The beautiful game...

That is the phrase used to describe football.. :) And for these soccer fans (some say that there are over 2 billion of them worldwide), the World Cup happening in South Africa right now is a good reason to stay up late and/or hang-out with fellow fans to catch the games..

Too bad I don't have Astro (the satellite television provider in Malaysia).. So I could only depend on the national broadcast stations for free-to-air telecast of ONLY 25 matches (out of 64).. but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm one bit..


I even bought the Official Sticker Album from Panini when I know I should be thrifty as I have yet to find any source of income.. It cost me MYR9.90 and came with 3 packs of stickers, and I bought another 2 packs at MYR1.90 each.. so I started off with 25 stickers for an album that requires 638 stickers to complete..

24 years ago, I had a similar album for World Cup 1986 in Mexico. That was quite an indulgence for a 12 year-old kid.. my dad allowed my brother and I to complete that album.. it must have cost us quite a bit back then.. that was also the time when I became an avid supporter of Team Deutschland.. :)

I love the way the German team played.. those set-pieces.. with such discipline and rapport.. There were many great players in the German team through the year, but they were known more as team-players.. unlike the individual flair so well-known of the Brazilians, they are members of a well-coordinated team that play together flawlessly... They were runners-up for Euro 2008, hopefully with this young but no less talented team, they will be able to win the Cup this time.. Even after losing to Serbia ( 0 - 1 ) last Friday but not before demolishing Australia ( 4 - 0 ), they are still my bet this year to lift the Cup..

Go Germany!! :) :)