I've been wanting to do this...

I grew up in a football-loving family, my dad used to play football in his younger days as a goalkeeper [Funny how I've never inherited that side of it! I'm a lousy keeper! Good striker/midfielder like 'my cinta'! ]. I got hooked at a tender age of 7, with my mum threatening to send me to Sabah where no one will cook for me [oh the horror if that happened!] if I didn't support Selangor, which was her favourite local team. Yeah, you had to start from the roots, in this case a Malaysian team. When they showed those EPL highlights on TV3 when I was 9, I heard the names of these teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United [known to me and certain other haters as ManUre], and Sheffield Wednesday. I knew nuts about English football, the only footballer I knew from that league was Eric Cantona. I had to know about English football because the boys of 911 liked football [I had to show that I had interest as well!]. I used to be a neutral but I did like ManUre [yes, the horror!] because they had great players in the form of Jaap Stam, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer [who, mind you, is still my FAVOURITE ManUre player], and Ryan Giggs [the other one I like]. When they had their treble-winning season, it was amazing to win 3 big trophies. People used to think I watched football for the sake of 'washing my eyes'. Rubbish. I never do that. Of course I do say the guy is QUITE good-looking once in a while but if he ain't a good footballer, then I won't like him. I wished I supported Chelsea before. I would have liked to see 'The Magician' work it on the field. He was amazing and he'll always remain a legend in every Chelsea fan, regardless of his height. What he lacks in height, he makes up by scoring goals. I shall learn to cherish every Chelsea moment [with or without Astro] and respect every player there [even if they learn the basic art of diving]. That would mean I have to learn to respect Der GreedyPants [bah, I said I'll learn, NOT I shall...I still want to shoot him down there, you know?].

I was looking through this old World Cup 2002 Guide book my aunt gave me and my brother. It belonged to my late uncle, who died on a Friday, a day before England were supposed to play with Denmark in the second round in 2002. It was sad. I kept reading the book and laughed as the memories of 2002 kept coming back to my head.


I remembered how shocked I was when Senegal beat France. I thought France would whip them!

I remembered Robbie Keane was the ONLY one who managed to get a goal past Oliver Kahn [only for that stupid bib-head to beat him by scoring 2 goals in the final match!].

I remembered how happy I was to find out England beat Argentina 1-0 and that David Beckham buried the ghost of 1998 when he scored that goal.

I remembered relying on the waiter at Cozy Corner who was an England fan to tell us the score of that match!

I remembered being sad for not being able to watch football for about 2 days when my uncle passed away. I missed a few matches. Like the England-Denmark tie and Spain-Ireland game.

I remembered being sad when Spain kicked Ireland out of the second round. Especially since they managed to get on so well without Roy Keane and under the guidance of Mick McCarthy.

I remembered how I cried when Brazil kicked England out of the quarterfinals. The tears kept pouring for 2 days. Yes, that's how much I love England.

I remembered how I called Sham who was a big Brazil fan and cried on the phone, only for her to tell me: "It's just a game, Ro!", but later admitted that England were better.

I remember the fact I was so in love with Michael Ballack then and when he got that second yellow card when he played against South Korea, I cried in the mamak shop [I very the drama, I know].

I remembered the stupid goal celebration Miroslav Klose used to do. I hated it. I used to call him a FROG!

I remembered OUR favourite stars of World Cup 2002. Nakata, Klose, Owen [I know too many Owen fans!], and sadly Der GreedyPants. Some people worth mentioning: Jon Dahl Tomasson [also known as Jon Dhal Roti Canai] and David Beckham.

I remembered how sad I was when Brazil won the World Cup. I didn't cry, I hated Gerald Asamoah ever since.

I remembered how Sham used to sing the Brazilian national anthem [don't ask me how she knows it!] instead of our Negaraku during our morning assemblies in school after Brazil won! We used to go "SHUT UP!" and since I always stood next to her in line she used to pull my baju kurung sleeve and pull me to her side and forced me to sing along with her! Everytime we were going to sing Negaraku, she'd sing the Brazil anthem so loudly and we'll start laughing our heads off. Thank God the teachers didn't know about it! We would've been in hot soup if we had been caught!

I remembered reading The Star newspaper every morning during the World Cup and after with Sham, Yoga and T-Jay and asking the rest of the class whether they wanted the paper or not.

