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By Joe Callaghan
Wednesday was moving day to Moscow. Through the fog and drizzle that enveloped the place, Colombian fans threw themselves into the subway adorned with the wonderful metro system of the Russian capital. Their jerseys were still bright yellow, but their faces and eyes were darkened the night before.
Their exit to the iron left of Jordan Pickford and England had deeply wounded and in the following hours, their loss already resembled that of Russia. loss too. Colombia was the second of the major Latin American invading nations to be eliminated from the 2018 World Cup. Brazil remains but in agreement with a country that only speaks Portuguese in the Spanish-speaking world, their fans tend to keep for themselves that
Uruguay, meanwhile, simply can not bring the number of its neighbors with a lower population than that of Ireland.
When Colombia followed Mexico and before them Argentina and Peru worse for that. Proudly, the wet and cold drizzle leaned over the capital until nightfall
Temperatures were still torrential Monday in Samara, but the feeling of a change in the seasons of the World Cup was too similar .
Mexico was out there as Brazil market on. In a small Georgian grill next to the town's train station, two waitresses dug and sweated after midnight to fill Mexican steaks with enough steak and cerveza for the 17-hour train trip to Moscow and the many hours it would take to bring them home. Even though Samara is in a different time zone than the capital, the national train system only works at the Moscow time, which is incomprehensible in the best case. Midnight in a steaming steakhouse does not qualify as the best of times, so every ten minutes the green mossy mbades would check their watches frantically, make positive and negative points, and agree, yes, there had a time for
But even in this case, a city where, for decades, the time has stopped, the clock finally catches up with you. While the Mexicans were getting up to leave, the overworked waitresses and a table full of locals seemed really crushed. There were handshakes and bear hugs but the Russians wanted more. They pointed and through broken English and Russian Spanish and drunkard broke, it finally became obvious what was wanted.
"What hats … can I have .. Please … Spasiba Pleeeeeease."
The scene that unfolded with a Russian man torso bear stripping off his Russia 2018 knock-off t-shirt in exchange for a huge silvery and gilded sombrero and the two waitresses swapping some cold road beers for slightly smaller but still too large versions of the hairstyle were as good as any other something served by this magnificent tournament.
More than a million fans have come to Russia in recent weeks. Some may return home lighter in luggage, but none return home unsatisfied. The most open World Cup in everyday memory could have the most open minds. And it's not over yet.
Russia is not a place where summer weekends are lost. The Dachniki – those who are lucky enough to own or, at worst, to know someone who knows someone who has the keys to a dacha – sneak up to the outskirts of cities to escape all of this.
In Moscow, a city of 16 million people with skyscrapers that rise and push the sky to every advantage, the hot summer days must not be spent in a confined space of three pieces, could not swing in a ballerina. As crowds descend steep stairs and intimate lifts for one, the streets of the city swell and the wide boulevards shrink with the evening.
The capital, and with it the nation, will stop tonight as the host country to keep alive the most unlikely dream. The Spanish slayers of Stanislav Cherchesov have brought their show south to Sochi for tonight's clash against Croatia, a place in the last four of his own World Cup on the line.
It took longer than usual, but the euphoria soon after the Spanish conquest of the country. Igor Akinfeev had brought the boredom of late tiki taka to its overwhelming but somehow unavoidable conclusion around 8 pm local time Sunday night. As we walked through the city to take a subway to a train for a plane to go to Samara the next morning, the party was in full swing.
Smothering long portions of one of the most crowded megacity routes – Moscow's inner ring road – this was a street party on the emergency route. But it was a moment that had nothing to do with relief and everything to do with the intoxicating ecstasy of the unexpected.
It has been a frequent sight, this spontaneous joy, these past three weeks but it must be remembered how much the expectations were for the Cherchesov team. We had arrived in Russia a bit early and went to their last fix against Turkey in the week before the tournament started. They pocketed the place, a tasteless 1-1 draw, usually tasteless seeing them booed and mocked. As they send, it was not fond.
The fuel behind the performances that followed
remains to be debated. It is impossible to watch a Russian sports entity achieve extraordinary results and not feel the wave of meldonium or other similar drifting in the air. The nature of their two opening victories did not do much to dispel such suspicions – hard, long run and a lot of it. Yes, pride and pressure can be their own intoxicants, but not if they are overwhelmed by real things.
"Drugs? I do not think so," said Elena, the owner of a construction company Nizhny Novgorod when the topic was raised on Thursday night, Uruguay and French fans filling the taverns behind she on the main artery of the city.
Do not think about drugs. They may have been told – if you do not do well, you go to jail. "
She was half joking We were hoping
" Anyway, Spain did sport by talking about doping. And watch the players of Croatia. They have legs like a horse. "
Equestrian qualities or not, you feel that the Croats worry the host country more than even the Spaniards, the national trait of fatalism never completely absent from the procedure and kicking a little more On Saturday But Cherchesov and his team have already done more for their own World Cup than could have been imagined.If they go out obediently tonight, no matter.
After the opening match From this tournament, we wrote on these same pages how this World Cup was going to have enough scenarios and dramas to be able to stand up without a strong host country.In many ways, this has been proven. dismissing Saudi Arabia, Russia lit u Sparkles in its own people who burned throughout the tournament and has undoubtedly helped fuel the warmth of the home they gave to the world.
The teams will have been expelled from the Russian World Cup. The hosts and four other teams will remain. A simple eccentricity of the FIFA scheduling service, yes. But one that sums up how much this dream has traveled far.
If they are eliminated tonight, it will not matter because we are all going to move quickly to really very important things in very large places. By the time the lights weaken on Sochi tonight, only St. Petersburg and Moscow will remain host cities, separating the semi-finals
final, and dreaded third place not to make us-play-off. 19659003] What will be left for the other nine cities? Major improvements in infrastructure will continue to make a difference in everyday life, although the money spent in some stadiums – Kaliningrad and Saransk in particular – quickly becomes a source of contempt and scandal when it comes to money. they will be empty.
impossible to talk about inheritance in the present, especially the legacy of a tournament not yet finished. It's also a folly to make judgments on such a vast and varied land with centuries of complex social and psychological history and upheavals after a few weeks of crossing a festive country.
But in the closed cities of Samara and Nizhny Novgorod, cut off from the outside world a few decades ago, it was a particularly strange and wonderful time, opening eyes and souls to what exists and what people can come back to see. Similarly, for a place like Saransk, which saw its urban demography become 10% Peruvian for 48 unforgettable hours, the party will live long in the memory. The permissiveness of this carnival has already been recorded. What is possible when regulations and standards (yes, morality too) are not taken into account?
The Russians have won a million hearts. You feel that the ball of the World Cup will be thrown in a larger number of minds for a while.
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