The show goes on

For the uninitiated, this World Cup is more about an eight-legged creature.

Many of you, I presume, would consider yourself a true soccer fan, especially when the World Cup comes around. You would be dropping names and statistics to put friends and family in their place. You may also be despairing at how many of them are soccer illiterate.

Do a quick survey. Ask the illiterates what they remember of the last World Cup four years ago. I did. Most of them do not remember who won the cup the last time. But that was only to be expected. The true surprise was that they remembered this bald fellow, really famous (sorry Zizou, you know how these people are!), who head butted a rival in the final.

Zidane is remembered more for that than any of his goals. And so is the last World Cup. That is the nature of spectacles. They overshadow everything else.

This World Cup, too, may be remembered less for the play on the field and more for the spectacle in an aquarium. The aquarium happens to be the abode of an octopus which has come to be known as Paul the Psychic (though this writer would have preferred Paul the Prescient).

Paul’s handlers claim that he has correctly predicted the outcome of each of Germany’s five World Cup matches in choosing his food. Two boxes of mussel, one decorated with the German flag and the other with the rival team’s, are lowered into Paul’s tank. The one he chooses is the winner. If you want to know how popular he is, see this video at http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/octopus-picks-spain-german-fans-despair/#more-68077. You will hear nothing but the sound of camera shutters being squeezed, dozens every second.

So when Paul lowered his tentacle into the box bearing Spain’s flag before the semi-final, a deathly silence engulfed all of Germany. Of course, Paul was proved right, at its own peril. German supporters have since been fantasising about ways to make a good meal out of him.

Despite his prescience, it will be a real pity if Paul becomes the reason to remember this World Cup by. There are more sporting reasons for that.

At this World Cup, one of the two biggest underachievers in the history of soccer, Spain and the Netherlands, will exorcise that tag.

This World Cup is a snub to Ayn Rand; it’s the triumph of the team over the individual. Messi went home goalless, Rooney with the epithet of the ugliest in a survey that judged players’ looks, and Ronaldo is being written about more for his baby from a surrogate mother than his showing with the ball. On the other hand, credit is being given to no less than six players for making Spain the ‘flair’ team of this tournament.

This is also the World Cup that breaks the 44-year-old cycle of the trophy alternating between Europe and South America. Right now, Europe is clearly in ascendance.

On second thoughts, though, it will not be so bad if this world cup is remembered for Paul’s predictions. But for him, the personality of this tournament would have been Larissa Riquelme.

(suveen.sinha@bsmail.in)