4 Play-Second Season(August 2009) Report

(Continued from previous post)

The second season had posed some new challenges to 4 Play, which were, in one sense existential. A lot of players of the first edition had deserted the team; not because they got better offers from other teams, but because most of them were ashamed of playing. Ashamed of playing football!! Very often, we come across people, who carry with them the unnecessary burden of false pride and inflated ego, which emanates from a delusion of self-imposed greatness. According to the deserters, failure was humiliating. We are living in such a result-oriented world that we have forgotten to take pleasure from simple things in life. Not everyone believes in the philosophy of 'nishkama karma'.

Anyway, that didn't deter us from our attempts to form the team. We, the core members, tried all possible means to get the requisite numbers, but in vain. Finally, we got a way out. There was an LL.M students' team which was also facing the inadequacy of players. We suggested a merger. But there were other issues. We already had seven players and we just needed four more players. They too had seven players, and none of them were willing to be in the bench. Similar was the mindset of our players. So, deciding the final eleven was another headache. And we entered into negotiations and meditations. Finally, after a lot of string pulling and backroom dealings, the negotiation was effected. We must have been indulging in a miniature form of  the corporate mergers which we could be handling in future(if the corporate law firms oblige).But we had to make a compromise with the name. For some bizarre reason, the LLM fellows had named their team as 'Rejects'(probably to signify their alienation from mainstream college activities) and they wanted that to be reflected in the team name. We had to give in to that;and a new version of the team emerged,with an incongruous title :-'4 Play Rejects'

We were in a group of four teams. Or first match was against the formidable 'Nemesis'. We started the game with a defensive formation. One season of football had instilled some kind of game sense in the players. We held on for about fifteen minutes without conceding a goal. Then, the disaster occurred. One of our defenders, in a desperate attempt to clear the ball, handled an aerial shot, quite deliberately, which actually would have warranted a direct red card. But the player was not booked and they were given a direct free-kick outside the penalty box. They managed to capitalize on our amateurish set-piece defense, and scored a goal by breaching the wall. By half time, we were trailing 1-0.


Though, it was a much respectable scoreline, the team was demoralized. And that reflected in the game in the second half. The exhausted and dejected players of our team could not raise much challenge to the opponents. They scored goal after goal and the final score line stood as 6-0;the same result in our first match.

But in the next match we resurrected, like a phoenix from its ashes. The lynchpin of our team was Mr. Abraham Koshy aka Aby, who could not play in the first match due to prior commitments.Like an impenetrable fort, he stood in the central defense. A lot of goals were saved due to his heroics. Thus after the second match against 'OMG'(a first year team), we had a very respectable result of 2-0.

The last match of the group was scheduled against 'Sudama', who were know for their rough game. Moreover, they had managed to acquire a French Exchange student, who had claims of having played in the second division of French League. But all these couldn't discourage us. Aby was marking the French striker quite effectively. We even managed to create some chances for ourselves. But 'Sudama' managed to score two goals.

Though we lost out in the league rounds, we were ecstatic after our matches; more ecstatic than the winners. Winning or losing is a relative concept. When compared to our first edition, we had made considerable progress, and that fact itself made us proud. Another privilege which minnows has is that they are not burdened by the baggage of expectations. So any fleeting moment of excellence can become really cherishable. Thus 4Play continued playing, though a victorious climax continued to be elusive.

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(To be continued)