Soccer World Cup: Indian Fan's Dilemma

The month-long sporting extravaganza, often described as greatest show on earth, has drawn to a close and fans of the 'beautiful game' look as bewildered and dazed as if they have undergone a roller coaster ride, with the ride operator failing to switch off in time.

Unpredictability and uncertainty is the beauty of any sport and reputations are not always sacrosanct. But during this soccer world cup, to use a medieval metaphor, the old order was hanged, drawn and quartered, and hardly any reputation escaped the guillotine.

It actually did not come without a warning. Even before the World Cup began there were faint signals of things to come, but not many were discerning enough to see it.

Soccer giants like Italy, which has lifted the cup a couple of times, and three-time finalists Netherlands, failed to qualify. Remember these were the teams which had once provided legendary footballers such as Roberto Baggio and Johan Cruyff.

However since other European football powerhouses such as Germany, Spain, France and England had made the cut and so had the South American giants such as Argentina and Brazil, it gave everyone a false sense of complacency.

For the Indian fans, who may never get to see their home team qualify for World Cup in near future, their favourites kept shifting as this World Cup was fraught with too many uncertainties, and its trajectory would make many of our turncoat (ayaram gayaram) politicians proud.

Before the tournament it is always Argentina or Brazil. These two countries form the default setting for every Indian soccer fan before any world cup.

It is that inherent sense of third world solidarity coupled with the attacking soccer played by these South American powerhouses. In the present edition of World Cup the demi-God status enjoyed by Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr in club soccer was an additional factor.

As the tournament progressed and it became apparent Argentina cannot go far, the Indian supporters backing Messi ported themselves to Brazil and even Uruguay.

I remember an Argentina fan lamenting how could a 'lowly' Croatia humiliate his favourite team in such a manner. Surely it is 'fixed', he demurred. 

Soon by the end of quarter finals Brazil and Uruguay too fell by the wayside and many purist fans of South American teams officially proclaimed "the world cup is over for us".

Some kept faith and latched on to England, after humbly swallowing the fact they were our former colonial masters. Familiarity with English Premier League clubs made them throw their lot with England.

To be fair Harry Kane and his men played much better football than the English teams of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney era, but their best was not enough against Croatia in semi-finals

Now it was the World Cup finals and guys such as Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann of France had become quite popular. And by now some of the Indian fans had mastered how to pronounce tongue twisters such as Modric, Rakitic and even Mandzukic, and begun to respect the killer instincts of these magical men in red and white checks.

Some rooted for the favourites France and many for the underdog Croatia, who had made it to the finals for the first time. Phew! Thus ended the chequered and shifting loyalties of Indian fans this World Cup.

And now it is Ghar Wapsi time - back to Brazil/Argentina and Messi/Neymar fandom.

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Leicester FC: Suddenly Something

Gambling jargons have always gone over my head, as my measly salary and risk-averse nature kept me away from such 'wallet-lightening' pursuits. So when I first came across the news that punters had given '5000-1 against' chance for Leicester City FC winning the English Premier League, it did not ring any bell. Until somewhere I read the nearest possible analogy - Elvis Presley being found alive this year! Maybe in the Indian context Elvis Presley may well be substituted by Subhas Chandra Bose.

Now those minuscule few who were crazy enough to put their money on this club may well be whistling Elvis songs on their way to the bank. In this era of hard as nails professionalism and big money in football, Leicester quite literally rose like a phoenix, as its past credentials were hardly inspiring. The foxes' (as they are called) quietly went about their job of craftily outwitting fancied opponents and it really took a while for many to take notice, amid their smokescreens of scepticism.

After all who would even give chance for a team that had suffered near relegation last season to show any promise this year. The coach, Claudio Ranieri, had trained many biggies like Chelsea, Juventus etc, but failed to make any major splash, and his last assignment with Greece was a disgrace. About the players the lesser said the better. Very few of them had even played first division soccer. Second division players like Frenchman N’Golo Kante, Algerian Riyad Mahrez and Englishman Jamie Richard Vardy failed to invite even a second look from football pundits.

My off and on football antennae too failed to pick up Leicester phenomenon until a friend updated me about two months ago. Till then the only sports figure from Leicester I had heard of was cricketer David Gower, who used to represent Leicestershire in county cricket. But by the time I checked on Leicester FC it had garnered the eyeballs and overtaken all the biggies - the clubs based in Manchester and London. 

The rest they say is history, though I would have loved them to finish off with a victory rather than an equaliser with Manchester United.

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Avoidable Exhuberance

For the German football team it was time for euphoria, a long drawn trophy drought finally got over and their years of planning, after many frustrating hiccups, had borne fruit. For the clinically efficient Mannschaft it was time to loosen up and unwind a bit. But it ended up taking a wrong step.

The gauchos dance ridiculing Argentina during their victory parade in Berlin brought out a rare glimpse of cockiness, which the team did not display throughout the tournament. It does not behove a football team of its stature to get carried away in such a manner. The more troubling aspect was that senior players like Miroslav Klose too took part in that gig.

