tonzu

[Continued from my previous review] The Copa Americas. The world cup. I've seen it all and I've felt a weird sense of satisfaction of watching a man win who I'll never meet in this lifetime (yet.) So, Thank you Messi. For ruining my perception of the game by making it look easy. For making me believe, it's okay to fall again and again and rely on others to pick yourself up. I'm tearing writing this. Thank you Messi, once again, from the bottom of my heart.

"I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them." 2014 WC. Peer pressure got the best of me and I actually sat down to watch this guy that almost everyone (some said the guy in the red team was even better) in my class seemed to love. So I watch. And this guy who is supposed to be a forward kept dropping to the midfield to collect the ball and progress it further even with the presence of 3 midfielders behind him. "Isn't he supposed to play further forward?," I asked my friend. "Just wait and watch, Sonzu" The 65th minute rolls in. This man is in the midfield AGAIN! But instead of passing back, he fucked dribbles past his man and makes a beautiful pass to Higuain. Higuain takes a beautiful touch and lays it back to him. Messi moves on still looking to get a shot off. He dribbles past one. Fakes. Dribbles again. Fakes. "Just shoot already," I screamed. And then he fakes another shot. Two Bosnian players trip over each other. Messi finally shoots. And scores. I usually have a fuzzy memory. But I clearly remember the adrenaline I felt that day. 12 year old me couldn't stop jumping out of excitement. This was the day when me and my ragtag group of friends decided, "No more cricket. Football's on from tomorrow, boys." Kafka famously said, "In the struggle between yourself and the world, second the world." Unfortunately, Messi was never allowed this privilege. Year after year, all I would see was this man carrying an entire nation's hopes and dreams on his back and I took him for granted. Until 2016. With the infamous Copa final, I am shocked when he announced his retirement the next day and I regretted not cherishing him enough. It felt like the crown weighed heavily on him and he would soon abandon it because he felt he was never enough. Thankfully, I got to watch him for another 10 years. And through those times, I've seen this man blossom into fulfilling his full potential. [Continued in my next review]

I read somewhere that if football were a game of 25 minutes, India would be World Champions already. I think we did much better than the scoreline suggests. Having Anirudh Thapa in the midfield playing as an orchestrator actually worked in the first half. We managed to break Uruguay's lines and create some good chances. The defense bar Sandhu was very bad. Made some very rudimentary mistakes and we still don't have a good ball playing CB to help both our midfield and defence. Ryan Williams, where would we be without you? Man created the chance that led to the goal and once again was the best player on the field for us. Shame he is 33 but he doesn't even look like it. Khalid Jamil is improving as a coach. He has let go of some of his haramball tendencies and coached a team which played some good football in pockets. I know we didn't win a single game this international break, but if you're an Indian fan you'll be proud of this team (given you actually watched the match, that is).