WORLD CUP SPOILERS

The FIFA World Cup 2010, being played in South Africa, is already in its pre-quarter final stages. It's an event that happens once in four years, and obviously football lovers like me have been looking forward to it for a long long time.

It's usually blokes, whose favourite teams fail to win the cup, who look forward to the next world cup, hoping their team will kick ass the next time around. My then favourite team, Argentina, failed at the quarter-final stages then. This time though, Spain is my favourite team.

There are a lot of things that make world sport events like these a big hit with viewers. Watching players play for national pride, and fans cheering, and rivalries play out - both on and off the field - banners, flags, et al, these are what make World Cups special.

This World Cup, however, has a few things which I don't quite like - or rather, which I absolutely abhor. They've kinda played spoilsport with my football-fever.

Presenting, things from FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa that get on my nerves:-

1. The "Wavin Flag" Anthem - I just hate the song. Sounds less like a motivator, and more like as if a cranky kid is jeering at a grown-up. "When I get older, I'm gonna screw ya...I'm gonna kick yer ass, kick yer ass...!!" Bring on the Waka-Waka instead.
   
   
2. The Jabulani - The football being used at this World Cup, called the "Jabulani", which in Zulu means "rejoice", is a huge dampener. Apparently, it's difficult to control, and is absolutely unpredictable, what with the bends it takes, and its speed. It kinda has a mind of its own. No wonder football geniuses look like drunk retards this time around.
   
   
3. The Vuvuzelas - The "Ultimate" torture. Imagine a million mosquitoes buzzing around your ear, on a 'power-cut' night...This sounds worse than that. Apparently, it's an instrument that's played in churches in South Africa. The Churches there shouldn't be surprised if they see the number of parishioners dwindle over time. Blame the vuvuzelas. They're IRRITATING!!
   
   
4. Weird Hairdos - Blonde-permed beards, braided locks, mohawks, half-moon patches, green hair...some players have em all. And they're not a pretty sight. Check out the Algerian squad, for instance. You'll know what I mean.
   
   
5. EPL Duds - I'm a big fan of the English Premier League. I know a lot of players from there, and kinda follow their performances. So it's depressing to see how magicians within the league suddenly seem so amateurish on the world-stage. As we speak, the English team has crashed out of the World Cup, quite humbly. Whatever happened to stars like Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, etc. Kinda reminds me...THE EPL clubs hardly have English players. Almost all of em are foreigners, with Englishmen only drafted in for training sessions.
   
   
6. Dearth of Goals - This has been a pretty low-scoring World Cup. Don't count the 7-0 drubbing that Portugal meted out to North Korea - that was like India playing Nepal in cricket. But seriously, when you watch football, you really look forward to goals being scored, and that has been lacking this time.
   
   
7. Diving Championship - This is a reason I hate sides like Portugal, Brazil, and most South-American sides. In spite of being rich in natural talent, they forget that they are footballers, and take to diving once every 5 seconds, just to win free-kicks and penalties.(Go check Cristiano Ronaldo's videos on youtube). The number of dives they put in in one match would put olympic board-divers to shame.
   

Anyway, got to get some sleep now, though I get that's gonna be a lil difficult now. Not only coz there's an Argentina-Mexico game coming up, but mainly coz I have a stomach infection that's getting a lil painful and uncomfortable. :( Hope I'm better by morning, coz I don't wanna miss office, lest I pile up a huge backlog.

Cheers
CRD