Recently there was this event which exploded like it was some real breaking news! Well for many it could be. But looking at the reaction in the social media, the airwaves, and print media you can’t help wondering. If we don’t have more urgent issues we should have been involved in with such fervor and passion. In a way it is an interesting piece of news especially if you know at least that there are twenty two players on the field in any serious soccer game.

(There is this joke this old-timer sees twenty two guys chasing the same ball and wondered why they weren’t given a ball each! In this age of the most bizarre decisions and behavior from the powers that are a ball each might not be a bad idea after all!) Yes, in the English Premier League it was the clash of the giants and Liverpool thrashes Manchester United 7-0. Well, argument aside, I’ve to confess it has been one good night for me too, like it was for millions. But, in my case, it wasn’t not because Man United suffered perhaps one of the biggest embarrassments in their history in front of the home crowd.

Did they say it was about ninety-something years the last time they were so brutally mauled! At least seven goals being not an entirely new experience fans should be consoled by the fact that history resurfaces once in a while. Anyway I was with the happy because the Klopp boys finally rose up to the challenge and in the most unexpected ways too. True that given the ‘historic’ rivalry of the two teams and given that the Reds were really gearing up this season it was indeed humiliation of the crudest type.

But that it’s a different case. The fact is how came such buzz even among people who wouldn’t tell a free kick from a throw in. Surfing the social media I have to admit that I was surprised by addresses which seldom focus on football or any type sport for that matter were full of the news. What’s so strange about that! I’ll tell you what’s great about that. Most of the postings were not really about what happened on the field if you know what I mean. The real 7-0 result was a stepping stone to completely other topics political or otherwise where one side sharp shoots at the other sides.

What’s unnerving in times where you don’t hear much about bust-ups between fans of rival teams in the EPL that’s not always the case back here. I’ve heard a couple of stories of ugly incidents after the game. Now usually such disturbances occur in places where many people watch games together like hotels and pubs. Among the stories I heard there’s this one which left me speechless. They say it was a big family of seven with parents and five kids who all have crossed over the teenage years.

Two of them both in their late twenties were passionate about football one staying a loyal fan of Man United while the other was a diehard Liverpool supporter. Their story is that after games their hilariously innocent arguments and their exchanges was the life of the household. Never, so it is said, did they ever come anywhere close to a red line. But this time to the shock of the entire family and next door neighbors they crossed the red line, in big ways too.

The Ethiopian March 12/ 2023

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