After great football, fantastic surprises, a couple of games that resembled rugby, and the inevitable controversy, the World Cup finished with a fantastic game between Spain and Argentina.
Using the game as essential training, most of the Martinborough Women’s Football Club (MWFC) were in full voice at the Village Café, watching on a humungous screen. It was almost like being in Miami, but with no jet lag. Slowly the Village Café stadium filled to near capacity. MWFC have got new ideas, watch out the oppo.
As the philosopher Albert Camus said: “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football”. Wow!
In true footballing tradition, the fans – mainly Spanish – enjoyed chips, patatas frittatas, bacon and egg sarnies, yummy garlic mushrooms, lattes, chai, chocolate caliente, and cappuccino, but sadly, no churros.
The best part – the Village Café opened its doors at 6.30am on a Monday, the day it’s usually closed for the staff to have a well-earned day off.
It was a game of Spanish dominance, fantastic Argentinian goalkeeping, and a surfeit of enthusiasm from the Martinborough fan base – an overabundance of fun, silly comments, irrelevant trivia, and uncontrolled, exuberant noise. Spain is one of only four countries whose national anthem has no words. We all sang along anyway, with patriotic gusto. Good community vibes at their best.
As Bill Shankly said, “football isn’t a matter of life or death; it is more important than that”.
Poor Messrs Infantino and Trump got soundly booed for some unknown reason, and it looked as if POTUS had to be “encouraged to leave” the stage, against his will, to allow the Spaniards their moment of glory. Even at this late stage, the perfectly fair Argentinian red card couldn’t be retrospectively rescinded. I was once told “there is nothing good about football”, and there may be some truth in that except it brings a massive amount of fun and camaraderie to a lot of people, even in Martinborough.
Well done, Spain, Cape Verde, Curaçao, and both the Norway and Nederland fans. And thank you to the Village Café for the big screen and for showing all the games. Keep an eye open for other big-screen showings – rugby, golf, cricket – maybe even football, who knows.
