Viswanathan K's Thoughts

I was surprised when my 11 yo daughter showed interest in the ongoing FIFA World Cup. On the plus side, it meant one could watch the 8:30 p.m. match, without getting into a fight over the TV with her, so I wasn’t complaining.   It turned out she wasn’t really interested in the game. She just wanted to make sure she didn’t look lost in class when her classmates talked about the matches, the teams and the players. Like so many people, it turned out that she only knew of 2 players – yes, Messi and Ronaldo.   On Instagram, I showed her many of the endless stream of Messi’s brilliant goals and dribbling skills to get through the entire defense. The word “G.o.a.t.” (Greatest of all time) was a recurring theme in the comments section.   In the Morocco v Portugal match we watched together, I told her I supported Morocco and she imperiously declared that she supported whoever would win at the end. In other words, Morocco.   Next day, she mentioned that her cla...

The first football World Cup I saw was the one in 1990. I sat up late for the midnight matches, argued over who would win or who played better. During the 2002 World Cup, I even went home from office to watch the Brazil v/s England quarter-final, the final before the final (every tournament has one such match). But the current World Cup barely has me interested. I don’t even sit through a match that starts at 9:30! Signs of old age? Or has the Internet changed everything? I always feel “Why watch a match that may be goal-less anyway? Why not just see the goals on YouTube the next day?” And yet, I watch Argentina’s matches (ok, I just watch more of their matches than the others’). But only to see Lionel Messi. I come away feeling that while the guy is awesome, he just produces 3 or 4 instances of magic in the entire match (it’s a different matter that those instances are sufficient to win the match). So is he over-hyped, I wondered? Or over-marked? Or is Barcelona a better tea...