IT’S INEVITABLE that moi will talk about the world’s biggest stage for the world’s most popular – both as a spectator and participant – sport…football.
World Cup Russia 2018 has shown the progress and development of the game of football worldwide of lesser footballing nations in Europe to Asia and Central America.
And from these developing football countries emerged “giant killers” that shattered the lofty positions of traditional football superpowers, in fact caused their eliminations in the early group stages of the World Cup.
But what about the natives of these islands? Does the World Cup mean anything to them?
Are they even aware that there’s this thing that happens every four years where fans are virtually glued in front of the television set if they’re not in the stadium themselves?
Perhaps this twit answers that question: Defending champion Germany was just eliminated from the World Cup and you’re still talking about Duterte’s remarks you’re not only pathetic but stupid as well…
The World Cup is already done with the group stages and in to the round of 16. Along the way tremendous upheavals and upsets are happening, not to mention the drama, yet people in the Philippines are still talking about President Rodrigo Duterte’s remark that some religion’s archaic dogmas are making God appear stupid.
And that basically sums up the mentality of some if not most of the natives which is parochial, and that has nothing to do with being loyal to your cura parroco but it might as well be.
Parochial simply means having a limited or narrow outlook or scope; in other words baduy.
Well, that is not surprising when the dream of most males here is to play above the rim in a sport where the average height is six feet five inches while the average height of Filipino males is five feet and five inches.
Diego Maradona, who won the 1986 World Cup for Argentina, is only five feet and four inches while FIFA World Footballer Argentina’s Lionel Messi is five feet and six inches. Brazil’s Pele, who won three World Cups 1958, 1962 and 1970 for Brazil, is also five feet and six inches.
And FIFA’s, Barcelona FC’s, Southeast Asia’s and the Philippines’ greatest footballer of all time, Ilonggo Paulino Alcantara, is only five feet and six inches.
I suppose that tells you something in this archipelago of vertically challenged males where instant gratification seems to be the game; dreaming of playing above the rim will only make you bump your head on the lower part of the backboard, that is if you can jump that high. Just leave the vertical leaps to those sexy long legged volleybelles in the Philippine Volleyball League or the Superliga.
Football is the sport that is natural for the Filipino. Just go to the football pitch in Barotac Nuevo, Santa Barbara and La Paz plazas and you will see barefoot 10-year-old kids with ball-handling skills and moves that will leave Cristiano Ronaldo staring in amazement.
Meanwhile, go to any basketball court, do you see anybody playing like Michael Jordan or Lebron James? Of course not.
Hobbits cannot dunk the basketball as their hands are too small to hold the basketball and dunk it, much less jump above the rim.
And we segue to the ongoing World Cup…the group stages are done and dusted and this is where the fun begins – the sudden death of the round of 16. You lose and you’re out.
So far this is what happened after the first two games of the round of 16:
Results are quite uncanny. The dreams of raising the World Cup trophy of the two biggest and richest superstars and rivals of the game of football have effectively been thrown into the dustbin.
For starters, both play for the biggest rivals not only in the Spanish Primera Liga but in international football as well. One plays for Barcelona FC while the other one plays for Real Madrid.
Moi is talking of course of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
The FIFA Ballon d’Or was an annual association football award presented to the world’s best men’s player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and France Football, the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d’Or, the two most prestigious individual honours in world football. The FIFA Ballon d’Or was awarded based on votes from international journalists and national team coaches and captains, who selected the players they deemed to have performed the best in the previous calendar year.
The six editions of the FIFA Ballon d’Or were dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as part of their ongoing rivalry.
Lionel Messi won it four times and coming second twice while Cristiano Ronaldo won it two times coming second three times. If you based it on these awards then definitely Messi is the better player than Ronaldo.
All that’s missing for both footballers is winning the World Cup. Unfortunately not this World Cup which may very well be the last for both.
Argentina lost to France with a score of 4-3 thus was eliminated while Portugal lost to Uruguay 2-1 also eliminating them, sending both teams including Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo packing their bags and watching the rest of the World Cup on television.
It’s football. As they say, the ball is round. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
