In the first semi-final, Brazil and Spain were deadlocked until the last minute of normal time, when Spain struck what seemed to be the winner, only for their fans to watch in horror as one of the Spanish defenders turned the ball pass his own keeper two minutes later. And so, on to extra time. In the last minute (again!) of extra time Spain scored a controversial goal with the Brazilian keeper claiming he was kicked in the ear while he scrambled to get a hold of the ball in a goal-mouth scrimmage. In the second semi-final, Germany scored two goals in the first half and, although Argentina fought back to reduce the deficit to one goal, held on for the win.
Don't worry, I've not been hallucinating or in some parallel dimension while last week's borefest between Spain and Holland was being played. 'Brazil', 'Spain', 'Germany' and 'Argentina' are the assigned names to Sarvodaya High School's four student houses (green, yellow, red and blue) for the just-concluded inter-house football tournament. Yours truly was the referee in all matches.
For all matches of the tournament, the entire school gathered around the football ground of the school to cheer the teams on. It was a thrilling experience, watching the usually deserted football field turn into a cauldron of noise and energy. Although it was the senior (VIII to X standard) boys playing, “expert commentary” could be heard all around the field. This sense of togetherness was one of the identifiable gifts of this tournament.
The other was that the team gave a lot of otherwise “silent” (we have all seen them in our classes – quiet, disinterested, restless) lads a chance to become the school heroes. Unlike the West, where sports is given almost-equal priority to academics, Indian education has a strong academic bias (unsurprising if you consider the circumstances where education is often the best, if not only, way out of poverty). A sports tournament at the start of a new year gave many of them (especially tribal youth) a chance to shine forth.
Don't worry, I've not been hallucinating or in some parallel dimension while last week's borefest between Spain and Holland was being played. 'Brazil', 'Spain', 'Germany' and 'Argentina' are the assigned names to Sarvodaya High School's four student houses (green, yellow, red and blue) for the just-concluded inter-house football tournament. Yours truly was the referee in all matches.
For all matches of the tournament, the entire school gathered around the football ground of the school to cheer the teams on. It was a thrilling experience, watching the usually deserted football field turn into a cauldron of noise and energy. Although it was the senior (VIII to X standard) boys playing, “expert commentary” could be heard all around the field. This sense of togetherness was one of the identifiable gifts of this tournament.
The other was that the team gave a lot of otherwise “silent” (we have all seen them in our classes – quiet, disinterested, restless) lads a chance to become the school heroes. Unlike the West, where sports is given almost-equal priority to academics, Indian education has a strong academic bias (unsurprising if you consider the circumstances where education is often the best, if not only, way out of poverty). A sports tournament at the start of a new year gave many of them (especially tribal youth) a chance to shine forth.
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