A Klosed matter

Omkar Kulkarni opined just before the start of the game,“Both teams are good,but Argentina has better talent,and thus are sure to progress.” Indians traditionally support the two South American giants – Brazil and Argentina – at the World Cup. While many in the bar came dressed in Argentine colours,the German camp looked under-represented. Kapil and Raghav,two media professionals and two of the scarce Germany supporters,said,“Leow (the coach) has brought one of the youngest German teams to the World Cup,and so far,it has played really well,marching past England in a pretty one-sided game. We hope something similar happens today too.”

After a quickfire start to the match,in which Germany scored in the third minute,the match settled down for the next hour. Nervous moments,with a combination of good attacking play and sloppy defensive shows from both sides kept the game alive,till Germany doubled their lead. As the match progressed,relief,in the form of potato chips started doing the rounds. Distress calls to friends far off were made and opinions were swapped. German misses were duly lamented in the press corner,but cheered on around. As the place started filling up,the deliberations became more widespread,punctuated by short-lived crests of loud celebrations. In the midst of the grim sea of white and blue (the colours of Argentina),some rock tees swam quietly.

Two brothers,Tanuj and Mayank Kapoor,remained confident of an Argentinian comeback. “My mind says Germany,but my heart says Argentina,” said Mayank,right before the start of the second half. As the match progressed further,the majority gave up in disgust. The few German supporters were in good danger of being lynched as their screams rang out in the otherwise funereal atmosphere.Diego Maradona’s dramatic face kept popping up on the screen with no discernible reactions from the viewers. Angela Merkel,Mick Jagger,Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlise Theron provided brief spots of star-gazing. An ardent Argentina fan,slouched on the couch for the best part of the scene,suddenly seemed overcome with emotion and crushed his glass. This elicited some stray squeals.

The final scene was of dejection,as some fans trudged out with resigned steps. As we headed out,we ran into the manager,Kevin Nair. “The number of people coming in has definitely increased since the World Cup began. It’s better when they just walk in instead of making prior reservations,” he said. When we asked him about the match,he merely said,“I support Germany. I think that speaks for itself,” with a smug smile.