Sincere Soccer

The Americans snatched the victory, like in a Hollywood movie - in an added minute and gave this championship the first truly bright moment

Football must be seen with the heart. True, he must give a reason for this - otherwise you have to connect formally, and this is the lot of narrow specialists who analyze the game with a cold nose. Fans, on the other hand, look for a pearl in a pile of manure in ...

Football must be seen with the heart. True, he must give a reason for this - otherwise you have to connect formally, and this is the lot of narrow specialists who analyze the game with a cold nose. Fans have no time to look for a pearl in a pile of manure, which happened in the first half of the World Cup. And you can understand them.

Not that the players in the last round of the group stage were imbued (no one thinks about the audience in the first place) - the situation itself demanded to give everything, and even more.

Someone just had to slam the door loudly, like the same long-suffering and scandalous Frenchmen, but the vice-champions of the world were content with the last kick received from the hosts. After that, they received an invitation to the carpet to the president of the country - to be responsible for national shame. Someone needed to do the impossible, like the US team, and even the unthinkable, like the Australians, to continue the struggle. Someone had to remember for a long time that they represent a great football power, like the same British.

Uruguay and Mexico were least of all expected to play with their hearts, because as soon as both of these teams secured a place in the playoffs with a pragmatic draw. They would, of course, be scolded for this without any consequences, this has already happened, and more than once. But the hot Latin guys fought in the blood, up to the real blood. They sang the anthems of their countries in such a way that even before the match they had to be ashamed of their doubts. Uruguay and Mexico gave a very high note to the last round. Whoever wanted to hear it.

The US team, however, did not have to listen. They did not drive themselves into a hopeless situation - the judges contributed by taking away a clean goal in the match with Slovenia, and then also in the game with Algeria. There are few teams that can rise after such blows. But these guys are not wasted on useless arguments. They may not be very good masters, they have almost no stars, they don’t play football at all, but soccer and have been studying with Europe for more than twenty years - but they scored the most important goal in their history, and even in an added minute ! When Slovenia, which lost to the British in a parallel match, was already preparing to celebrate reaching the 1/8, the veteran of the US team, Landon Donovan, was still running as fast as he could into the penalty area. In a second, the ball will bounce off the goalkeeper and fall exactly on the striker's foot - as a reward for playing to the end and with your heart.

The rest of the world gives odds to old Europe. It would be nice if South America, which has a rare opportunity to proceed to the playoffs with a full squad. Asia would be fine - in the end, South Korea made its way into the medal zone. But Australia, which started the championship with a humiliating defeat from the Germans, predictable and old, with practically no chance to continue the fight, what did she need?

To the Australians, I would now give out a prize for courage and heroism. The Serbian team, obviously, expected to see obedient lambs in front of them, but met with wolves. Or with wild dogs, to be geographically accurate. The ball seemed to be looking for the hands of 37-year-old goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and the head of forward Tim Cahill. And Cahill jumped over not just anyone, but the best defender of the English Premier League, Nemanja Vidic, and after the second goal of the Australians, it seemed for a moment that the yellow-greens could score three more (that's how much the Australian team needed to get ahead of Ghana). Of course, they could not, the victory turned out to be useless, but there are no useless victories.

The head coach of the Serbian national team Radomir Antic complained about the referee and unused chances that “plunged us into despondency”, but who prevented this very despondency from not succumbing, and even with such and such masters as Vidic, Stankovic, Ivanovich, Krasic? In addition to the army team Krasic and Tosic, almost all other representatives of the Russian Premier League completed the World Cup. Forward Peter Odemwingie did not even get into the squad of the Nigerian national team for the last match, and drew attention to himself only by publicly criticizing head coach Lars Lagerbeck.

And so it happens - some finally complain, others leave with their heads held high, others go further. England and Germany also succeeded in “further”, but the football god has already punished one of them by bringing them into one pair. And the modest US team, ahead of England, will play with Ghana - to date, the only team from the Black Continent to make it to the playoffs. The most confident (or self-confident?) Argentina, which did not lose a single point, went to Mexico, Uruguay - South Korea, the formation of the rest of the playoffs will be completed today. Europe still has a chance to be rehabilitated, all hopes for Spain and Portugal.

The South African entourage worries less and less. The only game left is the one with the heart.