This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 25, 2018 - July 1, 2018

We’re barely a week into the Fifa World Cup and already, we’ve been hit by some major surprises. Who would have thought that Mexico could beat Germany, the victors of World Cup 2014? And the time of writing,  Argentina is in danger of not entering the round of 16.  (Sorry,  Argentina fans!)

I must admit I have little appreciation for the beautiful game, but I’ve given in to peer pressure and decided to throw my duit raya  in the betting pool. Since I don’t know much about football, a friend suggested that I just support the team with the highest number of good-looking players.

There are 32 teams in the running with 11 players each, so that’s 352 men to appraise ... shouldn’t be too hard, right? (I reckon it’ll be more enjoyable than combing through announcements on the Bursa Malaysia website as our editors always tell us to do.)

I wish I could say the same for international politics, but I find myself stumped when it comes to choosing between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un. Fortunately, I don’t have to! It looks like after their cozy meeting across the Causeway, the two won’t be launching nuclear missiles at each other anytime soon.

Unless Kim’s meeting with Xi Jinping in China last Wednesday ruffled some of Trump’s feathers, that is.

But since all surprises have been accompanied by an even more surprising atmosphere of peace since May 9, I’m keeping my hopes up.

So far, it looks like we’ve been able to enjoy our long-awaited freedom of speech, though it’s a pity our finance minister got called out for exposing scandals and veteran journalist Datuk A Kadir Jasin got some flak for writing about the expenses incurred by a royal household. Hold on! Am I am sensing a pattern here?

Whatever the ministers say, journalists are still hard at work writing articles to fill pages. How do I tell my boss that I’m still in the mood for Raya instead of work? Can I get an MC for a rendang overdose?

Yummy lemang isn’t the only thing I’ll miss. It looks like the smooth traffic we’ve been enjoying over the Raya holidays will be coming to an end soon. As one Twitter user said, who needs public transport to solve KL’s traffic jams when Raya holidays will do the trick?

That gives me an idea — we should just declare holidays for the rest of the World Cup month! After all, how many of you football fans out there can wake up on time for work after catching late-night matches?

You might think that that’s a ridiculous idea, but I should remind you that we’ve seen a lot of unbelievable surprises in the past, especially during the World Cup.

For one, Germany shocked the world by thrashing Brazil 7-1 on the latter’s home turf in the semi-final match in 2014.

And who would’ve thought that one day, World Cup matches would be held in the desert with a sweltering average temperature of over 40°C. So, to win the Fifa World Cup 2022, besides your skills and team spirit, how much heat you can endure is definitely very important. (Should the training include doing warm-up exercises in the sauna?)

What’s even more of a head-scratcher is that the 2026 World Cup will be hosted in three countries — the US, Canada and Mexico. Is it to show the world how united and close the three nations are? By the way, will Trump finish building the wall on the US-Mexico border?

Back to Russia, the host of World Cup 2018, do you know (or rather remember) what happened in 1980? It was related to a major sports event but not the World Cup.  Now, 38 years later, footballs fans are flocking to Moscow. Is North Korea’s Kim a football fan? If he is, could Pyongyang host the next World Cup?

Who will be lift the World Cup trophy this time round? Will it be Mexico since it has defeated Germany? And how will Vladimir Putin take it if the trophy doesn’t stay in Russia?

Oh well, I guess anything’s possible if you just believe.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.