Sen Monorom – Football’s coming home
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006When I realised I would be in Cambodia during the world cup, I have to admit that my heart sank a little bit. I didn’t realise, before I came here, how bonkers most people are about football in South East Asia and, although Cambodia is not known for its footballing prowess, they still love it as much as anyone else in the sane world. Now, due to my incompetence at staying awake I missed the England v Sweden match (very much hypocritical on my part when I think back to what a song and dance I made about watching the matches), and due to incompetence on the tv’s part I missed most of the England v Ecuador game. So my determination to watch the quarter final match between England and Portugal was absolute. Even though I was in Sen Monorom, a village so small and quiet there is no internet for miles and miles and miles, and only electricity for a few hours a day. Still, I was in a place with both a tv and a generator; bring it on!
Apart from a group of French people (who had gone to bed early, planning to get up to watch their team beat Brazil, as it turned out), I was the only guest at the guesthouse. Quite a contrast to the last few matches where I had watched it surrounded by a drunken mass of England fans. Two of the guesthouse staff, Sambol and one other guy, stayed up to keep me company (they’d also both bet some money on the game – gambling is HUGE over here, and one guy in Kampot had $50 riding on England to beat Ecuador – considering the average wage, that’s a massive chunk). And, God love them, they were both cheering for England. I like to think it was on my behalf, but I reckon that at least some of it was money-driven.
There was a slight panic in the first few minutes when the signal was lost, yet again, and once more I was staring at the logo of the world cup, a cruel reminder of what I should have been watching. Fortunately it came back after about 15 minutes or so. In enough time to see nil-nil at half time.
And the second half – well, I’m not going to talk you through minute-by-minute. If you care enough, you’ll have watched it (or at least know what happened, in case you are in a remote corner of SE Asia, for example), and if you don’t care, well, you don’t care! Still, it was not good. I saw Beckham cry and go off in a sulk, saw Rooney stamp on Carvalho (and yet, according to the rest of the England squad, it was Ronaldo who was out of order for telling the ref). Still, we held them to nil-nil after full time and extra time. Which meant the inevitable penalties, as in three of the last four World Cup efforts. And we all know how well that worked out.
There are some matches that you know you’ll remember forever (and, being a weary Evertonian and cynical England fan, more often it’s the losses rather than the wins). The Germany game in Italia 90 is another example. So yes, we lost and yes, we were completely unimpressive and mediocre. But you know what? That match, watching it in remote Cambodia with two foreigners supporting my side – that really is one to remember, and not just for the bad reasons.
Suzanne