[ad_1]
MOSCOW – In recent years, football circles have tended to despise international play – and, by extension, the World Cup – as an inferior mark to the European club. The reasons are simple. Players are more often together with their clubs, coaching is better, and the rhythms are more regular. The club game is the spouse we see every day. The international game is our best friend of the college who visits once a year and knows how to have a good time (but is a little vague about fundamentals).
Valery Sharifulin / TASS / Getty Images
2018 World Cup, which ended Sunday with the second title of France, delivered an inspiring replica to Debbie Downers who slandered football involving teams national. Was the level of play as high as the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League? Probably not, but it was very good – largely thanks to the quality of the world's best players, former supporters (Luka Modric from Croatia, Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal, Lionel Messi from Argentina) to A-listers Kylian Mbappé, from Belgium, and Eden Hazard, from Belgium) at the tournament telenovela (Neymar, Brazil, where he was not writhing like a Pentecostal parishioner speaking in tongues)
in modern times – and the best ever since at less 1986 – was the implacable tragedy, the surprises and the emotions of all this. It was a World Cup of overflowing feelings, which bridged any gap in technical quality with the game of club. We will never see a player cry tears of joy after a win in the Champions League group stage, but that's exactly what Neymar and the Mexican Javier's "Chicharito" do. Hernández did after the victories in group stage. Germany has become the fourth of the last five defending champions to come out in the group stage, which allows you to wonder if this is not a coincidence. Heavyweights Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal were all eliminated by the quarterfinals. Croatia, the small checkerboard engine that was the best, was the best team in the group stage and cleared the deficits of its four playoff games, from the knockout stages to the final.
The goals may not have been high, but the late winners were . Worn by set-piece goals (another trend), England went up to the semifinals, won a penalty shoot-out (!) And was (gasp) totally friendly as that & # 39; team.
Joosep Martinson – FIFA / FIFA via Getty Images
Then there was Russia. On the pitch, national hopes of national embarrassment gave way to the deserved pride of ordinary Russians, as their team progressed since the group stage (predicted by some), eliminated Spain on penalties. goal in the eighth finals (predicted by almost no one) and played an outstanding football game in the quarterfinals against Croatia.
Off the field, the organization of the World Cup was solid. There were no significant cases of hooliganism. And fans from around the world – mostly from Latin American countries and not from Europe – seemed to have as much impact on host Russians as Russia on its visitors. Nikolskaya Street in Moscow, a pedestrian artery near Red Square, illuminated at night as a winter wonderland, became a festive gathering place where fans and locals sang and sang until the sun came out. rose at 6 o'clock in the morning.
Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images
For someone who might have wondered if they were coming to Russia, including me, a Russian visitor for the first time, at one point in the tournament, the answer was finally yes. . Travel is, as always, a human link, an understanding, broken barriers. The ordinary Russians were great: warm, welcoming and sincerely curious. However, it was difficult not to be embarrassed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, approaching Vladimir Putin, acting as if this World Cup had changed the opinions of all on the Russian dictator, who could not be further of the truth. terms, the 2018 World Cup will be remembered for the introduction of the video assistant referee. After the fears before the tournament that VAR – we like to say vahr not the least effective vee-aye-ar – would be an absolute disaster, it turned out to be a net positive. Almost all major calls have been made correctly. Even if you do not agree with umpire Referee Néstor Pitana during the final (and that reasonable people could be found on both sides of the debate), Pitana has at least had the opportunity to use all the evidence available to make his decision. 19659013] Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
