A world game to remember

By Al S. Mendoza

 

WE are not a football country, yes, but once the World Cup is on, we become sort of instant soccer fans.

That was the case recently when the world’s No. 1 sport had its Olympics in Brazil.

When it was on, the world stopped—virtually.

That’s because while basketball is our national passion, football is the global sport.

We do not feel its electric atmosphere but the rest of the world does—literally.

Thus, when Spain was ousted early in the World Cup, the sporting world wept.  Spain was the top seed.

When Italy bowed out, tears flowed freely, flooding all of Rome’s iconic Coliseum—figuratively.

When Brazil absorbed that 7-1 thrashing from Germany, the whole world commiserated with The Girl From Ipanema.

Brazil is the world best, winning a record five World Cup crowns, and it gets booted out in the semifinal?

In a manner yet as though Brazil was reduced to a midget from a giant that it was for decades?

Brazil being beaten that badly is like seeing the San Antonio Spurs, the reigning NBA champs, getting routed by Globalport.

Utterly unbelievable.

Whatever happened to Pele’s descendants, Pele being still considered the sport’s undisputed greatest of all time?

But what followed next was one for the books:  Brazil went gaga over Argentina—Argentina advancing to the final against Germany.

Brazil never liked Argentina, as in Mar Roxas never liking Jojo Binay from Day One.

With Argentina thrust into the brink of history, what else could Brazil do?

They are brothers in the first place, being both Latinos—regionalism being more binding than sibling rivalry.

And isn’t this the World Cup, where bad blood becomes good wine—as in Argentine wine direct from the vineyards of Mendosa (yes, it is with an ‘S’)?

Germany was heavily favored, not only because of its 7-1 humiliation of Brazil but because of one more crucial reason.

It has Miroslav Klose, Germany’s greatest and one of the game’s all-time best, who has a total of 71 career goals as he marched into his last World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.

When he was lifted by German coach Joachim Loew near the end of regulation in the German-Brazilian game, Klose was given an ovation from even the most rabid anti-German spectators from the jampacked crowd at historic Maracana Stadium.

Moments later, Mario Goetze, who subbed for Klose, scored in a most unexpected but totally magical moment to give Germany a 1-0 victory in the 113th minute—just seven minutes before the game-ending whistle.

I am not a football fan.

But I woke up at 2:45 a.m. to watch the battle for the 18-karat gold Rimet Trophy that started at 3 a.m. on July 14.

It was a game to remember.  On the biggest stage of the sport loved so dearly by the world.

I couldn’t ask for more.

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