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The Malaysian over 40s campaign for the world cup has just begun. Well at least that how I felt last Saturday when we first participated in a development tournament at UKM Bangi.
It was a bag of mixed feelings. Excitement of how awesome it would be 6 months from now on the big field in Putrajaya playing against the old men of the world with the Malaysian Badge on my chest. Frustration, that there was actually only 9 of us who turned up for the tournament, with 2 turning up Just 10 minutes before the first match.
Worry because level of skill and fitness is disparate and far from what it should be. However as we fare throughout the tournament, we started clicking, not in a a big way, but in small ways which was enough to notice. We bonded, we shared jokes, we shared our concerns. This is a start of a journey, from the rock bottomed to the top (of our own potential). This isn't going to be a competition against the world but against our own self limitations. We lost four games and won one game (3-1). I personally thought we could have won another game easily, the other 3 teams were good quality teams which played at some high level competitions.
I remember Seb saying at Rimba Kiara after the tournament , he felt like he was at the beginning of the movie 'Cool Runnings', where everything looked impossible, but we know what happened in the end - they beat their own demons. Yes, some of us continued at Rimba, it drizzled a bit, but it was fun at the end (minus the arguing about forward passes).
My take on these arguments? let's just play on, there's no reffs, one might think one is right, but so would someone else. Absent of a independent view, let's just move on. So see you all again this Saturday.
We might now move to a better paid field so that there is big enough a space for social touch and for the over 40s men. Stay tuned to our Facebook.