The 2010 FIFA World Cup: In Search of my Favourite Team

Since the start of the 2010 world cup in South Africa, I have been watching the group games especially those televised by Astro at 7pm and 10pm Malaysian time. The only 2.30am game that I watched full time was on Saturday morning 12 June between England and Algeria. As Malaysia is not a world cup material yet, we Malaysians are forced to support any team we like, sounds pathetic but that is how life is at the moment.

                                  Football stadium at Durban, South Africa

Being in the Asian continent, firstly, I would support the Asian teams such as Japan, South Korea, DPR Korea, Australia and New Zealand.  I failed to watch the early games when these teams played as I was in the capital staying in a hotel which did not subscribe to the particular Astro channel! But I heard DPR Korea scored one goal against the mighty Brazil though they lost, it was quite an achievement. Then I read that Australia was defeated by four goals in their opening match then  I watched the disastrous loss by DPR Korea to Portugal last night , a historic seven to nil , what a trashing! Earlier, South Korea had lost to Argentina by four goals

 

South Korea's defender Lee Jung-Soo (R) celebrates with South Korea's midfielder Kim Jung-Woo after scoring the opening goal against Greece during the Group B first round 2010 World Cup football match South Korea vs. Greece on June 12, 2010 at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth. Getty Images / CARL DE SOUZA

I am not confident that any of the Asian team will reach the final though I would be most happy to be proved wrong. Of course I wish the world would see more of the Asian teams playing beautiful tactical games in the future so that we, as a continent, would get the recognition we deserve and stand tall in the international football community.

For other individual games, I usually support the underdogs  like I supported Algeria against England. I found it detestable for England's player Wayne Rooney to talk down on Algeria before the game. It ended up they only managed a scoreless draw. And England is now struggling to secure a place in the last 16 at knock-out stage.

My second line of support goes to the African continent represented by the host country, South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Cote D'IVoire and Ghana. But unfortunately, they are not doing as well, Cameroon being the first to be eliminated in the group game. And where the name Didier Drogba, the Cote D'Ivoire striker , is synonymous with the best of African football.

My third choice is the eastern European teams of Slovenia, Slovakia and  Serbia which defeated Germany by one goal. They are not doing too badly considering that they are new to the world cup as independent nations and a country like Slovenia has less population than Malaysia!

Fourth is the South American teams represented by Brazil, Argentina, Honduras, Chile, Mexico,Paraguay and Uruguay. My what a team Argentina is! I like their fast pace and accurate passing and ball dribbling and tight control. They might just be my favourite team though a bit too early to confirm as I only watched them play once.

                           The Brazil players have booked their place in the last 16: Courtesy FIFA

I only supported USA team against England as I believed there would be more tickets sold to the Americans when USA advanced in the competition. More fans mean more money for FIFA to develop world football and promote world peace. In fact, it is the fans which make each world cup memorable and fascinating.

The last I would support is the Western European teams of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, England, France, Denmark, Netherlands and Switzerland. This is because these countries have been known to be good all these years winning world cup many times. This situation is made possible by the many lucrative competitions that they have and the attraction of wealthy private clubs such as Real Madrid, InterMilan, Barcelona, Ajax, Galatasaray and Juventus. And those in England FA Cup, the like of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, truly, the opportunity list is endless.  Indeed these people dream and grow up in football environment. They are screened for their talent and fans come in droves to watch them. They command a full capacity stadium and market their tournaments to the global audience.  Sponsorships are also abundant. In Malaysia you only see such a capacity crowd when pop singers have their concerts!

Turning back to the world cup, my favourite team would come from other continents except Western Europe. As the Europeans are commercial icons though they represent their respective countries. Just look at the behaviour of the French team in the Anelka's fiasco with the coach!  My favourite team players  must be elegant, motivated, strong, respectful of their coach, skilful, fair, not overly physical and would not play act to fool the referee . They are fast, attacking with tight defence and  not given to time wasting to delay their opponents. They control the ball (jambulani) well, display accurate passing and possess great team work, in short, they are world-class and I am an incorrigible idealist!

So I am still actually looking for my favourite team to scream my heart out to, to pray for every goal attempt they make and to rejoice with them in their winning and to feel anguish when they lose. All these kinds of emotion are healthy to be expressed during this world cup mania.


                                                                      Portugal team rejoicing after beating
                                                                     DPR Korea 7-0 in group game: Courtesy FIFA                                                                             

                                           Blowing a vuvuzela :)  courtesy Anne-Catrin


Meanwhile I must get that made- in -China plastic vuvuzela to blow and compete with the annoying background sound of the stadium when my favourite team plays and....... irritate my soccer-mad spouse.

Stock market ... Trend reading by the unsavvy investor

I have been looking for a pattern in our local stock market for high volume activities. I noticed that in early part of the year especially before the Chinese New Year, volumes would go up and prices would also rise in tandem. Then come the first quarter results of companies and some other economic indicators and depending on the leads, the volumes or price will either slump or surge briefly in March and April, then the various companies will be declaring their dividends. Some fundamentally strong companies will still retain good prices despite the dividends payment.

The stock market will then take a breather and you will find that, apart from a surge here and there, it remains lethargic and now with the World Cup going on, the market will continue to be rather lacklustre. I have not visited the market since my portfolios took a deep plunge due to the Greek debt woes. The uncertainties retard market momentum. And so you read bad news today and the next some good news so the market goes "yo yo".

The US Federal Reserve Governor Ben Benarke did give an assurance a couple of weeks ago that the American economy had somewhat strengthened and so the "double dip recession" might not materialise and this has given some cheers to wary investors. Before that the DJI  index went down below 10,000 sending shivers to the investing community.

I have tried to read those technical charts to be more "scientific" but really those are merely  illustrations of "herd behaviour" of investors and they may not necessarily be indicative of wealth generation to the individual investor unless he/she knows when to leap in or ride off. Timing the market is never easy. I tried a few times, I can tell you that I sometimes gain and sometimes lose.  But if you are persistent and persevere and are not in a hurry to create instant wealth, you will actually generally gain when  you monitor the market behaviour long enough and have latest knowledge on the target companies and those financial news that matter.

Let us keep investing and contribute to the economy.