2018 World Cup Andrés Iniesta: the last performance of an elegant crack

MOSCU, Russia.-


Andrés Iniesta
look at one of the screens of the Luzhnikí Olympics, back to the bow where Spain is playing its future. Lionel Messi lowers his head, silently. Cristiano Ronaldo sees his opportunity pbad after two weeks during which he put Russia in danger. "The fall of the gods", headlines the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "Bajones de oro", jokes the sports brand. In a weekend of shakes in the


World
The fall of Spain into the hands of Russia was the last push. And the confirmation of goodbye to the wizard of Fuentealbilla. "Everything has a beginning and an end, it's not the dream of goodbye, but football and life have these things," Iniesta said a few minutes after an early elimination. Jorge Valdano on Ricardo Bochini. An insufficient body for anything, a proper face for failure, a sharp talent, fast, huge. A description that could dress from head to toe in Spanish. A tactile midfield and peripheral vision. An all-climber with a chbadis from another era, but with a brain for modern football

The sanctions against Russia mark the end of his career in the selection. He left with 131 games and 13 goals. Most importantly, the one who gave


Spain
his first world title on July 11, 2010, in Johannesburg. With Iniesta, it is possible that he also sent back


Gerard Piqué
another reference. The Barcelona defender announced in 2016 that this would be his last tournament, but yesterday he left the stadium without making any statements. The last point had confirmed after a duel against Albania in which the team was using a white uniform that on the sleeves of the shirt had a yellow and red border, the colors of the Spanish flag. But Piqué cut off the long sleeves of his uniform, and was plunged into a controversy that pushed him to mark an expiration date.

Javier Mascherano
that on Saturday took the microphones to confirm the goodbye, who spoke to the press was Iniesta. He did it with his hands in his pocket, his watery eyes and his broken voice. "Sometimes things are not like we dream or imagine, the circumstances have marked that they are like that, life goes on, I hope that in the near future these disappointing situations that we are living in the last World Cup, Cup of Europe and World Cup will be changed … and there are players to find the way and I hope that is the case ", he says. Of course, he did not specify the reasons that led Fernando Hierro to replace him, an image almost unprecedented in his career in the national team. "Of course, what you want is to play, but the coach always thinks what is best for the team, the decisions must be made by him, that he sharing them or not, "he said. Just in a key match, Hierro preferred that Iniesta not be a starter for the first time in the entire World Cup. His entry failed to reverse the 1-1 draw against the owners.

At age 34, his career in the national team closes the perfect circle. Twelve years ago, on May 27, 2006, he made his friendly debut against Russia (0-0). The rival who managed yesterday to find the antidote to block a Spain that has diluted in a myriad of inconsistent pbades.

The last days of the red movement between what is and what he knew to be. The revolution that took place between 2008 and 2012, coinciding with the time of Pep Guardiola in Barcelona, ​​did not have confirmation in subsequent major appointments. Beyond the game that resulted in playoffs and friendly (6-1 in the Metropolitan Wanda against Argentina is a sign of his power), something of this Spain remained a night of Kiev. The World Cup in Brazil (first round), Euro 2016 (round of 16) and the World Cup in Russia (eighth) form a series of missteps that the peninsula is still trying to find an explanation. As if Spain had traveled in time to go back a decade. The problems in the antechamber of the contest, with the departure of Julen Lopetegui just two days before the start, and the subsequent irregular march in Russia may be part of the answer.

The Iniesta is a long goodbye. This is what he has felt in recent months in Barcelona, ​​where he has been acclaimed in almost every stage of the country, and he has lived in the complex of Las Rozas and Krasnodar, the Spanish bunker of yesterday on Russian soil. Already, eyes on the Japanese Vissel Kobe, it will begin to get lost in the coming weeks in the East

The weekend surprises can mean the end of the duopoly Messi-Christian, after ten years of alternating . But also farewell to the other names that have marked world football. While Leo was silent about his possible end and the Portuguese simply smiled at the question about his future in Portugal, the only one who did not dodge the consultation was Iniesta. On social networks, FIFA has flatly rejected it: "Unique, eternal, legend". The same entity that knows that the debt of the Golden Ball 2010 will still be latent.

In a Moscow that lives hours of football bliss, with festivities until early morning and coach Stanislav Cherchesov's favorites as the fashionable street party as well as on TV, there is no one. image of an Iniesta refusing to watch Aspas shot for the last Spanish penalty. As he had preferred not to face reality, at least for a few seconds.

If Argentina found in France the end of the cycle for the group of three finals, Russia knelt the golden generation Spanish. The distant Qatar will already have other faces in its awnings. Everything indicates that it will be the turn of Neymar, the Mbappé. Not only does the closing feeling of some cycles float due to the combination of age and adverse outcomes, but the idea goes further: the end of an era.