I remembered how I used to exchange photos from other newspapers with the above mentioned people. T-Jay was into Owen, Sham into Carlos and Yoga into Raul. Me? Der GreedyPants. Haha. We even went to the library [Yoga was a librarian, so it made it easier for us to 'steal' the photos!] just to get our fix of footballers pictures! So desperate! We had nothing else to do, apart from study for PMR and yammer in class!

I remembered we used to have dreams about us being married to a family of footballers! And T-Jay and Owen were my parents [my dreams are a bit wild, so excuse me], and Cafu was a vampire or something like that, and Carlos was possessed and Der GreedyPants saved all of us from doom! I married him. Yes, laugh all you want. I know you want to.

I remembered how we used to have a competition of who collected the most photos of their idols. Yes, we were 15 and bored. Sue us.

I remembered how I was known as Balak from that day on.

I remembered YOUR dare. YOU dared me to wear pinafore to school on days I had no Islamic lessons! I did, and my class teacher thought I was a new student, but my friends did say I looked sweet though!

I remembered how I hated Rivaldo for acting and I called him a cockroach.

I remembered how I hated Ronaldinho for scoring that goal against England [the game that left me in tears]. It was such a fluke shot. I hated him from then on.

I remembered dreaming about getting kidnapped by Christoph Metzelder only to be saved by Der GreedyPants again.

I remembered comparing Sham's height with Carlos. She was much taller than him.

I remembered during Geography lessons with Ms. Koh [or Miss Berganza, we used to call her that OR 2-INCH SKIRT!], we used to talk about footballers or the World Cup matches.

I remembered during our Geography lessons, we knew that logs were transported to factories by the river. And from that info, the other three [in particular Yoga and Sham] created a story to bully me. Balak was from Kampung Delima and one day he got chopped down and was transported to the factory through Sungai Mas. Everytime I pass by Kepong, I always see THAT Sungai Mas building and it always gets me laughing and smiling to myself. Now YOU know why I got a B for Geography for my PMR!

I remembered coming home from school in a hurry just to be in time to watch the matches. The matches were either at 3 PM, 5 PM or 7 PM, after all, it was in Korea and Japan and it made us Asian people happy because we didn't have to wake up at wee hours of the morning and get to school or work with ugly panda eyes.

I remembered that was the second World Cup I watched and that a member of my extended family passed away. During the 1998 World Cup, my aunt passed away on the final game where France won 3-0 over Brazil. In 2002, my uncle passed away on the day the US played another team [can't remember]. It was really sad to see both my uncle and aunt who made me feel special in many ways left the world to soon.

I remembered that I had a good time with my mates. Both in and out of school.

I remembered as my favourite World Cup season of all time [Even if it was only 2 seasons I witnessed it. The first being 1998 and the second was 2002].



I hope this World Cup will keep me happy and leave me with many beautiful memories like 2002 did. With new teams like Ukraine [go Sheva!], Ivory Coast [go Drogba and Toure!] and Serbia and Montenegro [go Kezman!] I'm sure all of us will have a good time. All I can hope is that they go in as the underdogs and prove those who doubt them wrong, the same way Senegal did. =)

Three cheers for the World Cup!

13 days more...

And today Majalah 3 had this thing about the MyTeam players and the Malaysian team in Manchester [sponsored by the graceless people in AirAsia]. For a non-ManUre fan like me, getting a chance to play in a great stadium like Old Tafford is amazing. Even meeting the players itself was like a dream come true. Seeing Ryan Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was really something...after all, they are my ONLY two favourite players from ManUre. Being a non-ManUre fan, I was excited at the fact of meeting some footballers and travelling to your team's homeground. I just hope I get to go to Stamford Bridge to live the dream.

I did see Crybaby-Gayface-Sissyboy on the show, he looked the least bit interested in going to see the plane. And he is such a poser. He did the GAY pose! And he can't smile! And the host went on about how patient and understanding he was when he took some time off to sign some autographs and take pictures with fans. He didn't display any form of patience OR understanding for that matter when he was doing it. He looked rather annoyed. Hmmph...proves the fact he is THE Crybaby-Gayface-Sissyboy.

Yes, I like to bitch about people I don't like on my blog. It's the only thing that keeps me happy.

*Bluesy* out!