SPORTS NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Punches & Hooks
England woebegone, Brazil ecstatic, Asians hopeful

BY NARAYAN UPADHYAY

The much-awaited draw of World Cup soccer for 2002, being organised for the first time in Asia, had ignited much ohs and ahs among the football fans across the globe. Out of eight groups, group F has been regarded as the group of death among the soccer fans. It is because soccer’s three powerhouses from three continents have been grouped here. England representing Europe, Argentina representing South America and Nigeria from Africa will have to battle it out for top two positions so that they can secure the places in the second rounds where matches would be held in knock-out basis.

The soccer pundits around the world have been disheartened by the grouping of European soccer power house England against Argentina, Nigeria and Sweden in the group F of 32 countries fixture. Fans are sad that English team, which also boast of having a large number of fan following also in Nepal, will have difficult task in the first round, which will be played in the round robin league. The English are regarded as strong team, given their performances in the World Cup qualifying and regional matches, could have surged ahead easily if they had opponents other than Argentina and Sweden.

The English soccer team seem to be destined to suffer at the hands of their long time rival Argentina. The two decades of World Cup rivalry between these archrivals is no less than the rivalry between two nations resulted after the war for a tiny Falkland island back in 80s. In 1986, England despite their flying start, had to suffer defeat in the semifinal against Argentina. Then, their doom was written by non other than soccer’s one of the all time great— Diego Maradona whose «hand of god» was pivotal to sink the British Ship. The diminutive forward used his hand when he jumped to head to ball into the goal of England.

The ace English keeper Peter Shelton could not do much except for watching the ball touching the net. The splendid Maradona staged a solo performance to slam home the second goal that sent England packing, despite having top billing in the Cup. Argentina was again their nemesis in the 1998 World Cup in France. England’s blue eyed boy David Beckham was red carded for felling Argentine Simeone off back tackle. The whole English team had to defend with ten men for the good part of that quarterfinal game. The English team bowed out after they were downed in the penalty shootout.

The loss sank hearts of many English fans because the team was regarded as one of the favourites then. Moreover, Their agony was almost doubled later when Simeone confessed that he just made affectation of being hit. He said it was more his affectation than Beckham’s foul that proved England so dearly. Beckham must have been waiting for the moment when he can take revenge for the mistake forced on him in 1998 against the archrivals.

England will be haunted by the same fear once again when the team travels to Japan to take on their first round rivals while most fans will be praying for England to be third time lucky. Meanwhile, the thought of playing against Sweden might give the English many nightmares. The English team, while playing Swedes in the World Cup have never won against them.

England, Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria feel unlucky to have placed together in the «group of death». Their agony does not seem to be over here. Even after moving to the second round after having the clashes in the first round matches, one of them will have to face defending champion France in the second round. And looking at the recent form, the French will be a hard nut to crack for any of the four teams.

Meanwhile, Brazil may have felt relieved to have relatively weaker opponents in the group C— China, Costa Rica and Turkey. Having lost six matches while playing 18 qualifiers, the four time champion are talking of having already qualified for the second round. In the group, only Turkey will pose some difficulty to the star-studded Brazilians, awaiting eagerly the much needed clique to spark as the world beating team.

Other soccer power houses such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany will have relatively easy first rounds as they have been grouped with relatively weaker teams. Moreover, their tasks have been made easier by the provision of having two teams into the second rounds from the first rounds.

Meanwhile, out of four Asian teams— China, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia— South Korea and China have some chances to move into the second round. Japan can also rely on its luck and home turf advantage to go into the second round. Asian soccer power house South Korea is the team on which many Asian soccer fans hopes are rested. Having opponents like the USA, Poland and Portugal, Korea expect to beat at least two teams to make sure it will play in the second rounds of the World Cup. And it is not an impossible task. Of late, South Korea have beaten even Brazil in the friendly and regional soccer tournament. If any of these teams make into the second rounds, it will be a record for Asia. No Asian team has so far been into the second round in the 70 years of World Cup history.

The only exception for Asians would be the Saudis who are unlikely to surmount the might of Germany and Cameroon. They will have to fight against Germany, still a soccer power despite its lackluster show in the qualifying rounds, and against African Champion Cameroon.

The same old story

Going by the recently made statement of the Minister for State for Education and Sports, Nepalese sports is likely to face the financial crunch for some more time. According to Minister N.P. Saud, the government had to cut the development budget for the mobilization of security forces in the nation at the present situation. It means that the sports sector, for which money is very hard to come by, will suffer a lot. With 9th South Asian Federation Games (SAFG) to be held in March in Pakistan) three months away, it seems that the lack of budget will give another jolt to the plans to run the refreshment training for our players.

Minister Saud, appointed four months ago, also hinted that due to lack of sufficient budget for sports, corporate houses, Industries and other institutions should be lured into the national sports and also the donor nations should be requested for the assistance to develop and promote the sports in the nation. The Minister’s expressions did touch on the Nepal’s age-old problem in the sports: it has to look to others in the matter relating to the generation of resources for its own development. This is the main reason why our players, despite winning medals and having government’s promises that they would be rewarded with cash and with other perks, have to wait for a longer time than expected.

The players, who had won medals in the different international games including 31 gold medallists in the 8th SAF Games, have so far failed to receive the cash awards and other perks promised by the government. Minister Saud has now disclosed that talks are being held with different ministries and departments to provide these awards to players wining medals for the country. Let’s hope the talks will be translated into actions and our medal winning players’ wait for these awards will come to an end very soon.

Boxing’s Faux Pas

Touted as the number one professional boxing match, the Surendra Gurung-Natthaprong bout was no less than a mockery on ideals of professional boxing. Spectators gathered at the Police Academy to watch the much hyped match held last Friday felt jilted even though Nepalese pugilist Gurung won the bout in the 5th round. The win, claimed by Gurung through technical knockout, is ignoble in the sense that it was registered after Gurung hammered blows not around the Thai boxer’s face but around his belly. Having suffered many blows in the belly, the Thai gave in thereby taking out all the excitement from the spectators who thought the match had already been fixed in favour of Gurung. The victor was later crowned with world champion title.

Now the most eerie thing about the bout: no international organization of boxing is said to have recognized the match. And mind you there are eight world boxing organizations. Moreover no representative from any of these organizations was present to observe the bout. It all indicates that the match was no more than a hoax.

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