Even with Chinese class at 10am the following day there was no chance I was going to miss the crowd atmosphere for this event. That was exactly what I got, a big fat crowd. Six thousand people.
My original plan of going to Brass Monkey was scrubbed when a friend called me up saying that Taipei Arena was holding a free World Cup Finals event in its stadium and he has 10 of the 6000 tickets available. The entire night was an absolute blast which started with us guzzling down a bottle of beer each as they had airport-like security with no alcohol allowed. In the hour leading up to kick-off we mingled with random people, throwing cheeky comments at the opposition and finding some crayons to draw on ourselves. Others passed the time by playing Big-2, as typical Asians do.
So I have four big screens and I have the crowd. To top it off, the match was exactly what you would expect from a Finals match. Both exciting and nerve racking with superb displays of teamwork and skills with even a bit of drama thrown in. But I think the highlight of the match would have to be when Zidane unleashed his supermove. For some reason, I just found the way Materazzi flew into the air from the blow to be quite amusing.
Overall I think both teams played excellently with the referee being the only person on the field to perform badly, missing some very obvious handballs and a penalty deserving foul. It was just too bad that France had to go down the way they did.
On an unrelated matter, Taipei is set for a direct hit. Don’t typhoon’s know not to come on a weekend?!
The Chaz Chop 