GOL?

by Azmi Sharom

I have “fond” memories of Dataran Merdeka. It was here that I saw for the first time heavy handed police action against peaceful assemblies. It was 1990 and there was a “Peace Vigil” being held there as a form of protest against the first Gulf War.  A handful of people, some with little kids were gathered at the foot of reputedly one of the world’s tallest flagpoles, holding candles and basically being hippie like.

An FRU truck trundled up, and fully armed FRU men marched towards the group they heavily outnumbered. A police officer of some seniority and girth then told the group to disperse. One man was dragged away by the cops (I think he is an MP now). After a third warning, the group broke up.

There was a giant TV screen there even then. I remember with great clarity how one policeman told a group of curious bystanders to go away and “watch the TV”. And I thought to myself, how symbolic; the powers that be would rather the people be glued to the idiot box than to know what is happening around them.

It is rather ironic then that I find myself watching TV in Dataran Merdeka this cool evening.  First off, I stopped in the 24-hour convenience store to buy a bottle of pop to keep me quenched during the game. In the place with me were a family and I figured they were going to watch the game too. The father had bought drinks and snacks and the mother had bought a plastic wrapped women’s magazine. I kinda guessed that she was going to do a spot of reading and was not much of a football fan.

On the way to the field I was stopped by a Kelantanese man who apparently had lost all his money and documents. He was on his way to Shah Alam and now could not get there for lack of bus fare and hunger. Could I spare him a few bucks? At least that is what I thought he said; his accent was pretty impenetrable. I gave him some money and moved on despite his protestation for more. I guess this proves that you can con someone even without them understanding exactly what it is you are speaking about.

Walking through the old court building passing by a few security guards watching the game, I reach the Dataran. Now there is another screen on the large field in front of the Spotted Dog. The old one is still there but it is rather faded and the new one is wide screen and sharp. People were watching in small groups. Kids were playing and small time entrepreneurs were selling glow in the dark toys. A cool breeze was blowing and I settled down to watch…

…watch the most appalling referee I have ever seen.

This Saudi ref gave out nine yellow cards and one straight red. Sometimes in quick succession. And really for the most innocuous offences. It was not by any means a bad tempered match. In fact it started out being quite exciting with both sides playing open attacking football. But when the Swiss Behrami was given a straight red for holding out his arm and knocking the defender behind him, the whole complexion of the game changed.

The Chileans were running rampant and all the Swiss could do was defend like mad. It may sound exciting to have one side pound the other but really it just felt unfair (unless you are Chilean). To the neutral, what started as a potential cracker became a sad one-sided affair.

And in all truth, in a way I think it made the job harder for the Chileans to get their winning goal. The Swiss simply parked everyone in front of goal, whereas in the first half hour things were more open with chances for Chile to counter attack and catch their opponents by surprise. Now it was a tedious siege.  It took them 30 second half minutes of sustained waves of attacks before they got their reward.

So, once again, as it was twenty years ago, my evening was spoilt by an official acting the goat.

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