In society

MO-LOD-TOSE !!!

May 19, 2008 Anton Oresh

Damn it, in my opinion, I am in the "hedgehog" I open a sports section on an ongoing basis! But this was the month of May. Our athletes a day arrange a holiday after a day, gain one victory more grandiose another, broadcast ratings beat records, these successes become the main news in the country, and its two -headed leader does not have time to send congratulatory telegrams and accept champions. This is cool!

I know that there are not many fans on these pages. Here, the people, on the contrary, is the Suria, where it would be more willing to read about the intrigues of Putin and his newspapers. And for example, after the victory of Zenit, they asked: what are you so happy about? What is the benefit of this? These cups and medals have no effect on our lives! With all due respect, these days I am a little sorry for those who do not care. People are deprived of such joy, such delight! That's what the benefit is in all this!

And about the influence, do not affect, then matches such as the final of Canada-Russia affects more than the transplanting of Putin associates from a chair to a chair. Personally on mine. And for the lives of so many people too. A great match is like a great film, a great book, great music. It changes something inside us. This is an example of passion and overcoming, victory over your own fear and complexes. If they can, then, maybe, I can do it? A great match is an opportunity to simultaneously feel like a part of a huge community of happy people. This is an opportunity to be proud of real and large, and not mythical propaganda achievements of compatriots.

This is so important for us, because our multimillion collective character requires a sense of a large and strong country, and there is little real evidence of such greatness. And so not only with us. Sports victories around the world have become the most important factor in national self -identification. The boundaries are erased, globalization turns everything into one large Babylon. But here people go to the site in T -shirts with a coat of arms and in national colors, and the country for these few hours feels one.

The match with Canadians was brilliant and amazing. Because Canada - Russia is a classic from a classic of world hockey. And we did not play with Canadians in the finals of 15 years! And it was 15 years that our team did not win anything! In hockey, which, together with the cosmos and ballet, was a window and a business card. After all, there was a time when they did not even give the title of Honored Master of Sports for the winnings of the World Cup! Because world gold has become commonplace. And now we have gone to the point that the ZMS is already giving just for the Olympic - not gold - medals.

This victory turned out to be such as only in the cinema. Because the World Cup was held in the year of the centuries of world hockey. Because the World Cup was first held in Canada (which hockey itself came up with)! Because in the final we first "retreated to Moscow." And then they began to show such heroism on the site, on which, it seems, only our guys could be capable of in such a situation.

And our guys are:

Goalkeeper Evgeny Nabokov, who has been sought to play for the Russian national team for almost 10 years! He was born in Kazakhstan and although he had our passport, the international bureaucracy for many years did not allow him to play for the Russian team. Today Nabokov is the best goalkeeper of the world.

Sergey Fedorov is already 39 years old. He was the world champion still as part of the USSR national team! Some of the participants in the current championship have not yet been born when he was a champion! Fedorov did not perform at the world championships for 18 years! 18! It was his escape over the ocean forced to remove all restrictions on the departure of our athletes to foreign clubs. Fedorov was not the first “dissident”, but it was precisely after his departure that the barriers were considered completely meaningless to leave him. All this time he was a Russian citizen and did not refuse to play for her, but did not develop. I had to wait incredibly for a long time by the standards of not only sports, but also a simple human life. 18 years old!

They say that nature is resting on children of great people. The mother of Alexander Ovechkin is a two -time Olympic champion and the great basketball coach Tatyana Ovechkina. Her son is the best hockey player in the world. Recently, he signed a record 120 millionth contract, but after that he began to play only better and works out every center of American money. And who will now say how it happened before, that “these flapping millionaires do not want to go to bed for their homeland”? Well, as this young man beats, even Canadians do not beat, always considered an example of unbending and dedication.

Vyacheslav Bykov has heard a lot of different things about himself over the past two years. A year ago, the championship was held in Moscow. We had an amazing composition - all the stars! And we still lost. Under the leadership of Bykov. With such players! With such a team! I always painfully perceived hockey failures precisely because we always have a lot of players. They would have a sensible coach. But our hockey has not seen the big coaches for a long time, how long he had not seen big victories. Our coaches remained in the last century with their administrative-Komsomol methods. And they work with players who did not even have time to stay October. Bykov, who lived for 15 years abroad, was assigned such hopes, and he lost in Moscow. He sometimes made strange decisions, more like a whim, to a whim. But he won and paid for all the debts! The last time our team won the Olympics in 1992 and when she last won the World Cup in 1993, her captain was hockey player Vyacheslav Bykov. Well, why is it all not a movie.

And, of course, Kovalchuk. Thus considered at one time generally the most talented our hockey player. Great striker. One of the best NHL scorers. But in the national team he did not go from year to year. It didn’t go at all. And even in Canada did not go so much! He was removed twice until the end of the game. In every match, he broke half a dozen clubs. But until the final, this mighty Goleador did not score a single goal. Not a single one! There was no person who was more criticized in the national team. Breeding, derogatory, sometimes simply offensive. But it was he who scored two victorious washers! The two most important goals in the match, which is unconditionally the greatest in the history of Russian hockey and which would make the honor of the most vivid victories of the Soviet era. I'm glad! I'm happy! I am proud!

PS. Soon after that long -standing victory of 1993, I began to make a special hockey program on Echo. A year after year, it began and ended with a playful song "Russian hockey players will still beat Canadian." And a year after year this song sounded like a pipe dream. This program is no longer on the air. But my dream finally came true!