The "wrong" team won

- according to the local crowd.
Yesterday it was incredibly, unbelievably quiet around here. 
I had to go and pick up a book at the local library. That lovely place is open on Saturday afternoons and normally it is busy. There was almost nobody in there. It was a "football free zone". 
It was a warm and sunny spring afternoon but nobody was out gardening or mowing their lawns. They were all, it seems, inside and watching the "big" match.
And the wrong team won - according to the local crowd.
Now I really genuinely do feel sorry for all those people who were disappointed. I've never felt like that about a sports match or athletic competition in my life. 
Even at school I didn't feel enthused about my "house". Oh yes, I participated in a limited sort of way. I won "house points" for academic work and other things. I never won them for sport of course but I was made to study for (and pass) the umpire's examination for soft ball. I can't remember even how to play the game now. It was just a game - and one I was not at all interested in. 
The Senior Cat is equally disinterested and unaware. I had to stop him from phoning someone during the match because, as I pointed out, it would be rather like interrupting a church service. Sport is that important here in Downunder. 
Middle Cat is sports mad. If the game has a ball attached she has played it. She knows the rules for everything. She can discuss tactics and passes and techniques. She was the "trainer" for a major football team for years. Even with all that behind her she did not watch the big match. She went off with my BIL and cleared out a shed instead - and yes, it was her choice to do that. 
The whole business had reached a point where even Middle Cat no longer cared. There was, even for her, just too much hype surrounding the whole thing - pages and pages in the paper and hours on television. No doubt there  are multiple postmortems taking place now and more to take place later. 
But, as I said, I do feel genuinely sorry for those people who had invested so much time, money, and emotional energy into the match - only to have "their" team lose. It must have been devastating  because they didn't just lose, they lost by a wide margin...even I can work out the difference between 108 and 60 "points" (whatever "points" are). It's a lot.
I also feel sorry for the players...perhaps even sorrier for them. They were, before the match, made out to be some sort of heroes and full of courage. I don't doubt they tried their best - and they failed. It must be humiliating. They are going to be subjected to great scrutiny and no doubt there will be some "changes" and loss of jobs. They will be reminded of the financial loss they have incurred too. Their supporters will also have things to say - and they won't always be kind.
And all this bothers me because - isn't it really just a game?