Messi in power mess

When Gabriel Heinze's thumping header found the back of Nigeria's net in the sixth minute to give Argentina a 1-0 lead on Saturday evening, hundreds of thousands of football fans in the city's Azimpur, Gandaria, Lalmatia, Farmgate, Kazipara and Bashundhara areas missed the moment due to the wretched power cut.
And even worse, it wasn't just these well-populated areas which were forced to sit in the dark.
Speaking to a cross-section of people from fifteen different areas of Dhaka, The Daily Star Sport found distressed viewers who not only failed to watch the only goal of the match but also missed large chunks of the 90-minute encounter. And it was also the few million Argentina fans who suffered the most.
Residents of Gandaria probably had it worst. According to Safa, there was no electricity for the first 30 minutes, watched it for 20 and missed the next 20 minutes. It was almost similar in Azimpur. Javed missed the first half-hour while Siraj Uddin from Lalbagh managed to watch the goal but after that the power went off for 20 minutes. Purnima, who lives in nearby Siddique Bazar, was among the few lucky ones as the power just went off during the ten-minute half-time break.
It was as dreadful in Bashundhara where Munira only saw the first ten minutes and the final 20 of the evening game.
Safinaz, living in Lalmatia, spoke of angry reactions in her area after power was taken away in the first 18 minutes of the match. Dhanmondi, where Argentina and Brazil flags don most of the apartments, also had most parts of it plunged into darkness during the first-half. Nasimul of Shyamoli was lucky enough to see the goal but again, he suffered the dreaded power-cut in the first-half that went on for 25 minutes.
In Mirpur's Kazipara, Khalid saw people coming down from buildings into the street in protest of the power-cut that occurred early in the first-half and returned just a minute before the break.
Folks in Kakrail, Malibagh, Farmgate, Uttara and East Goran missed parts of the second-half that had the magician Lionel Messi mesmerise the Nigerian defence and miss plenty of chances in a helter-skelter 45 minutes.
Farida, a East Goran resident, missed the last 24 minutes of the game and was so concerned that the Nigeria defenders would hurt Messi, she and her husband called friends to ensure nothing went wrong with their favourite player.
Adil from Khilgaon reported that most people in his area missed the entire second half while Ashiqur Rahman of Farmgate missed the first 12 minutes of the second half and spent anxious moments thinking whether Argentina doubled their margin or conceded an equaliser as he heard screams from other areas.
This was just the first Argentina game and with several more big matches involving both Argentina and Brazil coming up in the next few weeks, the situation has to get better but if it gets any worse, scenes of more violence will be commonplace.