Lebanon — Lebanon aka the Republic of Lebanon is a country in the Middle East. Located in Western Asia, it consists of 6.849 million people with a land size of 10,452 km2. The common languages spoken in Lebanon are Arabic and English.
Estonia — Estonia, aka the Republic of Estonia, the country is located in Northern Europe containing a land size 45,227 km2. The official language of the country is Estonian.
It’s the second round of the World Cup and today the match up finds the dark horse — Lebanon Vienna pitted against the underdogs — Estonia Death among the Icebergs!
Sahar Madnour’s Vienna is written in the first person, effectively communicating the protagonist’s feelings, thoughts and emotions. The whistle blows, the crowd roars — Das Spiel Beginnt! Madnour orientation is slow but provides essential details of her family situation and her personality. It’s evident that Vienna doesn’t truly love her husband depicted through the lines of “reminding [herself] herself to never get pregnant”, demonstrating she does not want to bear a child of Yussef, her husband. Lebanon’s defence is too firm, unable for the attacker of Estonia to create space. Lebanon’s defence has held up well, against the “Giants” of Estonia but by no means was this an invitation to slack off. As the story progresses, we learn that Yussef is fertile and his “swimmers were weak, lazy, and slow, not to mention dead on arrival” stating that it sums up their sex life. What a roast! Lebanon scores 1–0!
As the game pursues, Heinsaar’s Death among the icebergs encapsulates Conchita’s emotions as her heartthrobs and falls in love with the “giant of a man” with “fair frizzy hair, a large nose, and sky-blue eyes”. Her feelings were unprecedented and as Aale attempted to have a conversation, “unable to venture and reply” Conchita ran away in tears. Their relationship intensifies as they developed “frenzied passion and the urge to melt into each other, to disappear into one another” eventually reaching “their climax, collapsing on the floor in a mutual embrace, streams of hot water and pale semen flowing down along their thighs, enraptured exhaustion on their faces.” What a comeback in the 80th minute as the scores are now tied up 1–1. The audience pampers the Estonians with roars and thunderous cheers, bringing the game back to life after a lust lacking performance.
Both teams were determined, with the tension rising unwillingly to give in to each other. Who will win? Will it end in a draw? The audience sits, bracing for the final 10 minutes of a fierce game of ‘fußball‘.
With the finale approaching, Mandour’s Vienna hits it’s climax as Danny proposes to Vienna, sliding “a fish onto [her] plate and when [she] picked apart the flesh, [she] found a ring inside”, causing the protagonist to feel overwhelmed with tears streaming from her cheeks. However, things took a drastic turn as Danny went through Vienna’s phones checking her text messages. After reading the messages on her phone, Vienna’s image of “a cute baby” was no more as their relationship started to tremble, spiralling out of control as her unfaithfulness was exposed. Danny then claimed that he’d rather “welcome death than to live in [Vienna’s] absence”, solidifying that their relationship was over. No one saw that coming right after he proposed to her! And just like that Lebanon is back with a 2–1 lead with only a few minutes remaining.
As the final minutes draw closer with every second ticking, the Estonians motivation started to deter, losing sight of what they came for. They were fine without winning but despised the thought of losing. With all their might and effort, they ruthlessly attempted to penetrate the opposition’s defence, but their souls were “scorched” and “tortured” eventually burning out. In a similar fashion to Aale, who “was dead and nothing more could be done”, the Estonians had enough, giving up.
FULL TIME — The Estonians glared at the pitch in despair, torn and shattered with a “frozen expression”. They didn’t sing. On the other side of the field, the Lebanese roar, cheering over the victory like barbaric animals. The dark horses prevail, 2–1!
