When you’ve been bitten, that’s it for you

As my girlfriend likes to say, maybe I am crazy. When the World Cup kicked off in Russia I was very critical and even missed some games because I felt – and made the mistake of telling her – that I could not get into the spirit of it all with Bafana not there.

She was obviously happy about this as it meant I would spend less time drinking beer and screaming at the TV and more time massaging her feet and watching soapies at night.

This went on for a few days until the love which was in my veins when the football bug bit me and buried its incurable virus in my bloodstream as a young boy start- ed to eat at my heart.

I started flipping between channels during ad breaks “just to check the scores”. I then devised a strategy to agitate her and started asking silly questions about the plots and criticising the storylines of the soapies. And before the poor soul knew it, I was going out to watch the match with the guys.

I now have favourite teams who I follow and feel really heartbroken when they lose, like used to happen when a certain local club lost back in the days. Yes that team from Dube in Soweto and Bafana hurt my feelings to the point where I didn’t care much about football results anymore. And it helps that I work in football

Sibongiseni Gumbi

in a job that requires me to be objective at all times.

Because of the cold, I watched Monday’s games in the house and she somehow agreed because she likes watching me scream and tell players what they should do when they obviously can’t even hear me.

I have fallen in love with Belgium and when they played Japan – who I think we all hate for how they qualified for the quarterfinals ahead of Senegal – I was excited as I expected the likes of De Bruyn and Lukaku to put those Japanese through what we went through when the Lions of Teranga were sent packing.

And because she likes antagonising me in everything, from my driving to my fashion choices, she suddenly became a huge fan of Japan, reasoning that their work ethic and ethos attracted her unlike “these other idiots who scream at the referee every time they lose the ball”. I still wonder why I taught her the game. Oh yes, it is because I am crazy.

I can’t even recall when last I had such pain in my heart. And the second came and I suggested we change channels and watch her soapies instead. She refused, saying she would catch the repeats at the weekend. But the football gods took pity on me and Belgium managed a dramatic comeback and scored a winner with the last kick of the match – what a feeling.

There was a break on Wednesday and Thursday and that felt like a whole two weeks to me. I guess you understand how my night was like last night as Belgium were in action again. I am crazy I must admit. I am football crazy and I shudder to think what I will be doing in the two weeks after the World Cup ends and the domestic leagues begin.