Life is full of surprises and so is football. The recent semi-finals of the Champions League is proof enough. While helpless and out of luck, Lionel Messi tried to do all he could to lead Barcelona to the Champions League finals, it surely was not enough. In another semi-final, Christiano Ronaldo met with the same fate with Real Madrid, leaving most of the Asian fans in disbelief, shock and despair. Only 19 May 2012 will tell who will be crowned the champions among Chelsea and Bayern Munich. However, this defeat and overhauling of the favourites reminded me of another time in Sem which was similar, the World Cup Finals of 1998.
Instead of 9 pm we were made to go to bed at 8 pm to get some sleep before waking up again to watch the FIFA World Cup Finals at midnight. It is heart-warming sometimes to look back and reminisce those days in St. Joseph's College, Nainital which seemed extra-ordinary during those days but have been forgotten in due time.
We were woken up by Br. O. Ballantyne just before midnight of 12 July 1998. Many of us, but not all- some were happy to miss the finals and sleep- woke up with sleepy eyes and found the drowsiness gone as soon as the match started. It was the favourites, Brazilians against the unexpected and the dark horses, the French. All of us loved Ronaldo(Brazil) and were expecting to see him in all his glory but it was not to be. We did not know the names of many footballers but instead of Ronaldo we were mesmerized by the hitherto unknown to us Zinedine Zidane of France. His two goals sealed the victory for France and left the Brazilians in a state of unbelievable shock amounting to coma. The final score was 3-0. A lot of us were not prepared to witness Brazil beaten by France. We finally had to go to bed again by 3 am.
I wonder if any of us can recall that we were allowed to sleep like kings the ensuing morning till 7:30 am. It was a Monday but fortunately a holiday after the first term examinations.
Instead of 9 pm we were made to go to bed at 8 pm to get some sleep before waking up again to watch the FIFA World Cup Finals at midnight. It is heart-warming sometimes to look back and reminisce those days in St. Joseph's College, Nainital which seemed extra-ordinary during those days but have been forgotten in due time.
We were woken up by Br. O. Ballantyne just before midnight of 12 July 1998. Many of us, but not all- some were happy to miss the finals and sleep- woke up with sleepy eyes and found the drowsiness gone as soon as the match started. It was the favourites, Brazilians against the unexpected and the dark horses, the French. All of us loved Ronaldo(Brazil) and were expecting to see him in all his glory but it was not to be. We did not know the names of many footballers but instead of Ronaldo we were mesmerized by the hitherto unknown to us Zinedine Zidane of France. His two goals sealed the victory for France and left the Brazilians in a state of unbelievable shock amounting to coma. The final score was 3-0. A lot of us were not prepared to witness Brazil beaten by France. We finally had to go to bed again by 3 am.
I wonder if any of us can recall that we were allowed to sleep like kings the ensuing morning till 7:30 am. It was a Monday but fortunately a holiday after the first term examinations.
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