Ode to FIFA World Cup

The time just made an eight year loop and I am 14 again and sooo excited about the FIFA World Cup. In 2002 I was so in love with Brazil for their Yoga Bonito style and great players. Who wouldn’t fall in love, if their first visual contact was that of Ronaldinho tackling the whole field and scoring a goal to a stunned David Seaman? I was lost and the passion for this player held me a very long time. My admiration will always stay the same, though the same cannot be said about his skills.
However, Brazil had a dream team. Does any of you not recognize Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and their like? I think that anybody, who knows that football is a game played with a ball, handled in majority of times by the foot knows who these are.
The finales then had me sitting on the edge of my seat the whole of the +-90 minutes. Though I was supporting the winning side, the Goalkeeper of all goalkeepers in history, Oliver Kahn, was on the same side of the pitch that my favourite forwards spent most of their time. I wanted Brazil to win, Germany to lose, but simultaneously I desperately wanted Kahn not to let anything in.

This year, the Brazilian coach, Dunga, decided to abandon the Yoga Bonito style completely, if favour of injecting the Brasilian representation with fresh young blood. I don’t deny him his right to do so and since Brazil have secured their place in the next round, neither the wisdom of such a decision. However, there was no beauty in the matches I have seen. Cafu and R. Carlos are old, Ronaldo is fat and Ronaldinho notorious for his preference of the N Clubs above the F Clubs and what happened to Adriano I just don’t know. However, having at least one of them sitting on the bench, to be sent out at least for a few once the lead of Brazil is secure would have me sitting on edge again, waiting for the last five or ten minutes where I could enjoy the samba football. Nostalgia is a strong sentiment and it would secure my loyalty, no doubt. Ronaldinho at least. Please. He had some bad time in Barca and later in Milan, but from reports I have read, he improved to his former form within the latter part of 2009 and in 2010 and was beyond praying to be included in the 23 chosen ones.

I am a fickle fan it seems. I will support those, who I respect and who can provide me with a show, which will pump me with adrenaline for the suspension and awe for the beauty of the game. Though my national team is still in, probably singing their requiem in a play against Italy as we speak, Spain have caught my heart. I do pray for a miracle for Slovaks, and as Gigi Buffon is supposed to be taking a day off today there is a possibility, though very faint. However, my football faith in them is proving weak and I am skeptical.
Replacing my canary number 10 is a La Roja top marked with a 7. Art is art and Villa caught my heart. The two goals against Honduras were the most beautiful I have seen in ages (though I haven’t seen much football lately, except for a Barca match here and there) and I was hoping to see a hat-trick and failed by a few centimeters in a free kick. I am forgiving though and will give the talent of this tournament a chance to charm me further tomorrow, when Spain will have to prove itself against Chile to move on to the next level. He does have a one up for me as he transferred to FC Barcelona recently.

I am currently trying to pirate through work to stream the Slovakia-Italy match, so will abandon you for the moment, but I’ve just been informed, that Slovakia is winning 1:0. Sorry to rush it, but I’ll be back!

PS: Pictures and style will be edited later. Very restricted here.