Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The Soccer Match

Anybody could come and play the game, they said.

The soccer games in Brat were known to attract and produce players who were good for nothing.  They only thought of self-promotion, advertising and women.  Playing soccer was the thing farthest from their minds.

Some concerned citizens of Brat were understandably upset over this state of affairs.  They wanted their soccer team to be a good team.  They wanted their top players to command respect in the global soccer arena.  They wanted the corrupt and money-minded players out.

Whenever they asked the organizers of the matches, they were told that it was an open system.  Anybody could come and play.  Those who won formed the team.  It was as transparent as anything, they were told.  There was no stopping any "real" player, or anyone interested only in playing, from playing.

A bunch of well-intentioned young men took up the challenge.  They trained hard.  They made their bodies hard and strong.  When dribbling, the ball became an extension of their foot.  The match was a few weeks away and they wanted to leave nothing to chance.

The day of the match came.

At the starting whistle, the forward player of current team of the good-for-nothings handled the ball and threw it towards his partner who was up ahead.  Obviously foul play.  The captain of the current team winked at the elderly referee, a well-known mandarin of the community.  The referee smiled and looked away from the scene of play.

A goal was scored, against the new team.

The new team tried to equalize, but every time they tried to take the ball to the other end, they ended up injured, held by the other players, while the referee continued to ignore the fouls.

The commentator also had been paid and he continued to sing the praises of the current team.

The new team felt helpless and dejected.  The score at the end was 0-5.  The fans of the current team cheered and roamed drunk through the town that night.  The few fans of the new team were bullied and beaten up.  Nobody came to their rescue.

It is said that the new team left town to play somewhere else.  This was not a town which was worthy of them.  No matter what a few people said, Brat truly wanted the team that it already had.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am sure the time of the new team shall come to prove its worth.