Prayer: the last refuge of a
scoundrel. Unless you’re a devout Catholic boy like myself (yes I’m smirking)
you will at one time or another has resorted to it, and more than likely at a
football match. If the Republic of Ireland is your religion, and your church
Lansdowne (I like to keep it old school) then you’ve most definitely brought
the Almighty into proceedings at 1 stage.
It may have been a call for divine intervention at home to Romania or to offer your life and soul to the Almighty for an away day win at Macedonia - either way you’ve ALL prayed to the man above. Be it Catholic, Protestant or even a hardened atheist you’ve one time or another offered to do the dishes, walk the dog and quit smoking 40 a day if the boys in Green won.
It may have been a call for divine intervention at home to Romania or to offer your life and soul to the Almighty for an away day win at Macedonia - either way you’ve ALL prayed to the man above. Be it Catholic, Protestant or even a hardened atheist you’ve one time or another offered to do the dishes, walk the dog and quit smoking 40 a day if the boys in Green won.
Now me and God go back
a long way. He’s been around since the dawn of time, literally – me since about
1969. He’s always been there through good times and bad and boy did I
continuously blame him for the bad! But we have an understanding. I pray to him
for health, love and happiness, through good times and bad and he returns the
favour with a 90th minute Robbie Keane winner against England! I pray and offer
my soul to the Almighty, and he’ll make sure Spain won’t hammer us 6-0 next
week. The Lord is our twelfth man, and I’m the mere physio making sure God’s in
working order to deliver the goods!
As you
know he works in mysterious ways:
Carlo Ancelotti admits all during his playing and managerial career he talks to the man above before games. “I am in love with God. He performs miracles, and I feel emotionally moved by his life. I believe in him and I pray although mainly for personal matters, and not always football. I think God has better things to do”.
Carlo Ancelotti admits all during his playing and managerial career he talks to the man above before games. “I am in love with God. He performs miracles, and I feel emotionally moved by his life. I believe in him and I pray although mainly for personal matters, and not always football. I think God has better things to do”.
The
Brazilians are big into Jesus as well. So much so they caused awful controversy
during the last Confederations cup when governing body Forget Irish Football
Altogether (or FIFA for short) sparked controversy after disciplining the
Brazilian team for overt displays of Christianity during a match. Stars
including Kaka and captain Lucio revealed T-shirts with devout slogans such as
“I Belong to Jesus” and “I Love God” during the Confederations Cup final
against the United States. It obviously worked. Brazil came back from two goals
down to beat the USA, a nation whose god is money. What chance did the Yanks
have!!
Praying is an integral part of footy. I’m sure Tottenham fans have been doing this to win a league title since 1961 whilst Raphael Bentinez must have sacrificed a live chicken during Liverpool’s Champion’s League final in 2005. There’s times of course when I’ve fallen out of love big-time with the man above. Never more so than the final qualifying games for Euro ’96. I’d pulled a sickie all week so I could bask in the glory of Jack Charlton’s 11 destroy little Lichtenstein before annihilating Austria at home which put one of our feet in England for the finals. My pretend laryngitis and loss of work at my employers expense was severely punished by the man above in the shape of a horrendous draw v the minnows and Tony Polster’s salvo at Lansdowne.
I cursed the Almighty. He just
made it worse. We didn’t win a single game after that, lost to Holland in the
play-off and our most successful manager in the Republic’s history was gone! I’ve
never pull a sick day since.
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