Germany has a troublesome history of aggressive nationalism which led the world to second world war. The Nazi swastika and the portrait of tooth brush moustached Hitler are still seen as ultimate symbols of intolerance and tyranny. However, since the world war it has been trying to cultivate an image of a tolerant country trying to live down its horrific anti-Semitic past. Hence even a minute display of intolerance makes the world nervous. If the same gig were done by soccer players of a country like say Australia nobody would have raised an eyebrow. Remember how Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn shooed off the then BCCI chief, Sharad Pawar, from the stage in 2006 after the Champions Trophy presentation.

This was indeed a temporary blip in the otherwise sterling performance for which the team had won its goodwill for being a multi-cultured, well-knit unit with deep bench strength. Even while it massacred Brazil in the semi finals, there was no chest thumping exuberance. In fact the players and the coach had stopped any display of jubilation after the third goal was scored.

Hence this was indeed a misstep they could have avoided.

Chinks In Spanish Armada

I am not one of those football fans who give their Circadian rhythm a miss to see their favorite stars in action at the other end of the globe. However I decided to make an exception for Holland's clash with Spain. Somehow Spain's victory last World Cup had not got down well with me - after all how can a team that had scored only eight goals (five of them by David Villa) in the whole tournament be considered a champion! And I could never forgive them for beating Germany in semi-finals.

The game began with the Spaniards dominating with their tiki taka brand of football, while the Dutch appeared to be  still carrying the ghost of last World Cup defeat in final on the back of their minds. The latter were playing a very aggressive physical soccer (remember Nigel de Jong landing his boot on the chest of Xabi Alonso in 2010 World Cup) with frequent fouls and acrimonious run ins with the referee, and one of those instances cost them dear as the Spaniards were rewarded a penalty. Veteran Xabi Alonso made no mistake, despite Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen's valiant attempt.

With Spain up 1-0 a sense of deja vu dawned upon me, I thought now they will while away rest of the time by keeping  possession of the ball and use all out efforts prevent opponents from scoring. That has been their game plan and they have been pretty successful in it. But they couldn't hold the Dutch for long. Just before half time captain Robin van Persie went airborne to score a header that is already being touted as the best goal of the world cup.

With their advantage frittered away the Spaniards looked beaten and hardly looked threatening for the rest of game. The team’s dearth of finishers was sorely exposed. On the other hand the spectacular equaliser acted like a tonic for the Dutch. They regained their poise and began playing their natural game and the number of fouls came down drastically.

Dutch winger Arjen Robben who had a score to settle for not being able to get past Iker Casillas' adept hands in the previous World Cup made merry by scoring a brace. His first goal during which he had Casillas on all fours and in near tears, is considered the fastest sprint recorded in World Cup.  

For the Spaniards this was a sledgehammer awakening. Last year too they had a jittery start with 0-1 loss to Switzerland. But the Swiss win seemed more like a fluke, whereas the Dutch hammering was very clinical and emphatic. The fading prowess of ageing stars like Xavi Hernandez and Iniesta stood exposed and they need to do some drastic regrouping to stay anywhere in the reckoning.

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Brorussia Dortmund - The Giant Killer

Brorussia Dortmund - to my two-bit knowledge of football the name sounded as obscure as vuvuzela may have to many soccer fans before the South Africa World Cup happened. At first look I deduced it might be some Russian soccer team! But then I thought Russians are not all that great in football, then what is this team doing at Champions League semi-final.

I assumed maybe the team had an easy outing in preliminary rounds. Did some Google search of the team and was surprised to know it is a German club, and then checked out if there were any well known German stars in it - none that I knew of. So I thought it would be a safe bet to assume that they don't stand a chance against Spanish giant Real Madrid.  

When the first semi-final happened between Bayern Munich and Barcelona, my sympathies were with the German club, though I had an uneasy feeling that Spaniards' tiki-taka (short passes) brand of soccer may choke Bayern, as it happened with German team (after all majority of players are from Bayern) at the World Cup and Euro. Being not a die-hard soccer enthusiast I did not stay awake late to watch the match.

But the news next morning left me surprised (pleasantly of course). The German club had literally overrun the Spaniards. The usually mesmerising Lionel Messi and crafty Xavi Hernandez failed to score even once. For them the second leg will be an uphill battle and the home venue advantage may not be enough.

However, little did I know then that I would be in for a much bigger surprise a day later. Then too I did not watch the match live and went to bed thinking that Cristiano Ronaldo and his men (who also have two big German names Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil on their side) are luckier than their Catalan cousins to have such an opponent in the semi final.

The next morning I did not even bother to check the results on television. A chance glance at the afternoon bulletin really shook me. Yet another Spanish giant has been put on the mat, and they too will have to display a Mt Everestian feat in the second leg to overcome the deficit.

The TV screens were flashing the name of Robert Lewandowski, the little known Polish striker who had scored all the four goals, a feat not attained by anyone against Real Madrid. The soccer blogosphere was abuzz digging out little known nuggets about his past. Lewandowski would have joined Blackburn three years back, had it not been for cancellation of flights due to volcanic ash from Iceland! Going by his record it appears that his barrage of goals against Real Madrid was no fluke and he has been a prolific goal scorer, both at Dortmund and the Polish national team.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat