Christmas is often a time when people reflect on the old times. You know actually yesterday during Christmas Eve, I went into a down memory lane overdrive. I may be talking about my thoughts ahead of Christmas here yesterday, but somehow my thoughts are going back to what is one of the biggest events which defined 2006 when I was on the Internet.
No, I am not talking the on-going Middle East conflict. We are aware of how the situation is like. And will the situation in Iraq be another Vietnam War is another debate altogether. With whatever is going on in the world right now, there are always some things which will still be able to break down even politicial boundaries - sports. Yes, the football World Cup. How it eventually became a summer fairytale, if you minus all the negatives which had came out of the sporting extravaganza. It was a fairytale not only to the host nation, but to me as well.
With the Getty Images website being one of my favourite websites for checking out the latest images, I clicked on 'Year In Focus 2006' on its Sport section yesterday. I always feel like bringing on the Kleenex whenever I see those images. Now you can tell me that I need not look at those things in order for the memories to come back, but it's just one of those things being so major in my lifetime (which is like a scar that will never go away). At least when I am alive. I want to tell my future kids what was really big in their mother's eyes when she was at their age. It's like the IOC Session which was held over here last year. Notice both events are sporting-related, although the IOC Session was just a meeting and the time when we know which city will host the 2012 Olympics after Beijing (it's London).
It's like for once, I am not an outsider who just follow what is going in the football World Cup with no emotion attachments. It's like for once, I am part of it. It's all because of the past history classes. I normally have the tendency to have a little sentimental attachments on those countries and places which had made their appearances on my former Social Studies and History textbooks. Russia, England, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, China, Japan, Germany, North Korea...just too much. Whenever I read about news of those places in the papers or watch the news from TV, I will sit up. The football World Cup had arrived to Germany in this year's summer.
You can bet given firstly, I have a football-mad father in the beginning and secondly, Germany was one of those countries being part of my former History syllabus, I will sit up all the more. Given Germany (after Russia) had commanded enough 'attention' in my history textbook, it's hard not to ignore. Like also duh, it's football World Cup. Football is a popular sport.
I always commented that I regretted never watching the opening match between host nation Germany and their one of their fellow group rivals Costa Rica, and so I was happy to look at the images which happened during that explosive opening match. Yes, I say explosive. You often don't associate that in past opening matches of the past World Cups. That is if you really know your World Cup history. Anyhow, I get a kick out of looking at the images.
I avoided the time when Germany meet Italy. Italy became the eventual champions, you know. Looking at some of those images from the match will be a real pain for me.
Notice I never mentioned about England's journey. England took a backseat for once during this year's World Cup for me. Oops. I can imagine those England faithful looking at me now. But you have to think - so many stars on the squad, ego issues bound to come up. I am not naming names here. Put a majority of average players on a national team (in the case of the German national team), what do you get? Great performance.
Sometimes it's just so unfair, but life is like that. Too many stars on the squad means that even more pressure to do well, while a group of average players may not get the attention. That is when the latter group perform beyond all expectations. It will be when the rest of the world will wondered why they had not noticed the team sooner. Human nature, human nature.
We can cry, we can laugh, we can do nothing. But given it is the holiday season and very close to a brand new year, it's also a time to reflect. That was my way. I think I will go even more nostalgic when the last day of the year comes along.
