Barring an element that is based on aspirations, there is no apparent logic for Indians to be backing teams from Brazil or Spain, Argentina or Germany or from any of the 28 other nations from across the world. Yet, we offer these teams playing the Beautiful Game unconditional support from this distance, spending long hours each evening before our TV sets and planning our lives around the matches of our respective favourites.

You don’t have to make much effort to look around in the coming weeks and find a growing, if not dominant presence, of football in our daily lives. Marketing wizards have already drawn up exhaustive plans to unleash football mania on us. Newspapers and new TV channels have signed up celebrities and analysts to interpret world class action for us in language that we understand.

Indeed, it is a phenomenon that is not very easy to explain. Why would India, which does not seem to be even within sniffing distance of competing at the FIFA World Cup devote so many man hours in backing squads that have no idea of how many pair of lips in India have prayers for each of them. For many years since 1986, I tried to understand the passion but over the last couple of FIFA World Cup finals, I have focussed on enjoying the process of observing it unfold each time.

It brings me in touch with a young India that grown up admiring high quality practitioners of sport and sports itself that is beamed into its drawing rooms. It brings me in touch with an India that thrives on the pure sporting entertainment offered in the FIFA World Cup finals. This time around, I can sense a number of girls will join the frenzy, even if the older women reconcile themselves to having to make their own plans outside of football. It also tells me, less enjoyably, I must add, about an India that is increasingly content to watch such spectacles and makes little effort to actually play sport.

I have also become aware of how India Inc increases its ad spends on the telecast of each edition of the FIFA World Cup finals. There is at least one market study which says that the official broadcaster in India, ESPN Star Sports, is expecting at least Rs 150 crore from ad revenue alone for this year’s World Cup finals. Besides, there will dozens of crores of rupees that Indian advertisers will spend in an effort to ride piggy back on the football frenzy that we are about to witness in the coming weeks.

Yes, the FIFA World Cup 2010 is nearly upon us. Be warned! And be ready for a blast. Of the sporting kind, that is. A blast that will hard to explain but great to cherish.

Indeed, it was a poignant sight that will be etched in my mind for a long time. India had lost its second successive match by a 2-5 margin and yet many hundreds of its disappointed fans lingered on to cheer the team. The warm gesture after India was outplayed by Spain on Thursday night showed that the sport will find support in the country.

The stadium was packed well before India’s key contest with Spain was due to start and it was quite an experience again, hearing the crowd sing the National Anthem as one and with pride. But its throaty support to the home side was not good enough to lift the side to be competitive until it was too late.

Clearly, there were not just 15 Spaniards working overtime to stop India’s dream of finding a winning sequence. The home team took the ground with enormous baggage – for 35 years and eight editions, their predecessors had tried and fallen short of the semifinal at the FIH World Cup – and this side was expected to alter the course of Indian hockey’s destiny in one tournament.

This was the match that could pitchfork India among the contestants for the semifinal berth; this was the game that would set it up for a battle with the vastly improved England; It was not going to be easy, especially since Spain has always been a tough opposition and since it has been a while since India has played opposition such as Australia and Spain in the span of 48 hours.

The pressure was simply too enormous. Shivendra Singh’s enforced absence due to a two-match ban left the team without sting. Besides, hard as the young Gurwinder Singh Chandi tried to show that he belonged in this league, India’s lack of strike power upfront came through clearly. It was not long before the domino effect was felt at the other end.

India’s most consistent Indian players – Dhanjay Mahadik and Bharat Chikara – made uncharacteristic mistakes in defence and left the team staring down the barrel of the gun at the end of the first half.  The two goals that the side conceded were both defensive lapses that let Albert Sala and Pol Amat score unhindered.

It was always going to be difficult for India to play catch up, even after Sandeep Singh scored four minutes into the second half. Spain answered the challenge with two goals in as many minutes and it was all over bar the shouting. Sandeep Singh scored a second time to spark some hope but Spain was in control and pumped in a fifth goal towards the end to seal victory.

For a squad that boasted of three drag-flickers, India’s penalty corner conversion rate – scoring just once from the six chances – left it bruised. Sandeep Singh found the target once and caused the crowd to find its collective voice one more time but he will be the first to admit that the Spanish goalkeeper Francisco Cortes was more than equal to the task of denying him.

It is not as if there were no positives; there were some. The Indian side mounted a steady fightback in the second half and kept pressing for goals – even if it came up against resolute defence. The team was able to keep fighting till the end, something that we have not known many Indian hockey sides to do.

Yet, in the end there was disappointment for the vast majority of the 15,000 hopeful fans who packed the wonderful stadium and many trooped toward the exit gate when Spain scored its fifth goal with three minutes left. Yet, the sight of a few hundreds staying back to cheer the Indian team was heartwarming. There is hope yet for Indian hockey.

This piece was written for www.stick2hockey.com