18.Dec.2022, Sunday : When we scrambled for our 40 km drive late evening on 18th Dec 22 to watch the FIFA World Cup Final live at the Palace Grounds Screen at Thrissur, hardly did we think our return is going to be such a roller-coaster ride. And what an emotional blockbuster it was! We reached the stadium ground in the heart of Thrissur city right on time and by then the entire place was jam packed with fans of all kinds! Those close to the screen were seated on the floor, behind them were those seated on chairs and on the flanks and back there were plenty standing. There were several seated in the gallery too. We found our spot somewhere in the middle from where we got a good view of the screen and the crowd. Stage is set for the giant final. Almost all in the crowd including we two were praying for that one humble, gentle man we admire the most in football – Magical Mystical Lionel Messi! – can we see him smile as the night fades?
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| FIFA World Cup Football Final - 2022 - Live Screening @ Thrissur Palace Ground |
National anthem of the teams is played, and then came the kick-off whistle to roll the ball for the final time! It was greeted with waves of roars! From then, the next 70 minutes of the match was simply breathtaking with relentless attacks and counter-attacks which made us glued to the gigantic screen. Those two moments, which shaped the Argentina goals were celebrated with explosive cries of joy and crackers in the background – Messi taking the penalty to score the first goal and then the swift, under-ten seconds attack, with one-pass moves for the fabulous finish of Angel Di Maria! – we all seemed to be in heaven with mesmerizing dramatic scenes around!
But then, the unbelievable happened. Out-of-the-blue came the two return goals, equalizing the situation, that too when Argentina were just ten minutes away from what they dreamt for the past 36 years! There was sullen silence among the Argentinian fans while the opposing fans started their celebrations around. What was heaven till then turned upside down into a hell! It was a situation too heavy to handle off the ground, then imagine how it will be on the ground! The Argentinian team found themselves slipping from energetic charm to complete chaos. Are we witnessing that one last dream of Messi for that coveted trophy slipping away?!
How can the Universe be so unjust ?! How can the prayers of millions go unheard ?! How can the powers of this cosmos make this mistake ?! - make the disaster of denying the truly eligible human - one with elegance, skill, perseverance and a beautiful soul - playing this beautiful game what he really deserves?! How can he again miss this moment of his life?! How, even being so complete, he be written as incomplete in history?! – This is impossible to be true!
Thoughts of the unbelievable were rushing in from everywhere, overheating our nerves to the brim of snapping it. The full-time of 90 minutes with both teams at a stand-still of two goals each is what we could manage in that tense and startled ground. Every moment there felt like infinity and we decided to move out of that energy sapping black hole. We took our scooter and started our ride back to “escape” the possibility of a potential disaster.
However all along the way, we could feel that uneasy air, the uncomfortable and tense darkness of the night creeping into us. The blurred commentary of the live match was floating in the atmosphere all along the way and in several places we could see the miserable, nervous spectators restlessly staring at the roadside live screens!
We were about half-an-hour on the drive back when we heard a scream from a distance. We stopped by the next live screen restaurant to know what happened. Aha! Argentina has scored, Messi has scored, it is 3-2 ! They are a few minutes away from the dream title. We took our seat and decided to watch the giant moment! But alas, our trauma was not over! Yet again, there came the brutal penalty - another equalizer making it 3-3 and ending the extra-time too. It is going to the penalties!
FIFA World Cup Football Final 2022 is to be decided on penalties! The last moments of Messi, our hero! Will he survive?! It has become too difficult again, too anxious to watch live! We decided to resume what we did. Yes, ride on. Starting the scooter again, beaming the headlight, we sped into the darkness, into anonymity! Our hearts were beating high and heavy, the midnight darkness and the ride of emotions made the surroundings look blurred! Our mind and ears were trying to capture from the surroundings every hint of what was happening live at the Lusail Stadium, 3000 km away!
We stopped for a moment at Hanuman temple for a short prayer, and that is when we heard the first cracker at a distance, few more followed here and there. But what is the result?! Who is celebrating?! We were still not sure! As we moved further on the road and reached the next junction, we saw at a distance under the street lights the white and blue stripes emerging out waving high, fluttering amongst the cracker-fumes – It is Argentina!! The trauma is finally over! Argentina has won the World Cup Football Final of 2022! And from there onwards, we could see everything crystal clear. Our dark thoughts evaporated into the thin air and joyful and dreamy ones reemerged from Lusail! All along the way at every junction, we saw the crazy fans of Messi and Argentina celebrating, screaming, dancing and bursting crackers – an out-of-world feeling!
The sigh of relief I experienced in that moment when we saw the Argentinian flag emerging out of those fumes is something I will never forget in my entire life! Universe has not failed us and the prayers of millions were truly heard. For that one man - Lionel Andrés Messi, the football legend of our times – fate and destiny decided to shake hands! Messi has grabbed with both his hands the “now-or-never” moment of his life (and our lives too) and made it his own (and ours too)! The trust on the goodness in this Universe (in spite of all the sufferings), the virtue of hard work, the power of prayers all got catapulted to new heights in that very moment! And Messi, this magical man, has just made this beautiful game more beautiful and raised himself to the realms of legends, the place which he truly belongs to!
We reached back home from the euphoria on the streets to watch the live presentation ceremony with Lionel Messi receiving the golden trophy! The moment we all have been waiting for eternity has finally arrived. And in that moment that once-in-a-generation soccer career became complete!
(Personally, this beautiful night winds-up my unbridled passion for soccer too just like it did for cricket after the God-of-cricket won his world cup in 2011. It is curtains down but with a complete gratification of being blessed to be alive in this era and enjoy the best of two legends – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Lionel Andrés Messi!)
Exactly a decade back (2011) Sachin had his D-Day!
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