2010

so the world cup has finally come around again. this would be my 4th world cup and possibly the worst one.

1998 was the first world cup i ever watched, and i was still a noob back then, only 10 years old and a year into my soccer career. i didn't know much, except that ronaldo (the real one) was freaking godly and i was sure that brazil was gonna win it. so imagine my shock when france (who?) beat them 3-0 in the final, with zidane's (WHO?) balding head knocking in 2 goals. 1998 taught me to take nothing for granted in football.

by 2002, france were owning everyone's asses and zidane was the new god, but all good things come to an end, as they were brutally knocked out in japan/korea. i was in secondary 2, a time where football pretty much ruled our lives. The Real Ronaldo, who had been hibernating ever since 1998, suddenly came alive again and showed the world just what he was made of. he also showed the world possibly the most stupid haircut in the history of the world cup.

the 2002 final between germany and brazil was televised live and for the first time, not at some ungodly hour. i could hear the roar from all the flats surrounding mine when ronaldo scored and brazil won in decisive fashion. also notable was the emergence of park ji sung, korea shocking the world by beating italy, turkey's brave run into the semi-finals and their goalkeeper's facepaint and heroics that remained in our discussions for a long time to come.

before i knew it, i had graduated from secondary school and was into my 2nd year of poly. what i recall of 2006 was me falling asleep while watching the world cup alone in the middle of the night, on my maid's little tv tuned in to an indonesian channel. zidane had come out of retirement for one last burst of fire, The Real Ronaldo should have gone into retirement judging by his performances, and the world was going crazy over another (fake) ronaldo.

zidane rolled back the years and led france to the final against italy, where he performed his now famous headbutt, which i missed because i fell asleep watching that boring boring match. i woke up in time for the penalty shootout which italy won. i didn't have much feelings regarding this because well, both teams were rather shit and i think neither really deserved to win.

one strange thing about this world cup was that after watching so much football in the space of a month, i found that my own abilities on the pitch had increased too. it was like all the skills and tactics had seeped into my mind and unconsciously made me a better player (or maybe it was sleep learning since i was asleep so often). i feel like i played the best football of my life in the 6 months following this world cup.

has it really been 4 years since then? the 2010 world cup was supposed to be the one where singapore played at, in its overly-ambitious and now scrapped 'goal 2010'. if everything had gone according to plan, I (and others in my crop of youngsters) was expected to be in south africa now, facing the likes of rooney and ronaldo and messi. instead, we're left watching massively over-priced football on tv, or settling for fuzzy foreign channels and online streaming.

the reason i think this world cup is going to suck is due to the lack of a feeling of community, like the world cup is being watched by the world, but in singapore, only the people who bothered paying big bucks for it will get to catch it, and the rest will settle for second grade, or not watch it at all. but fortunately now i hear channel 5 is going to broadcast the semis and final, so perhaps all hope is not gone.