MISSING YOU ALREADY, WORLD CUP 2022...! BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
MISSING
YOU ALREADY, WORLD CUP 2022…!
BY SANDRA
HARRIS. ©
Aw. I feel bereft today. The 2022 World Cup ended yesterday,
the eighteenth of December, and now all I have to look forward to is Christmas with
its tons of great presents, the FATHER TED Christmas special on telly and more delicious
grub than you could shake a stick at. As I said, aw…!
The four weeks of exciting football and football excitement
really took my mind off the pelting rain, the freezing cold, all the talk of future
gas shortages and the sight of people on the News stocking up on little
primus/camping stoves from the ‘outdoors’ and camping shops, just in case we’re
facing into a new, Putin-led Armageddon.
2022 hasn’t exactly been the greatest year ever for good
news, has it? It was the year Russia declared war on Ukraine, and we here in
Ireland should know this because we’ve taken in about 65,000 Ukrainian refugees
to date. We still have killer virus COVID-19 with us; I presume Monkeypox hasn’t
gone away yet; and now we have something else horrible called Strep A targeting
our younger children as well.
As for the dreaded climate change, well, if 2022 with its landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards, forest fires, sinkholes, floods, volcanic eruptions and unexplained building collapses hasn’t convinced you yet that we’re in serious trouble here, then it probably never will, and you’ll die surprised and screaming, ‘no-one told me anything like this was gonna happen…! Why wasn’t anyone expecting this?’
On a personal level, this will be mine and my kids’ first
Christmas in five years without any hamsters in the house at all. Our last
hammies passed away in October, a week or two before Halloween, and, much as we’d
like to rush out and fill the house with furry friends again, we’ve each agreed
that the depths of a very cold, wet winter mightn’t be the best time to bring a
new pet- or pets- into the house.
So, anyway, you can see why it was nice to have the World Cup to break things up a
bit this year. Except for the fact that, this year, it wouldn’t be held in the summer holidays
as usual, which was, well, a bit unusual. When it’s held in July, it gives my
teenage son and myself something to do together and bond over, and we have all the time
in the world to stay up late and watch it,
This year, it was held in the month of December, something to
do with the host country Qatar’s extremely hot climate, I think. How did Qatar,
a dictatorship, one of the Arab nations, get to host such a prestigious event,
anyway? It might have been something to do with the two hundred million dollars
they shelled out on their bid, but don’t quote me on that.
Lots of controversy surrounded Qatar’s bid and hosting of the
event. Apparently, you’re not allowed to be gay in Qatar, went the rumour mill,
and you could be stoned to death for your trouble. Women had to cover
themselves completely if they wanted to go out in public, and God help you if
you were caught boozing it up in a country that forbade alcohol. Migrant
workers in Qatar were dirt-poor and subject to terrible human rights abuses. At
least one of these rumours turned out to be completely and utterly true.
Former football star David Beckham apparently accepted a
hefty sum of money to act as ambassador to this particular World Cup, then
people gave him a hard time for taking money to say that Qatar was a great
place to be and to come on yer holliers to. Three little words, Dave… human
rights abuses…
This was a strange World Cup for football, never mind
politics. For one thing, Italy didn’t qualify for the tournament, despite having
beaten England to the title of Euros winners of 2021. So relieved were us Irish
at England’s loss (sorry, England!) that chants of ‘Donnarumma, he’s
shaggin’ your ma!’ could be heard all night on the streets of Dublin.
Something very strange was going on with Portugal. Their
captain and main star, Cristiano Ronaldo, had been recently sacked by
Manchester United Football Club, for a combination of petulant, unsporting behaviour on the pitch and that television interview with his long-time friend and fan, Piers Morgan. (I’ve
hero-worshipped and lusted after Ronaldo since 2012, but even I think he
shouldn’t have done that career-killing interview behind his bosses’ backs.
Poor form, Ronnie baby, poor form.)
Portugal boss Fernando Santos put Baby in the corner, I mean,
Ronaldo on the bench, for their ‘Last 16’ match against Switzerland. A nifty
young Portuguese player called Goncalo Ramos scored a hat-trick, and suddenly
everyone was saying that Portugal didn’t need Ronaldo any more; the new young
generation, in the form of this Ramos wunderkind, was already here. How that
must have stung Ronaldo, and him being in the twilight of his career and all.
Strangely enough, in their next match, a quarter final, Portugal showed none of this remarkable new-found gumption and pizazz and lost to Morocco, a team enjoying its first taste of World Cup success.
Without congratulating the Moroccan team (who also knocked out Spain), Ronaldo fled down the tunnel by himself, in floods of tears, an action that’ll probably haunt him to the end of his days. Certainly, his enemies and detractors will never let him live it down. I think this might just have been his worst World Cup ever. He confirmed on social media that it would be his last. Where next for the one-time footballing legend? We await further developments with bated breath…
Anyway, France did Ireland a solid and kicked England out of
the tournament with a game that saw England captain Harry Kane miss that penalty
towards the end of play. Did you see Mbappe’s laughing face when the
ball soared over the net and into outer space?
Ze French having finally done their duty by us Irish,
we were then quite happy for Lionel Messi’s Argentina to beat France in the
final. Let’s not forget Thierry Henry and that handball in 2009,
harrumph.
France’s Kylian Mbappe scored three wonderful goals in the final, the
first two within the same two minutes, but the Argies just kept pushing and
pushing and pushing and, ultimately, it was Lionel Messi who got to wear the
see-through chiffon nightdress of success, lovingly placed on his body by no less a
personage than the Emir of Qatar himself, whose bloodline can be traced back
about one hundred and seventy years. Fancy that, lol.
Anyway, I don’t think too many people will begrudge Messi
& Company their brilliant, hard-won win. And hard-won it was, right down to
the wire. Thirty-six long years it’s been since Argentina won this trophy, and
it’s Lionel Messi’s first time to claim it. If he wants to retire now, he can
do so knowing that he’s won every title and trophy going.
Irish coverage of the final ended with a mention of all the
stadium-building migrant workers who had suffered, even died, so that Qatar
could bring us what some people are calling the best and most exciting World Cup
ever.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself now that STRICTLY
COME DANCING and World Cup 2022 have ended on the same weekend. I only have
Christmas to occupy myself with now, as I said earlier. Ah well shure. I can
always break into the old selection box a few days early. Wait a minute, this
one’s been interfered with already. Someone’s only gone and nicked me Crunchie…
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