Kings Cup- Outdoing its Expectation

Last May, kings cup final was played between, Real Madrid and its city rival, Atletico Madrid. And to my utter disappointment, real Madrid lost. However, I always liked to believe that luck denied Real Madrid. It isn’t normal that Ronaldo, Ozil and Di Maria all hitting the wood work. It was a last match of Mourinho before he left the club for Chelsea. And now its been almost two and half months, and we have a different King’s Cup, a tournament born in our own turf.

Yedzin celebration after a win against 3 Star. Picture Courtesy; goalnepal.com

Kings Cup, as hyped as it is, it has lived up to the expectation, even to a point that it brought people together, or rather gave a respite after a much hyped election. The national healing was necessary, and thus, football proved it more than just a game. When we see many people cheering for Bhutanese teams, and for that matter, even when our people jumped off their seats when United Sikkim equalized in the dying minutes of the semifinal match, it reminded me the Invictus, a movie on Nelson Mandela. The rugby game apparently unites the country. (Forgive me for the comparison if our small tournament do not merit such praise, but for the frog in the well thinks well is the world, and I am happily letting the thought pass)

Today, we have a final match. Yedzin has come long way from being the national league champions to beating Nepal’s3 Stars which was considered to be one of the best teams of Nepal to playing in the final match. It will be a good match between Manang Fc and Yedzin FC, at least, we will be cheering for the Bhutanese team. I remember myself sitting with my small group of friends in Delhi amongst many Indian football fans, watching Bhutan play India in SAFF. It was such a belittling moment as the Bhutanese team was outperformed by the Indian players and we couldn’t even cheer. Already our number was too small, that we had to endure the Bhutanese players hardly getting the ball. However, today it’s a different scenario, we have the crowd, we have the team performing well, and above all, its our own turf, the variables looks good to come out with the good equation.

Yedzin FC team. Picture Courtesy- Goalnepal.com

Good luck Yedzin, and let’s hope today’s tournament is the beginning of so many football festivals in times to come. It is so much an economic boost, while it is an entertainment loved by everyone. We can expect our league to improve with every team vying for the place in the Kings Cup tournament.