SAFF 2008 Champions!!!
14th June 2008. The whole day I can feel the excitement in the air. The whole city of Male is expectant, as early as 4pm everyone is out on the streets and even in the office, most of the local staffs left before 4.30pm. The odds are on them. They were beaten only once during the eliminations and semifinals. They are the most prolific team in the game for the most number of goals scored. They now have the edge that they did not have in the previous games --- they used to be the underdogs who come out as a surprise to everyone. Now it is their time to shine!
I am talking about the SAFF Championship 2008 (South Asia Football Federation) which was co-hosted for the first time by Maldives & Sri Lanka. This is a eight-nation tournament --- Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka. With these football heavyweights in Asia, no wonder a small island nation like the Maldives will be considered an underdog all the time. Red flags are everywhere for weeks. Even President Gayoom goes to watch all the games.
I called to Kuya Boy and asked if i can watch the finals in their house (kasi magmeeting din kami about our sportsfest para minsanan na!). We watched the preliminaries, people arriving on foot, in cars, in motorbikes, to the football stadium in Male to watch on the giant screen there --- the final game is played at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka where an amazing 5,000 or more Maldivians went to watch (from the total population of 380,000 residents), even my officemate, Shiham, filed a vacation leave just to go and watch the finals match!
At first, I hated the sight of Mukhtar Naseer. He made two succeeding weak goal attempts, I was so pissed off that I was shouting in front of the TV to "take out that bugger wearing jersey no. 23, if you want to win the match!!!". I love Ismail, the one wearing jersey no. 16 -- totally amazing footwork and assists! The game was a bit skewed in favor of the Maldives even if there was no goal for the first half -- the momentum was with them, they had more corner attempts than India. And then came the second half, midway through it --- wham! Oh my God, I went crazy, shouting and shouting.... jersey no. 23 just scored a GOAL!!! For that one crucial moment, he just kicked the ball straight to the net, one solid, long kick that surprised everyone.
I felt the whole city of Male tremble from the shouting, the car honkings....everyone started going out to the streets....it is an amazing sight! This is the first time it has happened in Maldives. The first time they won for 17 years. Its crazy, I LOVE IT!!!!
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