World cup football or 'soccer 'as it is know here.This generates emotions which only people of steel can control effectively. Some years ago it was the Dutch who were renowned masters of the game. It was a strange era and I recall how elated, joyful and over the cheese were they whenever any continental team beat any English or Scottish side. It was football politics. Now of course the centre of football gravity has moved very firmly into the Latin camp.
I attended many games when the boys were growing up.For years the eldest lost practically every match until the the final season when they clicked and won every game outright. Had to wait five or six years of shivering sideline presence to achieve the winners feeling.
Even at these junior levels, emotions were close to the surface. I recall one very keen, put it that way, mother tripping up an opposing team's winger with the handle of her umbrella. She was sent packing. Another time a father waltzed onto the pitch brandishing a pistol and verbally assaulting the ref. This match was cancelled; another instance of zeal was practised by a bunch of twelve year olds who sat the ground in rows, with headphones ,while they listened to recorded pep talks from their coach.
We watched the last world cup in a private venue and could have sworn that the referee and commentator were absolutely and completely biased towards the other side. It was group telepathy gone hideously wrong. All us were surprised to find that in the outside world nobody else agreed.
One of the earliest supporters of soccer in the world of the media was the SBS (Spoecial broadcasting Service) who,k over the years, secured a comfortable niche in this market until the commercial channels woke up to the fact that maybe there was something in this game after all. The SBS is a multi lingual station , broadcasting in more that seventy languages both on radio and TV. In their early days they showed contiental wovies,, which at the time were considered 'risque' ,k definitely avant garde. Together with their love of soccer they came to be known as the "Soccer Before Sex" media station. No longer such a distiction as even the mildest of U.S. films would have our grandparents popping their false teeth in amazement.
Australia has been placed in the "death draw" round , playing such notables as Holland, Spain and Chile. Much bravado is being displayed by the socceroos. Surprises,k however, can and do happen in sport .It's a bit like going to bed and finding a set of badgers there..alost impossible but not beyond the realms of possibility. Let's watch and see. More long nights ahead.
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