‘Can we just fast forward 5 days?’

- Riyaz Usman

The wait is almost over.

An awesome World Cup calendar – by Team, Group, Venue and Date.

An Interactive World (Cup) Map – from Washington Post.

The Ultimate Graphics and Data resources guide – from Inspiredm.

And anytime, you want a much simpler schedule or calendar, just Google. Fifa.com provides a simple match schedule, in your time zone, a calendar and a printable pdf (SA Time only, I guess).

Note: I heard Malappuram has virtually turned into Latin America for one month. I’m sad I’m not in Kerala this season.

PS: My friend Ashwin wants N. Korea to win. I can’t agree more. While you’re impatiently waiting for Friday, read about the world cup strategies of many countries, including that of India.

Born as Mahindra and Mahindra Allied sports club in 1962, backed by the Mahindra group, this club represents the golder age of Indian football. One of the few strong teams outside the Bengal/Kerala/Goa, they had won almost all coveted football trophies in India – Durand Cup, Harwood League, NFL, Federation Cup, IFA Shield, to name a few. Rechristened as Mahindra United in 2000, the club had a pretty good run in all football leagues since then.

The disbanding of Mahindra United is latest nail in the coffin of Indian football (Remember FC Kochi, Kerala Police, ITI, BSF) . I seriously hope not many clubs will follow this path.

Then we started getting more physical into organized sports, And you didn’t had much of a choice then. Football was the de facto national sports of Kerala. To much of our rejoice, Kerala team won the Santosh Trophy in 1992, almost 18 years after their maiden win, and after losing out 4 times in a row in finals. They retained their title in 1993, and the Kerala Football team became our heroes. With the likes of C. V. Pappachan, I. M. Vijayan and V. P. Satyan, that was the golder era of Football in Kerala. Who can forget the lone goal Pappachan scored against Hungary in the 1991 Nehru cup. There were many urban legend stories about these players spread by word of mouth. Pappachan-Vijayan was our own Ro-Ro, and Satyan was our Roberto Carlos.

Almost all of us Malayalees were heartbroken when Vijayan and Satyan decided to play for Mohan Bagan instead of Kerala Police. As kids, we just couldn’t understand why one should go behind just money, ditching their home team. When Kerala lost 1994 Santhosh trophy to Bengal, it was the nail on the coffin for us. Vijayan was almost tagged a traitor. We dreamt about Kerala Police defeating a Mohan Bagan team including Vijayan.

The Seven’s format was very strong in the small towns on Kerala then, especially the Malabar area. Almost all of our evenings were spent on the temporary galleries built on those small grounds. It was just the battle display of your physical stamina, above football skills. The sheer joy and excitement of fast paced football was just enough. Many of these will end up in physical assault, normally between players, viewers, and in some instances referees. One of the major criterion to become a referee for a seven’s tournament, is your sprinting skills, in case of a fight. There used to be more than 500 Sevens Football tournaments organized every summer season.

Sevens tournaments is one of the two things that I miss every summer now – the other being the number of Pooram festivals.

Then came the best thing of my life – 1994 FIFA World Cup USA. There was absolutely no reason not be a fan of Brazil then, even though we were largely unheard of any of the international teams then. There are many images I captured during the event, still afresh. Roberto Baggio’s pony tail, who single handedly carried his team till finals, almost became a national icon – till he missed the penalty on the finals. Andres Escobar, the tragedy of the World Cup. Diego Maradona‘s career end, after failing the drug test. The unbelievable Hristo Stoichkov. Saeed Al-Owairan‘s goal of the World Cup. And of course, best of all, the best player of all times – Romario.

I had been a Brazil loyalist since then. A lot of people like me were outraged since Romario wasn’t considered for 1998 and 2002 World Cup, especially we missed the Ro-Ro attack. Since Romario largely played for South American clubs since then, I never get to see him play again. I still believe Romario not playing again for Brazil was the worst thing happened to Brazilian football. Ever.

While there were good moments to cherish in the three world cups that followed (I fondly remember Nwanko Kanu and Davor Suker), 1994 remains the best World Cup of my life. And FIFA World Cup remains the best sporting event for me.

Yet another World Cup is around the corner. So what’s my color? Yellow, again.