Euro -American

The semi -finals of the World Cup became the confrontation of continents

Photo: Reuters

Well, what did we want? So that the sensations continue until the final, and the favorites did not leave? So that the new stars light up, and the old ones do not fade away? So that the extravaganza lasts as long as possible, and the players did not think about the result?

So, alas, does not happen. The closer the finish line, the deaf paint. The multicolor is coming to naught, the black and white with rare bright interspersed, the fan environment is sharply polarized, and the players know that everyone will forgive them, except for fear in their eyes. Free artists of the world championships do not win - to take the World Cup that pleases the eye of creativity.

The semi -finalists know about this at the genetic level. And the Brazilians, showing football closest to harmony in 1970. And the Argentines, for the first time rose to the top of the house in 1978 on an amazing impulse. And the Germans, who won primarily thanks to the strictest gaming discipline. And, finally, the Dutch, brilliant and therefore vulnerable, inferior in their first finals exclusively to the owners (to the Germans in 1974, to the Argentines in 1978), and at the last world championship, the Spaniards reached the Spaniards. By the level of motivation, it was possible to put on Brazil and Holland, according to command training - on Germany and Argentina, by stardom ... The stars also built in a row - however, not only and not only because of subordination to command interests, but about Neymar a little later.

The logic of the Brazilian mundial could violate the harmony and some kind of Costarikans free from great obligations that have come down to the Absolute, but also the Leuisa Pinto cavalry horsed the Holland's Cavalry Cavalry. And not by the fact that she made Costa Rica mainly defend her, not by two hesley snids in Keylor Navas’s gate, not his authority, but recognized as the most insane by the championship by the decision of Louis Van Gala to replace the quite reliable main goalkeeper Yasper Sillesseen in front of the series of post-match penalties. I am sure that not one of the colleagues Van Gala would have dared to such a thing, but Tim Krul went out and took two blows in the left corner - from Brian Ruis and Michael Umani. Costa Rica, who until 1990 and did not think about participating in the final tournaments, was a step away from the best in the four of the best teams in the world, which would be the pinnacle of the "Revolution of the lower classes." But, speaking of honor, the sign “Costa Rica against Argentina” is unlikely to be encouraged.

The last and very revealing touch of the quarter -final series showed the world on the hind legs in front of the Argentina national team of the Belgians (the head coach of the losers of Mark Wilmots will later blurt out that the Argentines were nothing special, but his wards proved this on the field), and before that, violently doomed Colombians and greatly worthy of the French. The most boring (primarily through the fault of the favorites) at this moment the stage of the championship, however, deprived the mundial of the main Brazilian Nadezhda Neymar and the motor of the Argentine team of Angel Di Maria.

The “case of Neymar” was overshadowed by the “case of Suarez”. The Colombian Suniga crashed into a miniature striker from behind, a broken transverse process of the third lumbar vertebra shocked and forced the whole of Brazil with Neymar. The arbiter of Carlos Velasco Karbalo collapsed conceivable and inconceivable curses, on the imprisonment of the exit of the striker on the field of doctors gathered to start a criminal case, the experts with a vengeance began to discuss the “Neumaro -dependence” of the team Luis Felipe Skolari, not forgetting to note that the Germans would not be able to play the defense of Tiaga Silwa.

Neymara is a pity, Juan Suniga, of course, the villain (by the way, FIFA did not punish him), but the Colombians can be understood-they were so competently strangled by judges that such bursts of despair were to some extent inevitable. And what I was most afraid of before the first night semifinal, so not that the Brazilians lost two key players, and the Germans will relax in this regard-and that the 40-year-old referee Mexican Marco Antonio Rodriguez Moreno, who probably had the most difficult thing yesterday, will not withstand.

I remember very well how very modest in names, but the German national team fought against superstar Brazil 12 years ago in the final, I remember the monstrous mistake of Oliver Kan, who awkwardly set up his hands under the simple blow of Ronaldo, and this was the only full -time meeting of the two most striking representatives of the two great football powers, which in the final tournaments held incredible two in the final tournaments. Hundreds of matches, and in that extreme victorious for the Brazilians, the team led the team - of course, Felipe Skolari.

I had some reason to think that the second American-European confrontation can be considered more classic-if only because it was repeated much more at the world championships, although in the final of Holland and Argentina there were only once. In 1978, there was a beautiful flying lung on his foot and the fast-haired Johan Kruyffa, or as it is now customary to call him-Kroif, although he himself ignored the Argentinean Mundial, and it was difficult to resist the Cemple with the company of the Dutch. But before the additional time they still reached.

Still, an amazing team, each time emerging unexpectedly for rivals and for all of us, surprising the world in pieces like the current “hockey” replacement of the goalkeeper, living to amazement, but lucky to a certain limit. Having such a phenomenon as Aryen Robben, of course, even with the Australians, even to the end, to compete on equal terms, but this number did not pass with the Kostarikans, not to mention what is waiting with the Argentines. Di Maria is injured, but Argentina Alejandro Sabali who you want can be taken off. And Messi, of course-Robben’s antipode on labor costs remains to take only two steps to become the hero of the nation, and now de facto the best football player in the world. He is ready for this.

I did not wait for the extravaganza and I do not wait. I did not want and I do not want to. I would like the semi -finals to be confirmed by natural - well, almost natural - in the way the prevailing parity. In any case, the upcoming main confrontation in the composition of the participants will be the first in history, so let it be.

But I still hope for bright interspersed. They may not determine the final result, but certainly will be remembered.