The boy was in no position to deny answering the question
and so he said, “to stop the ball from going in, coach.”
“so, you would wait until the ball comes, right?”, he asked
again.
This time the boy didn’t know what should be the right
answer for such a question. His body was like finding a comfortable bed with a
couple of pillows in it.
Coach asked again,” hey, am talking to you douchebag. Where are
you? Are you with me or with your ass fucked girl friend whose face is like my
pet’s vagina?”
The boy now felt quite uncomfortable with the coach’s use of
adjective to describe his girlfriend’s face. He pulled off his gloves and went
off the ground biding the most essential finger during sex.
Mr. Das and I were drinking chilled water as the heat was
quite unbearable. I said to the coach, “sir, don’t you think it was quite a bit
excess for that young man?”
He replied, “do you know why the year 1966 famous for in the
world of football?”
I said, “ummm, ugh, no, I don’t.”
“well, then it is good for you to think that I was a bit harsh
with the kid. Anyways, I got to go now. Bye.” He said.
“excuse me sir, what happened in 1966?” I asked out of a
journalist’s curiosity.
The coach smiled at first then pat his hand on my back and
said, “a spider came to the world of football and it’s colour was black.” Leering
at me he went off.
I was in total nowhere. I came back to my home opened up the
laptop and searched google typing the keywords as such ‘1966 black spider’.
Next day I came back to the ground and asked the coach, “so
the black spider was also had a name and it was black panther, right?”
He looked at me and shook his head.
I said, “I think you at first should show the clips to the
kid.”
He said,” do you really think by watching a video clip one
can really be like him?”
I said nothing. He added, “well, in that 1966 my grandfather
used to work as the German Associative. The match was organized between Soviet
Union and West Germany. West Germany was one of the toughest site that time. Soviet
Union hadn’t had that much good player. After the match started in the 2nd
minute an attack came from West Germany and it was a sure chance to score a
goal. The shot was top cornered and the crowd were up on their feet.”
He breathed a while. Gave a pause to his story and said,” from
nowhere a hand came out and the goal was saved. My grandpa told that he didn’t
know his name so he went on to search the name list after the match. West Germany
won the match by 2-1. Do you know why everybody remembered the losing side of
that match?” he asked.
“I can only imagine!” I said.
“well, there are times when people just let go your defeat
and study your self-contribution. It happened that day too. The man under the
bar was fully covered with black jersey. That day he did everything for his
team. He shouted orders at his defenders, came off
his line to intercept crosses and also ran out to meet onrushing attackers,
done at a time when goalkeepers spent the 90 minutes standing in the goal
waiting to be called into action. And I guess you know that he made a
150 penalty saves in his career and kept over 270 clean sheets and…”
“sir, who is he?”, the goalkeeper of the
team who was been scolded hard last night asked the question.
“well, a goalkeeper like you who just
never waited for the ball to come close to him. The only goalkeeper who won the
ballon d’or award. The goal keeper of Soviet Union, Lev Yashin.” He said and
went to the other players.
I came to the boy and lit up a cigarette
and offered one to the boy. He refused. I told him,” do you know Yashin played
his best match at the age of 36?”
“no, I didn’t know that.”, he was quite
blur.
“well, you never get old if you don’t mention
it to yourself. Just stop worrying. You can do better. Let go your fear of
getting a cut from your dive.” I told him.
“well, sir, do I need to see his clips?”,
he asked me.
“do you really think by watching a
video clip one can really be like him? Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t think
this way.”, I turned and saw the coach was standing. Now, I was blur until the
coach smiled.
“hey, goalkeeper!”, I shouted before leaving the ground.
“what?”, he shouted too. The coach was looking at us.
I shouted again, “so, you are a goalkeeper right? What does
it sound to you?”
He smiled and replied loudly, “to let go my fears and let
fears fear me.”
I shook my head. Threw the cigarette and said, “taxi!”
