Watching Half A Football Match Of FIFA World Cup

Last Saturday, upon my return from the half-day mission trip, I was not in the mood to play bowling with Vince as suggested by him, much less in the evening. But I remembered there was going to be a football match of 2010 FIFA World Cup at 10pm and a few friends of mine had talked about watching the games together with the crowd. So it was my turn to persuade my blog friend to accompany me to watch the match somewhere at Cheng.

When both of us made up our mind to move to "Pinang Besar" restaurant, the first half of the match was already over. The tables and chairs there had been arranged in such a way that what the shop was selling was obviously football, not food. We still managed to get two available back seats facing the big screen at "Pinang Besar". In front of us were two more empty chairs which were soon occupied by a couple whose physical intimacy often disturbed my view.

During the 15-minute half-time break, Vince explained to me the football betting which had been a hot current issue in Malaysia.

I had never been crazy about this world's most popular sport. In fact, during the World Cup season in France in 1998, I who was then studying in the country had not even paid attention to it until I learned that the whole nation was ecstatically celebrating Les Bleus' victory.

In summer 2002, I had a small gang of Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean buddies who faithfully came to my studio in the afternoon when there was a match of FIFA World Cup. Why did they choose my place? Because I made all my guests feel at home by serving them drinks and snacks. After cheering two hours in front of the television, we sometimes went out cycling in the countryside and later cooked dinner together.

Back to Malaysia, not only I lost contact with most of the those friends, I also lost interest in the 2006 tournament especially because it was during the period when I was preoccupied by Dad's failing health.

This year, having played football with Calvary Care Home children did not make me a football fan. Not having Astro at home, I was content with TV1 and TV2 which selectively offered World Cup 2010 live broadcast. Even then, I hardly watched any match and had little idea of the current best players in the world.

Nevertheless, it was fun watching the 22 players chasing after a ball as well as observing the spectators' reaction to the team they were or not supporting. Vince who was hoping Argentina to win was rather quiet during the second half where the South Americans continued to attack aggressively in vain. I just enjoyed seeing the goal being hit three times by the German players who were excellent in their cooperation with one another. Every time, the score would be followed by cheers of overjoyed clients of the restaurant who jumped from their seats with their arms up and began to sing a victory song.

Germany eventually beat Argentina by 4-0. I neither felt happy nor grieved for any team. I simply drew a lesson from the match, like what I had learned in my leadership class, that team work is more important than personal glory, .

After the match, the 24-hour restaurant was the one which looked saddest with abandoned seats.