Milla but was immediately dispossessed, and Milla went on to score.
Higuita’s antics resulted in Colombia losing 2-1 and forced the team out of the tournament.
* Referee misses the ‘Hand of God’
This blunder at the 1986 tournament in Mexico was caused by the referee’s failure to spot outrageous cheating by Argentine striker Diego Maradona.
In the goalless second half quarter-final match between England and Argentina, the five-foot-four Maradona opened the scoring by beating six-footer goalie Peter Shilton in the air with a goal that was punched into the net and allowed to stand. Referee Ali Nasser saw nothing suspicious about Maradona’s goal.
Three minutes later Maradona went on to score the ‘ Goal of the Century’, sending England out of the tournament.
If only Nasser had been attentive, Maradona would have been booked and not granted the chance to the score the winner. England lost 1-2.
Wadaean (adios)! More about Qatar 2022 next time.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
