SURELY you have to expect there will be upsets at the World Cup but the real challenge is in trying to figure out beforehand where they are going to be coming from.
Hardly anyone, bar the Swiss, expected Spain to lose their opening match, but lose they did. The English too were so sure they'd beat the Americans, but it took just one individual error to turn a win into a draw.
The lack of goals in the World Cup, boring to some but only natural as the game becomes more tactical at the highest level, has somewhat been compensated by its unpredictability.
Brazil and Argentina won their opening games, as many had expected, but the manner in which it was achieved, against North Korea and Nigeria respectively, might have left some of their fans disappointed.
And so it has been left to minnows, at least from an Asian perspective, to light up the tournament with morale boosting wins for South Korea and Japan.
North Korea too did themselves credit by scoring late on against mighty Brazil but how they fare in their subsequent matches is anyone's guess.
Some games, however, failed miserably to live up to "world-class" standards, with many fans on social-networking sites and fan pages deriding the Algeria v Slovenia and New Zealand v Slovakia matches.
So disengaging was the action, that I found the Malaysia Games football matches in Malacca so much more palatable.
At least there is a degree of expectancy here that would not disappoint you as some of the World Cup matches have.
You tailor expectations according to the standard of the tournament and on that basis, I can say that the Malaysia Games football tournament has been good to watch.
Predictably, today's final is between Selangor and Terengganu, both favourites to get to the gold medal match from the start.
Also on show will be some unpolished gems that sadly most Malaysians will be oblivious to as the Malaysia Games final fades into the shadow of the biggest single-event show on earth.
Hardly anyone, bar the Swiss, expected Spain to lose their opening match, but lose they did. The English too were so sure they'd beat the Americans, but it took just one individual error to turn a win into a draw.
The lack of goals in the World Cup, boring to some but only natural as the game becomes more tactical at the highest level, has somewhat been compensated by its unpredictability.
Brazil and Argentina won their opening games, as many had expected, but the manner in which it was achieved, against North Korea and Nigeria respectively, might have left some of their fans disappointed.
And so it has been left to minnows, at least from an Asian perspective, to light up the tournament with morale boosting wins for South Korea and Japan.
North Korea too did themselves credit by scoring late on against mighty Brazil but how they fare in their subsequent matches is anyone's guess.
Some games, however, failed miserably to live up to "world-class" standards, with many fans on social-networking sites and fan pages deriding the Algeria v Slovenia and New Zealand v Slovakia matches.
So disengaging was the action, that I found the Malaysia Games football matches in Malacca so much more palatable.
At least there is a degree of expectancy here that would not disappoint you as some of the World Cup matches have.
You tailor expectations according to the standard of the tournament and on that basis, I can say that the Malaysia Games football tournament has been good to watch.
Predictably, today's final is between Selangor and Terengganu, both favourites to get to the gold medal match from the start.
Also on show will be some unpolished gems that sadly most Malaysians will be oblivious to as the Malaysia Games final fades into the shadow of the biggest single-event show on earth.
Comments
Post a Comment