Swim, fish!

Football swims away from me like a big fish - wagging its tail and not even turning around. Are a few golden flakes really all that's left?

We are now free from each other, and around, it turns out, summer. A third of it every two years is taken away by football, and this is a completely different time, when life seems to be a continuous premonition of the game, and the afterfeeling always comes as expected and always suddenly. Three weeks like one endless day, but what happened at the beginning is hard to remember. Oh yes, it seems that Russia played. There was something like that.

No offense to Spain and Ukraine with Poland - it is not so important who won and where it happened. What matters is what happened. At a specific time and in a specific space. Michel Platini wants to change the formula by spreading the tournament to different countries, but this is a bad idea of the UEFA president: if you spread the same amount of butter on a very large piece of bread, the sandwich will not taste better. And it's uncomfortable to hold.

Yes, about the Spanish national team, which for 990 minutes at the cup stage of the largest tournaments does not concede goals, wins for the third time in a row with the same coach and the same squad (well, almost the same) and is ready to please us further: it delights, pretty annoying. There is no contradiction - right up to the final she tormented her rivals and us at the same time, in the final she gave an amazing game, and she was forgiven for everything. How to do this, no one knows, not even the Germans, who were ruined by the victorious self-confidence of youth.

Once upon a time, the English scorer Harry Lineker dropped that 22 people play football, and the Germans always win. They have not won for 15 years, but the wording lives on. And now the whole tournament was remembered about her - until the famous semi-final Italy - Germany, the best match of Euro 2012. And it is high time to replace the word "Germans" with the word "Spaniards", whether someone likes it or not.

Their football can be beautiful, like in the final, it can be terrible, like in all other times, but the result does not change from this. This is the biggest mystery of Vicente del Bosque and his team - she wins even when she sleeps. And when he wakes up...

To the misfortune of the heroic Italians, the Fury of Roja woke up in the final, in which everything was against Cesare Prandelli. In the last half an hour, on the emerald Kiev lawn of the Olimpiysky, his guys were torn mercilessly, like a pack of wolves finishing off a helpless flock huddled together. It was unbearably painful to watch. Football can be cruel, as nature can be cruel. Not all people in blue sobbed like children, but Andrea Pirlo's tear and Gianluigi Buffon's petrified face are worth a lot.

Do you remember how the awards ceremony started? The Italians were the first to leave the field in a chain through the Spanish corridor. The winners applauded them and tried to cheer them up by patting everyone. And only to Balotelli not a single hand was stretched out. Crazy Mario walked through the ranks in inconsolable loneliness, if you touch him, he will kill you. It seems to have passed. But we will hear about Balotelli. Earlier than anyone else. But it doesn't matter anymore.

Football floats away from me. Glory to Spain, thank you all. There were no extras at Euro 2012. Even our poor fellows can be remembered with nostalgia - the statistics dispassionately recorded the local achievements of the unlucky team and its coach, who worked in Poland in kind. God be his judge.

It was hard to imagine a better opportunity to learn from experience and learn lessons than the current Euro. It was close, it was accessible, it was instructive in every way. Look, analyze, draw conclusions (long overdue, to tell the truth). Instead, after the relegation of the Russian national team, the illustrious behinds preferred to be offended by the whole world - as if their favorite toy had been taken away from them. They "showed solidarity with the people", but this is the easiest and does not oblige you to anything. And we with these "fans" to live on.

One lesson is the same for everyone - do not dream of victories. Do not think that the main role of the hosts is to show everyone that "we are cooler." The current owners got a lot, but they were not fixated on themselves and their experiences. They didn't make huge profits, they ran into a lot of problems and did a lot of stupid things - but they made it possible for all of us to enjoy the action, and the game paid off handsomely.

Football floats away, melting, and I'm a little sad. It's comforting that I'm not the only one who's sad.