“kalau kau buat team bola untuk england, siapa kau nak letak?”
“ian rush.”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
________________________
what is it with football?
i, for one, never found anything fascinating with a game where 20 people kick a ball around a grass pitch (i know got 22 one, but the goaliekeeper[sic] where got kick the ball around ah?). ever since i was a kid, i was of the sedentary type. i was, and still am (i have no qualms whatsoever to admit this) absolutely useless. kids are cruel, and when you’re shite in games at the schoolyard, you’re dead meat. so, it was back to my cartoon-drawing and kenner star wars action figures for me (didn’t have an atari console until much later).
rtm regularly had footie at 3pm every saturday in the 70’s. it was english at first then german a few years later. one english team stuck to mind then: stoke city. don’t ask me why, but i don’t think they were great even back then.
came 1982 and we had the world cup in spain. i remember that was the year i was ‘interested’ in football. ovaltine had a promo thingie where you collect stickers for the world cup finalists. maradona, zico, rossi – for someone who never really like football, that’s not bad going if i could remember these soccer heroes. despite the world cup, i never had the itch to play the damn game (PE doesn’t count). i did play subbuteo – that was okay although kinda weird (people still play it today. why? go play winning 11 or something lah).
we don’t really watch footie on the telly at home. my dad loved man U (and changed his allegiance to the magpies when i was in medical school – no prizes for guessing why) and hated liverpool. in the rare occasions we did, i finally learned the offside rule (curi ayam). not from my dad, but from my late mom (ex-STF/state hockey player).
i remembered mexico 1986. friends sneaking off to the canteen after lights off (i think the wardens didn’t really mind). i even had a classmate donning bandages around his wrist, on school days, like the fresh-faced gary lineker. and yes, i remembered the quarter finals vividly. only ‘the hand of god’ bit. even an idiot can tell maradona pakai tangan.
the next (and the last) time i actually sat down, watch matches on telly, and actually cheered with my housemates was eight years later – the 1994 world cup ‘stateside (again – yes, it takes a tournament of such magnitude to pique my interest). i remembered the final game between brazil and italy: what a shitty way for a team to win the world cup. and i remembered how devastated roberto baggio looked that day.
the interest in footie pretty much waxed and waned for me. more waned, actually. it really depends on the crowd i hang out with. i am amazed with my friends who could describe, verbatim, matches from days long gone. how a goal was saved and the moves it took to score that winning goal. i also read blogs where people discuss footie as if they were reading a transcript from SKYsports.
i have been on english soil for the longest time and one of the questions i get asked when i go back to KL would be how great it would be to get to watch footie matches. i had to bow my head down in shame and say that i have not watched a single footie match live. not even when keegan was raising the magpies from its ashes in the 90’s. and st. james’ was literally setanak nasi away on foot from where i lived.
do i watch football today? what do you think?
For someone who’s not into football, you know quite a bit. But Ian Rush is Welsh 😉
norzu: hence the guffaws. 😉
Kudz,
you know sometimes last year, Terry didn’t hire a computerwizkid because he likes football and talk about football too much hahahaha!
i think i stopped watching footy during my 1st year at uni. that was back in 1994 too hehe! like my dad and sis, i was a big man u fan. anybody remember that kungfu kick from eric cantona? along the years i try to keep up with footy news just enough so to not be left out when i go for drinks with my colleagues.
Hahaha…. mee too, lum pernah gi tengok live footie here. And that blog, I did many times put my annoying comments there; simply coz I don’t support any english team, and nearly got killed during last world cup when I was the only one cheered when Brazil scored against England….
I can’t believe this! Football is everything, people! Trust me lah, go watch a big game – World Cup, Euro, International Friendly, Champs League, FA Cup Final, Premier Premiership Games… That kinda stuff… The atmosphere boleh buat kau muntah. Go to a big stadium as well… Old Trafford or Anfield or Nou Camp or San Siro. Stadiums where people have died kinda thing. Jangan pergi Chelsea2 nih. Go to a stadium that is part of a tradition and has that certain romance…
I have a friend who used to not miss any of those Madden NFL games and religiously bought each and every EA Sports tennis and b-ball games… Tapi after one session of Winning Eleven… he said it was like going to a Jimi Hendrix concert.
Everything changed… colours changed…
thot Mr Rush was Irish?!
hmm, i dunno… 😉
he’s welsh lah.
and no, i’ve never been to brazil.
dont worry kudos. you;re not alone.
but im even more weirder. i PLAY football, i think im pretty good at it, but I DONT watch it all. I dont follow any leagues, only watch World Cup , the final game…dont even ask me player names.
btw dude
pls go here. and thank me later pls:
WorldWide Suicide:
http://beta.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=4C2189027504BAB6
My first memory of footie was watching the Serie A during the heyday of the dutch trio of Rijkaard, Gullit n Van Basten. Brilliant stuff, which made me a fan of AC Milan to this day. But I don’t follow footie religiously I guess, and I tend to watch a match with a book in hand unless it’s with a bunch of people and the atmosphere is there!
football, huh? tiba2 teringat tune ‘road to wembley’…btw, u penah tak simpan sticker book EPL in teh 80’s dulu?..beli chewing gum, dpt gambo player, then we need to stick them in a book. hmm…kalo la ada lagi stuffs like that, kan ke best?
I went to the friendly when Brazil was in KL. Can see Ronaldinho’s teeth from my seat u know..
Football, one of the things that I miss during my times in UK. Over here in Malaysia we can watch more live football on tele. But nothing beats watching a live match at the stadium.
And over there, there’re the the footie talk shows! Gary Lineker, Desman Lynam, and not to forget Baddiel and Skinner. They make Shebby Singh and gang look like ametuers.
everton is the founder member of the english league and is the first football club in liverpool. Originally played at Anfield, which is now home to the Red Shites. Everton also shares the accolade of being the longest serving top flight club with Arsenal. Hehehehe.. saja aku nak iklan everton. And Ian Rush the welsh bloke+michael owen+ steven gerrard are all everton supporters…grin!!!!!
Come on you blues!!!