Translated material
Khodynka
In society
Khodynka
May 14, 2007 Anton Oresh
This word has a very definite meaning in our language. When the palace was built under the world hockey championship in Khodynka, of course, bad suspicions arose, but the superstitions decided not to give in to the superstitions. Now, of course, we remembered this - we again did not win the World Hockey Championship.
It seemed that this time everything came together perfectly. We played at home. Especially for the championship they built this, the best in the country, the palace. The people on Khodynka were sick like crazy, although at first there were at first doubts. Ticket prices were set just wild. Ordinary fans could not buy them if they were and fifthly cheaper (the cheapest ones, in face value, for the final - 4,500 rubles!). They thought that their VIPs and majors who would sit in the stands were buying up, showing off in front of each other. No, they hurt the way we usually do not get sick. For their money, the people clapped and stomped to justify every penny. And the composition of Russia was almost perfect, of all the real ones at this moment. And the rivals had almost no stars. And our coach held on to the well done. And the team played very well, and more often just great. I looked and thought: if now - with such a composition, with such a game, at home - we will not win, then where, when, and with whom we can win at all?!
Nothing came out. Nothing came out again. Everything determines the result. I won - the hero, lost - and you are nobody. Such is the human psychology and psychology of the fan, including. Not much time will pass, and everything good and joyful will be erased in memory that was in this championship, and the result will remain. All my life I have been following hockey in one way or another and collect the archive, knowing about the vile essence of human memory. In addition, every year I write such funeral final articles. I rummaged in the archives, re -read myself, and, you know, rarely when the impression of our defeats was hopeless. Now it is customary to say that all these 14 years we have never had good teams, there was never a game and a victorious spirit.
I open one authoritative sports newspaper and read that it turns out at the Olympics in Nagano in 1998 we also did not have a team. And as if this newspaper forgot, as the “brothers team” called that team, as she went out with the huge heading “How many boys in Russia will be given today Pavel?!” After five goals, the storm in the semifinals. And at the next Olympics in the first lanes there was the same photo: the last second of the quarter -final with the Czechs - our entire five breasts (literally!) Closes the gate, not letting the puck in them. Then they will write that this was not a team, but do not understand what.
The last games in Turin. Who already remembers that ours erased the powder of future champions - Swedes - with a score of 5: 0? And how heroically they fought with the Canadians - this victorious cassette in my collection will forever remain in a place of honor. But in the semifinals, we lost to the Finns, and the deputies that had eaten the whole Olympiad in the Russian house, and said that the NHL players should be prohibited from attracting to the national team, because they are not patriots, and in general these hockey players did not fight for their homeland. They said this about the same people who, before that, were going to present to government awards, about people who climbed to hug and hurried to capture their state faces against the backdrop of “sports heroes”.
I remembered only the most striking examples, because the Olympiad is the top of hockey, and world championships are still the second variety. But we so want to win at least them! But there is no result! Maybe that's why it is not that no one in the world wants this gold so much? Because no one had such a victorious past, longing for which it does not give rest. Until Saturday evening, the team and her coach Bykov were heroes. It is possible that now they will have to hear a lot about themselves. Indeed, the same solutions, depending on the result, can be considered either brilliant or mediocre.
While Bykov won, they said that we finally had a shock five, as in the good old days. But now they will say that this is very bad when the team depends on one link - where were the others? They will recall that the link this whole championship played in Russia and will again be offered to abandon the visitors from behind the ocean of the “stuffy stars”. While the team won, they said that there was nothing wrong with the fact that the potentially best scorer Ovechkin is not scored, but he works for the team. Now they will say that Ovechkin is to blame for not scoring, and the coach could not find the application of such talent. And this Bykov “under a far -fetched pretext” expelled Semin from the team, who plays in the NHL with Ovechkin in the same three, and we, therefore, lost, perhaps, the best three. Although until Saturday, Bykov in this story, everyone together supported, they say, discipline is above all. They will recall that in the championship of the country, Bykov lost in the semifinals, although his CSKA should have been, God forbid, in the top ten. They will recall that Vyacheslav Arkadich lost EuroTur, despite the fact that he won three out of four stages along the course, and only a strange regulation forced to play some kind of incomprehensible final with a team, which we have long ahead of us. Yes, a lot of things from white will turn into black only because we lost the Finns.
But there is also one “ordinary fan”. At his direct instruction, the Tretyak was appointed president of the hockey federation and he, in his cheeky manner, asked Tretyak: “When will we start to win hockey?” It was as if, this is he, a “ordinary fan”, and there is a real three-time Olympic champion and ten-time world champion.
But why, why did we lose? The fans, clutching their heads, wailed: why are we so unlucky? Why is it not lucky all the time? I have no answer to this question. In this particular match with Finland, we really were unlucky in many ways, or rather bad luck began even before the game. It is difficult to play against a very decent opponent, having lost the best striker, the best defender, captain - by the middle of the first period. The chances were equalized. And when the chances are equal, then the eagle has the same probability of falling out as the tails. She fell out. In the form of a goal, which turned out to be an almost exact copy of the goal that a year ago also left us overboard. And the fans are insulting. And they are ready to forget about everything and begin to execute. A year later, we will cope with the anniversary - 15 years without victories, almost poems.
But as long as this year did not pass, until the result was overshadowed by everything, let's still say thanks to the players who, without without a single exception, fought on the ice for each other, for the team, for the fans, who-an unprecedented business-stood up after a minute shock and conducted the command with a ovation and chanting: “Well done!”. And they did the same after the victorious match for the bronze. Yes, when was it at all?! Bykov, giving interviews, remembering this moment, could not hold back tears.
Yes, ours lost again. But it was a team. Real, good team. We saw and understood what she was playing in. We saw that the coach managed to unite a variety of people into the team who played the system and knew what he wanted to achieve. And most importantly - I knew how! To such an extent that we could not imagine who could stop them. Probably, we believed too early in success. This is also inherent in us - to start celebrating before the case is brought to the end. To sing posture, smoke a fimiam and beat in the litaurus. That is why, feeling like fools, we are so ruthless to the losers.
We won the last gold in 1993 with Captain Vyacheslav Bykov. The sign did not work. The owners of the world championships cannot win them for 21 years. The last were Soviet hockey players in 1986. The sign did not work. But another worked. 50 years ago, in 1957, the world championship was first held in Moscow. And we also lost it. Although in the same way did not give in to anyone in the main time. How much more should we wait for this damned gold? I'm afraid that for a long time. The next championship in a year. And for the first time in history, he will take place where hockey was invented in Canada. The next Olympiad is in the same place. How difficult it was to imagine that we would lose at home is just as hard to imagine that we can win in Canada.
But I want to say this. The life of a fan in any case is much longer than the life of a professional athlete. I am only 35 years old. My first world hockey championship, which I well remember, was in Prague in 1978. Since then I “won” 9 world championships, 3 Olympiads, Canada Cup, call goblet, and I am sure that these are not the last titles that I have to “win”. This for hockey players every championship can be the last, it may not be a new chance in their life. It is much harder than us, because it was they went out onto the ice, they lost it while we were sitting by the TV and “knew for sure” how to win. We can wait, there is nothing to pour tears or water the guys with slop. We, fans, will still win our “titles”. And this will happen the faster, the sooner we will stop turning the victory at the World Cup into the idea of a fix. Although today, of course, is a shame.
Anton Oresh
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