IT IS IN THE NAME.

It had been four years since I played this game,when I,along with my friends used to play it in front of my house on the road often getting scolded by the passer by.And it was the world cup football again and the game quickly caught up with us.But this time we decided to play in the ground in the vicinity of my home.

For the first time we were able to see beyond cricket. we really enjoyed playing football.Soon we all got accoustomed to the ethics and rules of the game, and also getting hurt.I happened to be the Goal keeper,after some extraordinary saves(for me) became quite famous among the boys.

All was going well when one day one of my friend Arun Antony came with a news that there was a football tournament being held by the Railways in the city.I who happened to be a novice to this game thought we had pretty good players in our team with whom we would be able to contest.So I pumped up everyone and made them believe that we could be a real contest in this tournament.So that evening we formulated a best combination of players who were available for us.

Next morning ,All of us excited and bit nervous left for the Railway Grounds where the tournament was being held.We were the first team to get over there, we had couple of footballs, so we started practicing .Then suddenly couple of Vans rushed on to the ground out came the players with their coach. Most of the players of this team were tibetians who were hugely built up.The game organiser who happened to Arun's father's friend said that the first match for us is against this tibetian team.We were not prepared for this and we were not ready to risk ourselves for this silly tournament.So Arun with some influence asked the organiser to change our tie.So he asked us to to play against Ganesh F.C. I went to a spectator and asked him "How good is the team Ganesh F.C"? He said it was the best team over here, seeded no.1. So we asked the organiser to change the tie again.Finally the organiser asked us to come for the afternoon session.All of us had our breakfast in GTR restaurant and left for our home.

All of us assembled in the ground for the afternoon session,the organiser got us jerseys(shirts)which was brasil team's uniform.Quickly one of my friend grabbed a shirt and ran with it crying "I've got No.9 I've got No.9" (No.9 is on Ronaldo's shirt).Soon we all started laughing as we found out all the shirts had No.9 on their backs.Finally we got our tie,it was against the Mysore Medical College(M.M.C).The organiser then asked the name of our football club.We gave him an instantaneous name saying Man U Football Club(After Manchester United F.C).Then they annonced the commencement of our match "Next match it is MMC verses MANU F.C". They spelt 'MAN U' as 'MANU'( as a hindu name).They once again announced "MANU F.C assemble".We thought what is in the name and never bothered to inform them.

Atlast the moment we were waiting for, the match began. Both the teams went to the ground.One of my friend asked "Is the football ground really this big" ?.I wondered how we are going to play with players who did not even know the size of the ground.
I was among the extra players sitting on the bench. As the refree blew the wistle one of our player kicked the ball and twisted his leg with the first kick! He called for the replacement ,the refree did not even notice the change as he could not believe that there could such an early replacement.In the first itself minute a goal was scored by the opposite team.None of our players could have the ball even for a few seconds.There was not even a single pass by our team.As our players could not play in this big ground they started playing in their own half.
I would say customising the size the ground. Soon there was an another goal.Along with all their players the goal keeper of the opposite team also moved into our half.

The coaches of other teams started teasing us,Hence couple of our players went and sat with the spectators.One of the coach asked us "Hey where have you guys of 'MANU' F.C come from?"one of my friend Ajay replied "After searching whole of Mysore and then after carefully choosing players from each area we formulated this team" .Another one asked "Where are your players ?I see no one in the other half of the ground".Quickly Ajay showed to them pointing to the other side of the ground."Look over there"."Where?" the man asked again.Ajay replied"Look over there they are sitting with the spectators".The man became angry as he thought Ajay was making fun of him. We decided to leave the place and we too sat with the spectators.
Finally the match was over.The refrees thought it was pretty much one sided and decided to stop the game.Game was held for just around 5 to 6 minutes.And we lost the game 3 to nil.

The guys came back from the ground and started discussing on what went wrong. I interuptted them, saying "I know what went wrong .It was in the name, they called our team name wrong that is why we lost".Everyone had a laugh and they agreed with me.Then everyone decided that, on the first case we should not have been here.Then Arun interupted saying"Chinup guys we were new to football, next week there is cricket tournament over here we'll pereform well in cricket".Everyone stared at Arun for a moment.Then Arun said "I was just kidding".