FIFA World Cup

Many of you are probably watching FIFA World Cup from Russia these days and have your own favourite team that you want to win, and so do I. But before I get into all that, and everything else I wanted to talk about in this post, let me explain something first. I’m going to refer to the sport in this post as football, because I believe that it’s much more accurate than saying soccer. So for anyone reading this in the US, keep that in mind. 😀 For anyone who might not know this, the tournaments are held every four years, with other continental championships in between, but I might talk about that some other time. 🙂

I remember watching my first World Cup in 2002, when i was 10 years old. The tournament was held in Japan and South Korea that year, so the time difference to us here in Europe made it easier for me to watch the games during the day. At the time, I was on my summer holidays and was spending it with my grandparents in Croatia. My grandfather and I watched a lot of football games together, even before the championship, so that was kind of our thing. Back then, even though I had no idea what that meant to the country, Slovenia also qualified for the tournament, so it was even more interesting to watch. I will never forget watching the last two games, the final between Brazil and Germany, with Ronaldo scoring two goals, and the third place game between Turkey and one of the hosts, South Korea. Especially that game was unbelievable, Turkey scoring the fastest goal in tournament history in the first minute, and at the end, the players from both teams got together and applauded the fans, as you can see on the photo below. It really showed what sport is actually all about, that they are playing for the fans and their support means a lot.

Fast forward four years, and we move to the 2006 tournament, held in Germany. That was a lot closer to us, but I was allowed to watch the games even at those later hours in the evening, as my parents knew I was very interested in it so they let me watch. A lot of people thought Germany were the favourites to win, but a thriller of a semifinal, in which Italy won with two goals at the end of Extra Time, crushed the hearts of home fans and they had to settle for third place at the end. So Italy then went on to play against France in the final, and the ones who are interested in football will probably remember what happened during the game, a few minutes before the end. The score was tied and everyone knew we were going to see penalty kick-offs, but before that, one of the best players in history in my opinion, Zinedine Zidane, got sent off after headbutting Marco Materazzi. There are still a lot of different rumours going around, what Materazzi said that led to that, but I don’t think we will ever find out what exactly was said then. So after that, the French lost the game after penalties, but one does wonder, what would happen if Zidane wouldn’t have lost his cool.

And now we come to the most interesting World Cup for me, South Africa 2010. That time I knew what it meant when Slovenia qualified for the tournament, and as a result, I watched all of their games outside on a big screen with a few hundred other people, cheering our national team on. Another memory I will never forget, involving the tournament is that, on the exact day when Slovenia played against the USA (we were leading by 2 goals, but it ended in a draw at the end), I turned 18. That day I also had to give an interview for one of our TV stations, even though I don’t usually like to be in front of the camera, at that time, I didn’t really care. 😀 Unfortunately, Slovenia got eliminated after the group stage, although they played really good, but had some bad luck with the results. Spain won the tournament that year, beating the Netherlands in the final, scoring only one goal in each of their games after progressing from the group phase.

So here we are now in 2018, and the tournament is being held in Russia, as I’ve already said. There have been some quite surprising results so far, with many of the favourites having difficulties in their groups, but I’m sure that as the tournament progresses, they will show their strength. So with that, and considering recent results and the way they played, I am hoping Croatia would go a long way, maybe even all the way to the final. It’s not just our neighbouring country, but also my parents moved to Slovenia from there, so I do want the best for them. But more realistically, I think it’s more likely we will see either Germany and Brazil in the final, or maybe even Russia and Portugal.

Let me know what you think about it, and let’s see who has the most fans on here! 🙂