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My husband watches soccer only during the World Cup season. And since we haven’t subscribed to the pay-TV channel that airs live matches, we only watch when the free-to-air channel (Five) and Malaysia’s RTM 2 broadcast selected matches. 'Watching soccer' for me means checking the scores every half and hour - I am usually reading the papers or preparing snacks to make time pass more quickly.
Soccer is beyond my league. Well I do browse the Sports section daily and do know about soccer stars, their achievements, scandals and the legion of fans they attract. Other than shelving the soccer-related info as ‘general knowledge’, soccer is a game involving many players running about a large field with scoring of goals as their main objective. I also know that these players are virtually pseudo-ambassadors of their respective teams and countries, sometimes even fashion labels and pop music trends. Watching soccer is laborious nevertheless. Over 90 minutes of staring at the same landscape on the TV screen, no thanks.
A pull-out chart from the New Paper
I acceded to putting up a wall-chart of soccer matches and the groups of countries this year – just for the fun of guessing which countries will pull through the preliminary rounds and to document the scores after every 2 or 3 matches.
As I used to muse to my soccer-crazed friends/colleagues who rave about countries and certain teams they support, “The ball is spherical and anyone can win, lose or draw – why burst blood vessels and damage your lungs with all that screaming?”
I recall one soccer-maniac ex-colleague asking me (the year France hosted the World Cup in 1998): "Which country do you think will win?". My random answer: "France." And they did win and my friend (after losing some bets apparently) came at me after the games were over: "I should have listened to you and bet on France! But how it is you knew? You don't even watch soccer or know Barthez?!!" My nonchalent answer (when it comes to soccer): "Because France is the host country and they've always been an okay-team?". I failed to appease my friend, obviously, but treated him to iced-blended mocha as a form of consolation. Turned out that the coffee opening up more wounds as he wailed, "How could England or Brazil not win? They had so many star players?"
Until the moon turns blue, I am likely to remain largely apathetic towards the hype over whatever-Cup and whatever-League.
P/S: See the Toy Story alien magnet in the picture? No prizes for guessing what the alien metaphoricaly represents...



















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