20 years of pain..

I sit here in aiport with a long wait of 5 hours before me. I want to start somewhere, let it be with what i have gone through every other 4th year.

1990..

It all started 20 years back, when i saw a little man walk shaking his head in disbelief with tears in his eyes. Eventhough i knew little about football or who that man was, i felt sad, atleast a bit, or so i remember :P Little did i know that that the feeling would be a fixture every 4 year when World Cup comes and sooner or later Argentina exits from it.

1994..

After an impressive performance against Greece in the first match, Maradona turned villian for the first time with his failed drug tests. Although Argentina limped into the quarters, they fell to Hagi and his Romanian team. Thus the team which was better than the cup winning team of 1986 and finalists of 1990, which promised so much ended up delivering nothing different

1998..

Yet another world cup and another year of being one among favourites. An easy group which included eventual dark horse croatia was tamed quite easily and things looked good. Argentina vs england, one of the most exciting matches in world cup which i had seen, ( if i include the last half hour of commentary over phone from my friend as lightning and rain threw my place into darkness ) it certainly looked like our year, only for berkamp to break my heart with a gem of a goal. Now that i think of it, for some time, for years actually, i never appreciated how good the goal was , given it only brought worst of the memories, a bloody blow with just few minutes left in the match. Crossbar trembling from batistuta's shot, ortega getting sent off as he lost his control taking all those kicks, berkamp scoring from that same freekick, i felt nothing could be worse.

As i write about the 98' cup it occured to me, the memories are not vague anymore, they are clear and more painful too

I had a wierd superstition this time. I should remain silent for the whole match or argentina would loose :P The silent me, asking my brother to do so and my parents wondering what's happening with me. Atleast some memory which bring smile! :D

2002..

I waited in anticipation for this one as argentina landed in the group of death. Winning the first match 1-0 against nigeria was nothing more than a relief. And things got worse from there on as argentina failed to convert the domination in possesion to loose narrowly against england and drew against sweden to crash out. I was travelling back from home to college as the argentina crashed out against sweden and may be, not having to watch it reduced the agony.

2006..

Argentina landed as the favourites for 2006 and the win against serbia & montengro especially the cambiasso goal will remain etched in my memory. hopes were at an all time high after that match. Cursing Pekerman when he didnt bring on messi with his last substitution and Heinze for germanys goal, i couldnt bear to watch the shootout. As i sat in my room, away from my friends my week old mobile just about escaped my wrath as just that moment i realized that i was being stupid :P

It will certrainly be a different experience this time with a chance to see things from so close. And even though logic tells me the little man in tears who made me feel sad all those years back will bring tears this time with his madness, i hope that things would end differently this time