Life & Beyond : SPAIN VS CHILE: HOW THE MATCH UNFOLDED FOR A WORLD CUP ENTHUSIAST (WHO IS NOT A SOCCER FAN)

The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Thursday, 19 June 2014

SPAIN VS CHILE: HOW THE MATCH UNFOLDED FOR A WORLD CUP ENTHUSIAST (WHO IS NOT A SOCCER FAN)

Ambition, hunger, conviction – when Xabi Alonso mentioned these words while reacting on the second consecutive humiliating loss of his team Spain that sent them packing from the World Cup 2014 – it showed the scale of loss - that was absolute.

Yes, in both of the games that Spain lost (and lost badly), Spaniards looked down to play with ambition, hunger and conviction to retain their World Cup 2010 title. Records say it is the worst performance by a defending world champion in being knocked out so early of the tournament.

The huge 1-5 loss against Netherlands was enough to bring down the morale of Spain, the team which had looked resigned in the later half of the game. And to regain the confidence, they needed to hit back and strike first in their next game, a must for them, to remain in the tournament.

But it didn’t happen and Spaniards, missing the elements of ambition, hunger and conviction to perform and win, could not respond to the Chilean aggression. And their ‘lost’ composure added to their misery by helping Chile when the winner of the match scored 1^st goal in the 20^th minute.

The game that made Spain the world champion in 2010 is gone, the two matches, from Friday to Wednesday (Brazil time), show us. If its remnants were there - were seen in flashes only - certainly not enough to bounce back after a huge loss against the team it defeated last time to win the World Cup.

And with the 2^nd Chilean goal in the 43^rd minutes, the pressure on Spaniards to come back and win the match became high enough to kill whatever spirit they could have had, it can be said.

The 2^nd half resurrection that Spain needed badly after conceding 2 goals in the first half didn’t come. Probably, the psychological pressure of hitting back and wining the match after trailing 0-2 hit the mental composure of the Spanish players to the extent that could not convert even a single move to a goal despite making some really good efforts. It’s a common sense stuff that happens always and there is no need of some expert analysis on it.

Spain, the defending world champions, needed to deliver and score a handsome victory in this match to bounce back, to remain in the league, after their dismal show in the game against the Dutch. Instead, they collapsed even more.

It is sad to see Spain out of the World Cup so early but both Netherlands and Chile - they earned and deserved their victories.

Next match I have planned to catch is England Vs Uruguay at 12:30 AM

India

time tomorrow. This is do-or-die match for the former world champions. The team losing the match will be knocked out of the World Cup and therefore, they need to do all to outdo each other.

Will that give us yet another thrilling World Cup match? Let’s see.

It’s time for some good moments, some quality TV viewing time..

Enjoy the game. You don't need to be a soccer expert for it. Football was never my first love, yes, but the FIFA World Cup is different.

The motion, the action, the crowds, all so volatile, all so paced up, like the high-pitched notes of every type of foot-thumping music - its so charming, so loving, so captivating.