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The Beautiful Game... An overdose of excitement!
I just witnessed (on T.V. ofcourse!) the match that can safely be called ‘the king of all clashes’: Germany vs Argentina, battling it out to make it to the semi-finals of The FIFA World Cup 2006 currently unfolding in Germany. Now honestly I’m not a football-buff and ‘m not too familiar with the ‘terminology’ used there. But I still understand the game to the extent that I can thoroughly enjoy a match when I sit down to see one (courtesy: dad and bro)… And as I have just seen one such electrifying match, I have decided to pen down the excitement in the air while I’m still in the moment and can easily articulate my thoughts…
Note of caution: If you aren’t interested in football matches, this post might not interest you.
Now I knew that people (read:CNN) were calling this match ‘the final before the finals’ and also knew that this match would surely compel the most ardent of fans to leave aside even the most important of works and glue themselves to their televisions. And what a match it was…did live up to everyone’s expectations and proved to be a great watch!
The match started at 8:30pm IST and I couldn’t catch the first one hour (yeah, I know I missed quite a lot) cause I was busy ‘orkutting’ on the internet and had lost track of time (but considering that it went on for almost 3 hours…I can say I didn’t miss too much!). When I heard my brothers suddenly applauding in the adjoining room…I figured that someone had scored. Now this was before my youngest brother came running into my room to tell me that Argentina had scored (he was cheering for that team!) and pulled me to watch the game with him. Reluctantly, I closed down my computer and obliged. And what followed was pure, unadulterated fun………
As I was supporting Germany (merely because they were the hosts and three time world champs), I wasn’t too happy about the fact that the opponents had scored. Soon thereafter, Klose(11) scored for Germany in what could be called his best goal yet in the world cup…something that bought the teams on level playing ground once again. A lot of close calls and good football later (‘energetic football’ maybe…but on second thoughts…nah…football has become synonymous with ‘energetic’) … the grueling, excruciating, agonizing 90 minutes came to an end (add 4 minutes of extra time to that), much to the relief of the players who were now sweating as if they’d just paid a visit to a furnace! That had brought the match to a draw 1-1 and what followed was another 30 minutes of great football (tie-breaker) where both the teams didn’t allow each other to score yet again (talk about good teams playing out as even better opponents!).
Now came the penalty shoot-out and the tension in the air was nearly tangible… This would decide which team would proceed on to the semi-finals and which one would have to see days of hard-work go down the drain… The free-kicking started and, slowly but surely, the tension overshadowed the faces of the players… Now I wont test your patience by furnishing more finer details and simply tell you who won: The Mighty Germany won ‘the battle of all battles’ with a splendid score of 4-2 in the shoot-out (they have a great goal-keeper and I found myself gaping in amazement at his brilliance!) (much to the dismay of my brother!) while the German fans went ecstatic! Argentina’s players, now in the ‘denial-mode’, slowly recovered and reluctantly accepted defeat.
Now this didn’t come as a big surprise to me (the match was exciting though!) cause I’d already predicted sometime back the names of the two teams that would qualify for the mega-finals: Brazil and Germany. Till date, it seems like my prediction is gonna come true in the near future… But all the guessing and analysis apart, for now, I just wanna sit back, relax and devour ‘the beautiful game’ in full swing…
So this was it: three time world cup champions Germany had beat two times world cup champions Argentina in the penalty shoot-out round. One more glance at the idiot-box and I see the faces of some Argentinean players drenched in tears as reality slowly dawns down on them… german fans proudly waving their flags in the crowds… shouting slogans that I couldn’t comprehend… agony and ecstasy at the same time… a dramatic end to this season’s most anticipated match (well…next only to the grand finale)………………………………….…………………………………………….…... all followed by a furor of celebration in my living room ……………..(with the exception of my youngest brother who’s still sitting with a swollen, disappointed face!) !!!
P.S. If you don’t enjoy football, but still decided to read the story and got bugged reading this, don’t worry, I don’t think I’ll be writing about football matches again. It’s just this one time that I truly felt like replicating the magic!
Note of caution: If you aren’t interested in football matches, this post might not interest you.
Now I knew that people (read:CNN) were calling this match ‘the final before the finals’ and also knew that this match would surely compel the most ardent of fans to leave aside even the most important of works and glue themselves to their televisions. And what a match it was…did live up to everyone’s expectations and proved to be a great watch!
The match started at 8:30pm IST and I couldn’t catch the first one hour (yeah, I know I missed quite a lot) cause I was busy ‘orkutting’ on the internet and had lost track of time (but considering that it went on for almost 3 hours…I can say I didn’t miss too much!). When I heard my brothers suddenly applauding in the adjoining room…I figured that someone had scored. Now this was before my youngest brother came running into my room to tell me that Argentina had scored (he was cheering for that team!) and pulled me to watch the game with him. Reluctantly, I closed down my computer and obliged. And what followed was pure, unadulterated fun………
As I was supporting Germany (merely because they were the hosts and three time world champs), I wasn’t too happy about the fact that the opponents had scored. Soon thereafter, Klose(11) scored for Germany in what could be called his best goal yet in the world cup…something that bought the teams on level playing ground once again. A lot of close calls and good football later (‘energetic football’ maybe…but on second thoughts…nah…football has become synonymous with ‘energetic’) … the grueling, excruciating, agonizing 90 minutes came to an end (add 4 minutes of extra time to that), much to the relief of the players who were now sweating as if they’d just paid a visit to a furnace! That had brought the match to a draw 1-1 and what followed was another 30 minutes of great football (tie-breaker) where both the teams didn’t allow each other to score yet again (talk about good teams playing out as even better opponents!).
Now came the penalty shoot-out and the tension in the air was nearly tangible… This would decide which team would proceed on to the semi-finals and which one would have to see days of hard-work go down the drain… The free-kicking started and, slowly but surely, the tension overshadowed the faces of the players… Now I wont test your patience by furnishing more finer details and simply tell you who won: The Mighty Germany won ‘the battle of all battles’ with a splendid score of 4-2 in the shoot-out (they have a great goal-keeper and I found myself gaping in amazement at his brilliance!) (much to the dismay of my brother!) while the German fans went ecstatic! Argentina’s players, now in the ‘denial-mode’, slowly recovered and reluctantly accepted defeat.
Now this didn’t come as a big surprise to me (the match was exciting though!) cause I’d already predicted sometime back the names of the two teams that would qualify for the mega-finals: Brazil and Germany. Till date, it seems like my prediction is gonna come true in the near future… But all the guessing and analysis apart, for now, I just wanna sit back, relax and devour ‘the beautiful game’ in full swing…
So this was it: three time world cup champions Germany had beat two times world cup champions Argentina in the penalty shoot-out round. One more glance at the idiot-box and I see the faces of some Argentinean players drenched in tears as reality slowly dawns down on them… german fans proudly waving their flags in the crowds… shouting slogans that I couldn’t comprehend… agony and ecstasy at the same time… a dramatic end to this season’s most anticipated match (well…next only to the grand finale)………………………………….…………………………………………….…... all followed by a furor of celebration in my living room ……………..(with the exception of my youngest brother who’s still sitting with a swollen, disappointed face!) !!!
P.S. If you don’t enjoy football, but still decided to read the story and got bugged reading this, don’t worry, I don’t think I’ll be writing about football matches again. It’s just this one time that I truly felt like replicating the magic!
