Once upon a time, I used to write a sports column in a local newspaper, then I used to post in my blog about Bahraini sports. The column was dropped and the posts got less frequent. The sporting situation in Bahrain is so pathetically useless that it was mentally and emotionally straining to write about.
And then I watched the Egypt Vs. The Ivory Coast match (CAF Africa Cup of Nations). The Egyptians won 4-1 in a fierce and competitive battle.
The Egyptians fought hard, stuck to the plan and passed pin point passes. But no amount of technical strategy or fitness can equal a variable called "HEART". Yes, the Egyptians played with heart. With courage. Made themselves proud, and made me proud to be an Arab.
Not so with our "National" team, unfortunately.
I see my team, the one bearing MY flag, walk around the pitch instead of running, heads down. Like they are waiting for something to happen.
MY team is satisfied with simply passing in the general direction of a team mate, if it so happens to land dead centre between the legs of the opposing team player, so be it.
Where is the fire? Where is the spark? Where is the passion that I saw in '04?
As an HR professional, morale is very high on my list. No one can perform with a bad attitude, and the problem is that bad attitude is very contagious.
Bahrain won over Oman recently 1:0 in it's Asian World Cup qualifiers. I am glad we won, upset we sucked.
I am fed up of the whiny, overconfident, unresponsive and fragile players. kick them all out for all I care. The only people who should be in the national team are ones who beg to be in it, who want it. I don't care if I lose so long as I feel and see my team give out their all. Bored players are no good for me.
Thank god for Egypt for keeping my Arabic sports pride from dying.
3 comments:
Manaf, the prolem is the same problem we have been hearing since the day we came to this world, its the Adminstration of the team, when that is changed with real experts and people who are targeting a win rather than Personal gains.
from where I see it, if this bit is fixed, the other bits should be a walk in the park.
Eyad,
in March 2006, I wrote an article for Alayam sports section. It was printed on one full page.
I'll digg it up for you, but I basically said what you meant. Heck, if I reprint it now, it would still be valid.
am sorry but u cant call egyptians arabs coz we r not
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