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The following review appeared in todays - 16.07.06 - Arab Times. It was
penned down by me. For the reading pleasure of Goanet readers, I am
reproducing it adverbatim, from Arab Times (Kuwait).
"
WORLD CUP 06.
Swami Vivekananda a great Indian preacher and social activist a century back
urging Indians to be strong morally and physically wrote thus you will be
nearer to heaven through football than through a study of the Gita. Is
Foot-ball so powerful weapon to condition oneself spiritually? According to
Swami Vivekananda yes but according to Zinedine Zidane the French skipper
no. The beauty of this World Cup was destroyed by Zidane by head -
butting French defender Materazzi. This W. Cup will be remembered not for
any exceptional skill or any greatness but it will be remembered for
posterity by the ugly and most disgraceful incident created by the world
renowned foot-baller Zidane. He made the entire French nation bring its
head down in shame. By this act though the reasons behind it may be very
convincing, Zidane has put his personal priority before the priority of his
adopted nation. If he was really faithful and patriotic to France he would
not lose his cool and put the name of his nation into shame. Instead of
acting like a professional wrestler on the foot-ball field, he would allow
the incident to pass off peacefully and inform the authorities concerned
about the slur he received from the Italian defender. By his disgraceful
act he gave a very bad example to others. He does not deserve the title of
Best Player of the Tournament. FIFA should withdraw this title from him
otherwise the quality of this title will diminish. This is not the first
time Zidane did this type of mischief, earlier too he found acting in this
indisciplined manner. A man whose annual income touches almost to 8 million
dollars should know to act prudent and not to act like a ruffian beggar.
The exit of Brazil was a deserving lesson for the former World Champions who
during the initial stages thought that they were omnipotent and with ease
they will regain the title. None of their players, either ageing or fresh
proved to be the world conquerors, there was no Samba and no Geometry in
their play. According to Brazilian traditional standard, they played
amateurish soccer. Ronaldos achievement of being the highest scorer in the
World Cup Tournaments will be remembered not only for this great feat but
mainly for the way he scored that memorable goal. It was a magician act
mesmerizing and hypnotizing the rival goalkeeper in front of him. It was a
real classic goal.
In this tournament I saw something totally different from other tournaments,
that is, it was a defense oriented tournament, all the teams playing to
defend their citadels in which all the goalkeepers played stellar roles.
The keepers of Italy, Portugal and Czech Republic were in outstanding form.
Oliver Kahn in his only appearance proved that he is still a force to reckon
with. If he was fielded against Italy, I am sure he would save both the
goals in the semifinal. But Klinsmann was arrogant and immature leader to
handle German team. First of all, as a coach he cannot dance Jive by
keeping his one leg in California and the other in Germany. The job of a
coach is full time and full fledged one. When Franz Backenbeur was in
similar position earlier he devoted full time for German cause and not acted
like a part timer as Klinsmann did. The physical conditioning displayed by
every player of every participating team was exceptionally high as never
seen before. But hard and rough tackling from behind marred the beauty of
the soccer.
Portugal my earlier masters in Goa for 461 years had a very good team and
very good team work but as usual they lacked killing stinct. Do or die is
not the motto of Portuguese, they are always devagar and susegad, these
were the same attributes Goans have inherited from their masters. During
this W. Cup I refreshed my memory of Portugal's National Anthem Herois do
Mar which as a small boy in Portuguese School I used to sing daily as a
rule. Young Christiano Ronaldos footwork really created wonders. He is
really a World class player, so too skipper Figo who is still having
abundant world class soccer in him and to retire at this peak form is a
tragedy. I dont know why many of the greats who inspite of having lot of
soccer remaining in them are thinking of retiring at an early age. With
their exit from World soccer arena, the quality of soccer will go down.
When Pele retired from active soccer from Brazil, Mario Zagallo was coaching
Kuwaiti National Soccer team and when he got the news in Kuwait of Peles
retirement, he remarked thus I dont know why he should retire at this time
when he could still run 100 metres in 11 seconds. I was running 100 metres
in 11 seconds when I was just raw boy of 16 while Pele was doing this when
he was 34. What a great feat of Pele even at that ripe age. The match
between Holland and Portugal was marred by highest number of yellow and red
cards and everyone accused the referee for this. But as for me the referee
did exactly what it was required to do. If number of infringements were
more then surely his job of displaying the cards will be more. But as a
whole the umpiring was not very satisfactory and the absence of Collina was
felt very much.
Overall, the standard of foot-ball in this W. Cup tournament was poor
compared to earlier ones. The organizing ability of Germany was very good
in keeping with their tradition but the prize distribution ceremony was not
very good, it looked more chaotic, some of the Italian players acted like
street boys with the gold Cup. The golden World Cup is not meant to poke fun
but to adore and admire. Some of the Italian players forgot this greatness
of World Cup.
The greatness of this tournament lies in the popularity it acquired in every
part of the planet. This is the only event that brings the entire world
together, small and big, high and low, whites and blacks, Asians, Americans,
Europeans and Africans. This is the only event in the world where all man
made human barriers are discarded. Let this be so in future too. My
congratulations not only to the winners Italy but also to all the
participating teams that put in lot of good work to display their talents
and gain good will from the entire world.
A. Veronica Fernandes."
Kuwait.
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