Although I initially did not know that the FIFA World Cup was happening, once I became aware of this, I quickly started searching for a team to support. Those who know me well will tell you that I have always supported Nigeria.
If you have never watched and liked Jay Jay Okocha, Taribo West, Nwankwo Kanu, Okechukwu, Sunday Olise, George Finidi and their ilk, then you have no idea what football is. Those guys really played during their time, making me love them.
“Nigeria just has stars and not a team,” said Tito, dismissing me when I praised Nigeria and wondered why they were not in the World Cup. “They are just flamboyant people with every player showing off on the pitch. You cannot win anything with that, you must be a team,” Tito added.
“Like which one? Tell me what tournament they have ever won. Even the Africa Cup of Nations, when is the last time they won it? Were you even alive?” I had no answers. I had to look for another team to support.
Since by default I supported African teams, I added South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia (after they beat Argentina) on my list. Ghana-Uruguay was one of those matches that we really looked forward to, especially considering that Uruguay had stolen from us a win in 2010, on our soil.
We watched the match at my home, with high hopes that Ghana would beat Uruguay to avenge the theft. The match started on high tempo and when Ghana was awarded a penalty, we started celebrating. Until Ayew lost it. “As long as African teams keep allowing questionable people to take penalties, we will never go far in football,” said Rasto, adding that Andre Ayew shouldn’t have taken the penalty. We asked him why.
“Did you look at the boy?” he asked. “When I just looked at him, I knew he would lose the penalty.” He went further. “For you to score a penalty your heart and body must be pure.”
No one understood what he meant. He clarified and added that to score a penalty, you must not have touched a woman for at least three days before. “By looking at how that boy walked, he clearly had been with a woman that morning!” We all laughed loudly.
“Just by looking at how he walked. The same way our women can tell a pregnant girl just by looking .”
After group stages, the real football began. “Now is time to watch football, not those jokes we were watching,” said Tito. I asked him which teams shouldn’t have qualified.
“I know they are hosting, but why allow Qatar into the World Cup?” asked Tito. “Have they ever played any football before? Or a team like Saudi Arabia. Why were they even there?”
“Please respect Saudi Arabia, they beat Argentina who had Messi,” said Nyayo. “And who between them qualified for group stages, Saudi or Argentina?” asked Tito.
I did not want to participate in that conversation. That was now history and I wanted to focus on the last 16, where men are usually separated from boys. The first day had Netherlands against USA and Argentina against Australia.
For the first match, I was supporting USA simply because Netherlands had beaten my team Senegal. “I cannot allow the team that beat Senegal to win another match,” I said. Tito agreed with me. Since I have always been a fan of Ronaldo, meaning that I don’t like Messi, I supported Australia in the second match that day.
It would be good to see Messi lose, just like I had enjoyed seeing them beaten by Saudi Arabia. Tito disagreed with me on this, and told me Argentina would triumph. In the end, my teams - USA and Australia - lost. We live to fight another day, I said to myself.
The second day was more interesting. It had France verses Poland, and Senegal vs England. I was a big fan of Senegal, but I knew if they beat England, and France won, France would beat them in the quarter finals. So, I supported Poland against France.
“You love jokes Dre,” sad Tito. “How can France lose to Poland?” he wondered. He was right. France won and Senegal lost. That was the second day of the knock out stage and all my four teams had lost.
“Maybe you should stop watching football to avoid heartbreak,” advised Tito when we met on the third day. He asked me which team I supported.
“As a teacher, I like hard working students, not just bright ones,” I said. “So today I am with Japan and South Korea. Football should not be won by the same people always.” I added that Japan cannot have beat Germany then lose to Croatia.
Once again, I was wrong. Both Japan and South Korea lost. On the last day of the knockout stages, I supported Spain against Morocco and backed Portugal against Switzerland, I in the second match. It was another bad day for me. Against all odds, Morocco beat the mighty Spain while Portugal seemed to do well without Ronaldo, scoring six against Switzerland.
It was too much for _me to take and I decided to stop watching the World Cup. “Football should be enjoyable, not painful,” I told Tito. I haven’t watched the quarterfinals, nor will I watch the semi-finals. I may watch the finals, but I will watch with my heart in my lungs. May the best team win!
