Better late than never: post WC sentiments

This post has been in the pipeline for a very long time.....however procrastintion abd heartache ...and also some genuinely busy times had intervened . Hope to write more frequently.
As an ardent sports lover and die hard fan of Dutch football and Arsenal , I have too often been at the short end of the straw as far as results go. There have been times when you wonder the sense of so much anticipation and yearning simply too see it end in heartache and misery. Happy are those who attain their sustenance from the silver screen and Saas bahu serials- I would remark. But then along come giants like Lance Armstrong , Roger Federer and Tiger Woods to restore your faith and conjure up such magic that in reel life would be dismissed as too fantastical and far fetched. The latest in this line was the mega football event we just witnessed.

The curtains are finally down on the world cup. Perhaps not the most exciting in terms of sheer attacking play but for sheer romanticism and poetic fulfillment , this tournament has to be unrivalled in the entire World Cup history. If any still had doubts that fact is stranger than fiction then just take a look at the number of unbelievable stories the past month has thrown up. Call it coincidence if you are a sceptic or destiny if you are a believer, the fact remains that from the first day to the hair raising last , we were on a roller coaster ride of breakthroughs and redemptions liberally interspersed with abject failure and disgrace. None bear this out better than the extraordinary tales of champions Italy , hosts Germany and a shell shocked France.

Italy, well what can I say of the Azzuri. At the start of the tournament my personal prediction was that if Italy could emerge unscathed out of the first round, they would play the finals against Brazil. Too much has been written about the match fixing scandal in Italy’s serie A which could see 4 maj clubs being relegated and Juventus (which in the final had 11 players who had represented it at some point or the other) likely to be relegated to serie C. Surely lightening could not strike twice . After all in 1982, Italy came off a similar controversy back home to win the event….incidentally that year too Brazil had been made overwhelming favourites. There is something about these Europeans (with the exception of course of the venerable England) that makes them rise like a phoenix from the ashes every single time…the like of which I haven’t seen in any other community or class. What do you know…they produced a master class of team-spirit , single minded devotion and doggedness to overshadow the controversy back home and return with the trophy. The innumerable moments of romance in Italy’s fairy tale journey can best be summarized by looking at the 5 wonderful men who exorcised the ghosts of Roberto Baggio (incidentally another former Juventus man) on a sveltering day in the Rosebowl 12 yrs earlier.
Andrea Pirlo: scored the first spot kick ….after having tragically missed in the 2005 Champions league final for Milan against Liverpool.
Marco Materazzi: Simply put he was in every way the man of the final, from conceding the penalty, to providing the equalizer, to getting Zidane sent off and finally converting his own penalty.
Daniel de Rossi :Sent off in the groups stages for a petulant elbow and subsequently banned for 4 games , the youngster returned in the final as a replacement for Totti and sought redemption at the greatest stage.
Fabio Grosso: From diving in the 95th minute to secure the penalty against Aus to scoring that sublime first goal against Germany in the 119th minute, he was at the heart of all that was good , bad and ugly in the Italian campaign.
Alessandro del Piero : I kept him for the last as a lot of personal sentiments ride with him. He has been my sentimental favourite ever since school days.The golden boy of Juventus widely criticized for not reproducing his club form for his country finally arrived with the goal in the semi final and the penalty in the final. For one who has followed his career every inch of the way, you could sense his relief by the sheer outpouring of emotion at the end of it all.

To round off Italy, in a sheer footballing sense I have to mention Captain Cannavaro. Too often have previous world cups been known by the name of the dazzling player or striker who terrorized defences off all and sundry but never before for a defender. Thus you have Puskas-54, Pele-58 & 70, Cryuff-74, Rossi-82 and of course Maradona-86.However Cannavaro’s performance in the world cup earns him the right to be mentioned in this breath. From the very first match , his amazing anticipation , organization , starting of attacks from the defense, carrying of an at times suspect Materazzi on his shoulders and all this with that characteristically mischievous grin. His play was a joy to behold and for the first time I derived as much pleasure from watching defensive skills as that of the attacking flair of Brazil and Argentina.

As this wonderful tournament progressed , you wondered whether it was Germany’s destiny to triumph. Our bards of yore could not have set up a more picture perfect or romantic and evanescent setting. A country …which for decades has been ridden by the overwhelming burden and shame of the most gruesome genocide in history . A once proud fatherland where for years greybeards and striplings alike grappled in vain with the demons of their own conscience . A land which for half a century was breached by the most notorious wall in history….which even nigh 2 decades has left unsightly scars on the hearts and souls of the German people.
However it seemed that the most unlikely bunch of 23 modern day gladiators, led by a somewhat deposed erstwhile icon , had taken upon themselves the task of providing salvation to the people of a great nation….to once and for all root out the scars of the holocaust and the wall and finally, gain redemption for their countrymen. Anyone who witnessed the amazing quarter final match against Argentina could not help but feel a sense of awe and history. Not least ,in the setting , the magnificent Olympiastadion of Berlin, which had been chosen specifically with the purpose of showcasing the Nazi might in the 1936 Olympic games. They say the arena still retains a few pillars and architectural remains of the original stadium where Deutschland first imposed itself on the world. The Germans might then have stolen the games but the plaudits and hearts went ironically to 2 dark skinned men…ebony express Jesse Owens and the Indian wizard , Maj Dhyan Chand. In those days , proud soldiers of the Reich would stand impeccable with faces carved as if of granite silently conveying the devastation they were about to wreak on the world. Every thing was in perfect decorum and not a hair was out of place.
You get the feeling that the spirits of those men lingered in the till the 30th of June 2006….exactly 70 yrs till an event of similar magnificence and aura but portraying totally contrasting values ;that the passion and euphoria of that wonderful night finally released those guilt ridden souls. There you saw Chancellor Angela Merkel hugging Franz Beckenbauer at that final penalty save by Jens Lehmann of Esteban Cambiasso. The captain Michael Ballack, deemed earlier as the last great of a decaying football powerhouse, hobbling through the entire extra time in excruciating pain but staying on the pitch as the team had used up all their substitutions. What is more , stepping up to take a vital penalty kick. As the commentator most aptly summed it up “ you’d have put your mortgage on him scoring then.” The coach , a former great and world cup winning hero himself , oft critisised for his unorthodox tactics , knew that there were more important things than winning the cup…winning the minds and uniting the hearts of the German people.
Sport defies all prediction . The Germans have not won the cup but Klinsmannn's dream has been achieved , of uniting the people under one banner , something not even the great sporting heroes the likes of Michael Schumacher , Steffi Graf and Beckenbauer himself could achieve. For those who witnessed the tumultuous scenes at the Brandenburg Gate after the third place match, it was a sight to take home ……a sight of redemption for a nation flapping vainly in the dark for more than half a century.