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KAZAN, Russia – It has been more than half a century since international football experienced its first generation of gold. This is the name given to the 1950s Hungarian national team, which revolutionized the game and is considered by some to be the biggest football team of all time.
Since then, the term has been passed on to any country that, thanks to intelligent planning or good fortune, a slew of very talented players has emerged at the same time.
There was the Portugal team of the late 1980s, the Dutch team of the 1990s, and in the 2000s, Golden Generation was famous for
David Beckham
and the traveling circus known as the England team.
This was a compliment, but in practice, it looked more like a curse. Because what has united these teams beyond the Golden Generation name is a shared story of underperformance. None of them has won a major international tournament.
It's been five years now that Belgian football has become very scared. Since a team made up of the most electrifying players in European football has qualified for the 2014 World Cup, Belgium has its own Golden Generation. And since then, the country has been eager to see if players like Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bryune and Romelu Lukaku honor this promise.
In this respect, Belgium beat Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup. The cup can be seen as a moment of passage into adulthood. Belgians are not sure of winning the tournament. And in France, they face an opponent in the semifinal, which is perhaps the only team in Russia with so many individual qualities in his starting formation. But by beating Brazil, favorite country and World Cup history champion, the Golden Generation of Belgium showed that it belonged to the biggest stage of the game.
When the shot of Final whistle sounded, De Bruyne extended his arms to the crowd of Belgian fans in red jersey bouncing into the farthest corner of Arena Kazan. It's his goal that made the difference between the two teams, a thunderclap on the right side of the penalty area in the left corner of the Brazilian net that crowned one of the counter-attacks that are have become the hallmark of this team.
This goal saw Belgium take a 2-0 lead in the half, and although substitute Renato Augusto pulled one behind the lead, the deficit was too heavy. Brazil never came back from two goals to win a World Cup match.
For Brazil, the defeat will trigger a new wave of introspection in this country that loves football like no other. This defeat has nothing to do with the humiliation of 2014, when Brazil was eviscerated by Germany in a defeat of 8-1 in the semifinal at home. But he will leave his own psychological scars.
This is the fourth successive World Cup in which Brazil has been eliminated by a European team and there is a feeling that for all their creativity and deception on the ball, Brazilian football is more produces players with the positional discipline and the defensive sense required at the highest level. More alarming for the most victorious country in the history of the World Cup, Qatar has already started the tournament of 2022, which is two decades that Brazil won the trophy.
The defeat was a blow to Neymar, the undisputed star of Brazilian football, who was kicked out of the tournament four years ago due to a back injury. With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, both parties from Russia, it was the opportunity for Neymar to assert his own credentials as the world's leading player. But with the disappearance of the hopes of the Brazilian World Cup, he struggled to exert a great influence here.
The closest Neymar scored goals, but not before the games stopped at the end of the game, when a right kick on the edge of the box seemed to slip under the bar. But Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois threw himself through the goal and pushed the ball deep into the net
It was far from the only stop that Courtois had to perform in a second period. But despite their dominance, Brazil has become the last team in Russia to discover that control of the ball counts for only a lot.
The Belgian three-man defense has largely limited Brazil to long shots, with Vincent Kompany particularly impressive. in the center of the Belgian rear line. He was also involved in the first goal of Belgium, getting the slightest touch in the corner of Eden Hazard, who was spinning in the Brazilian net alongside Fernandinho's right-hand man.
Kompany is in many respects the senior member of the Belgian Golden Generation. He was the first to win a big advantage in the English Premier League, where so many Belgian stars play their football club. But it was not the only one to stand out on a wet night here. Hazard and Lukaku are better known for their offensive fireworks, but they played a crucial role thanks to their tireless running and strong hold-ups, which helped to reduce the pressure during the race. second half of Brazil. Questions about the work ethic of this beloved Belgian team, which suffered a subtle defeat against Argentina in the quarterfinals four years ago, and a surprise defeat against Wales at the same European Championship stadium 2016.
But one night when Belgium went a long way to justify its Golden Generation label, it also answered these questions.
Write to Jonathan Clegg at [email protected]
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