Kaka, karma and the Hand of God
Post categories: World Cup 2010, World Cup Have Your Say
| 07:10 UK time, Monday, 21 June 2010
We discussed this on World Cup Have Your Say on Mon 21 June. You can listen to the programme by clicking here - apologies to those who had problems listening live on the radio
There was a spiritual dimension to yesterday's edition of World Cup Have Your Say (you may have heard the prayer for a miracle for Bafana Bafana at the end of the show!).
And now a couple more big World Cup stories have got people hinting at higher forces at work on the pitch in South Africa 2010.
Eight years ago Brazilian Rivaldo was famously punished for feigning injury which got a Turkish player sent off.
After Kaka was arguably on the receiving end of a similar performance against Ivory Coast last night, the word karma is all over the blogs (here, here and here, for example.)
And is the woeful form and mutiny of the French squad something to do with a certain striker's left hand and what it did to the Irish? This writer thinks so:
Maybe the French implosion is karma. If is was not for the "Hand of Henry" France would not be playing in the World Cup. It would be Republic of Ireland. So maybe this is simply the football gods are getting their revenge!
Players make gestures to the heavens all the time - and if you're an England or an Argentina fan, you'll certainly remember el Mano de Dios (even if it is 24 years ago!).
Do you believe bad sportsmanship somehow comes back to haunt a team? Do you believe that mysterious football cliché that "luck balances itself out"? Or are "higher forces" a convenient excuse for underperforming players?
