Gurmans against the fans

The games of the preliminary round were not only considered gourmets as a “tourist breakfast” in the load on Indian tea in the pro -lawsuits, but there was still a sense of optionality. Algeria’s game against Germany could be missed, and then, having learned about the loss of the Germans, whistle, but not to regret the missed sensation. The main thing is ahead.

Several generations of the organizers, meanwhile, tried to fight such universal indifference and in every possible way they dramatized this business. 20 years ago, for example, in Spain they even tried to extend the dubious pleasure to watch this routine and make a second preliminary stage. Due to the fact that after that, the interested planet was expected with undisguised irritation after this, I had to refuse to continue the experiment.

As a result, everything turned out by itself. The preliminary stage of the World Cup no longer looks like a routine. What, however, I do not want to congratulate myself at all.

The first match with the traditional participation of current champions has always been started as a small show with some probability of sensation. And despite the fact that a serious rival was usually not in such matches, the people still clung to the TV - simply because they had been waiting for this for four years. Sometimes miracles happened: the Argentines could lose to Camerun, everyone had fun, because such exoticism did not affect the final success of the Argentines, of course, no way. But with the French, who this time lost to the Senegans, everything is somewhat more problematic. You can say as much as you like that there was no Zidane, that the champions were old for four years, and without bothering to refresh the triumphal composition of the past. Moreover, if the French even won, things would not have changed things. Because they could only win in a struggle, damn like equal.

The discovery that Africa occurs - for some reason this thesis became a find of enthusiastic journalists of all ages and skin flowers. The fact is that only the Germans got off the same in the old way - as the favorites should be dealt with with those who got to the carnival only for reasons of the inevitable football political correctness. God with them, with ours: they seem to have barely resisted to make the champion Circle of honor after the triggered victory over the Tunisians, who, with all due respect to the history of the Puni Wars, any decent team should smash with the "German" score. But after all, any match of any favorite becomes a drama. With the exception of, perhaps, Italians.

The Brazilians, who only reminded about their right to play in the orange T -shirts of their great predecessors, only after a dubious penalty, in the last minutes they tear out the victory from the Turks. The Argentines, forgetting that they are number one favorites, in the last minutes of the game with the Nigerians go into a blank defense, feverishly saving the advantage in the only goal. The Poles lose to the Koreans. The Japanese are almost favorites, and the Belgians are happy, barely taking their feet away from them.

This is no longer a sensation. Something just happened to football. Grands, which are historically used to play in the preliminary stage with almost the second compositions, can no longer be sure of anything. Some of them, by the way, are not at all. The Dutch did not come for the first time for several generations. With a terrifying creak, Brazilians broke into Japan. It used to be fashionable to say that there are no weak rivals at the world championships - a sort of flirty encouragement for those who were considered a statist. Of course, they pulled themselves up. In addition, globalization also did not bypass football. All the Senegalers play in the first division of the former metropolis. The Japanese alone seep into the Bundesliga. Even in case of failure, it is proposed to cheer up for the Nigerians, because two of them play for our "locomotive".

And football became unpredictable, which is supposed to be any sport. Each match is an event. Only football has never been sports in this sense. Because the grads have always been preoccupied only with what will happen when they meet among themselves, referring to games with non -aligned countries in the same way as a fan, as an inevitable routine. Now everyone is playing on equal terms, no one is sure of anything, and there are nothing to go from the laws of preservation: the more passion is what was always considered a scumbag, the less it is that we always expected as a holiday, missing the preliminary stage. The game class leveled - and became very average. In a word, happiness is for a fan. And some disappointment for the gourmet. We received sports. We will wait for the spectacle again.