Is it just Football?

It's that time again. Time when a bunch of blokes would form a team, and run a green ground trying to get one single ball to a specific area of the other side of the ground. And the whole world will go crazy about it! That is the magic of Football World Cup. My father, who was a football player himself, introduced me to this magic, and Football and World Cups were a big part of my growing up!

My first memories of watching international football on television is the Mexico World Cup in 1986, when we first got television at home. My father would explain the finer aspects of the game to me - what off-the-ball-movement was, how the goal scorer got in to a position to score, how a defender anticipates the trajectory of the ball. After a couple of World Cups, I was in a position to discuss those aspects, and would sometimes suggest him the matches to watch (he would only watch one match each night). Every four years, those 30 days would be a time of special bonding between us - it was our time, at times when we would collectively get scolded for watching too much football by my mother, times when we would set our alarm clocks so that we could get up at 3 a.m. and watch a match! Even at times, when I was not in Kolkata during the World Cups, I would call my father up and discuss teams, and get his opinion on players.

This year, I will watch the matches, but for the first time, I would not have anyone to discuss the matches with. I am not sure I will enjoy this World Cup as much as before!