Soccer

On July 9th,2006 almost all of the entire world came to a utter standstill for a couple of hours watching the FIFA World Cup Final. It has been estimated that over a billion people watched the world cup final between the two powerhouses Italy and France. The reason is pretty simple i.e the no of countries who play or involved in soccer is more than the number of countries who are member of the UN. That shows the power of this sport and the reason why its a big hit among the masses. Me, being an Indian was dissappointed that we did not qualify for this big stage. India, tipped to be the most populous country in the world by the year 2015, could not muster up a team that could qualify for this big cup.
I caught most of important matches in ESPN and was waiting eagerly like everybody else for the final. Most of our friends assembled at a friends place(who had a big screen flat TV) to watch the World Cup. A few of them supported France while the rest supported Italy. The game was pretty good until the final 10 minutes when Zidane's header on a Italian player sent him packing and the press buzzing. That was the talk of the final more than Italians stealing the win away from France on the penalty shootout.Zinadine Zidane, however great player he may be, let the world know how human emotions play an important role in all phases of life. He lost his control and correctly was ejected out of the game for his kiddish act.
The soccer mania didnt end just there for people like me. I joined a bunch of arab guys at our recreational service center and started playing with them. They were obviously more talented than me. Even though i am not that good in this sport, i joined them for two reasons. One to improve my stamina which isnt that great and second to learn this game. It was fun playing with them until i injured my right hand while blocking a powerful strike from an opponent. My hand got twisted badly and luckily no bones were broken. I initially thought it was a severe injury and was even thinking how it could affect my participation in the upcoming badminton tournament scheduled to start by july 21st..but thankfully its only been 4 days since that happend and i have recovered almost 95%. The irony is i still continue to play soccer with those guys and am enjoying every moment of it and i just hope i dont get further injuries.