Day -575. #WorldCup2018
A few short stories.
This was from last week and I had it on my radar for that day but lost it in the excitement of Brazil teaching Argentina a lesson. Qatar beat Russia 2-1 in a friendly. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders about the level of convenience surrounding this result. The two next World Cup hosts, both selected with varying degrees of controversy, playing each other. Qatar, hardly a football powerhouse, won 2-1. There were 4 penalties, two were scored. Russia missed the 4th one, five minutes from the end. Good goalkeeping or a planned miss for a politically morale-boosting win? Of course I'm sure the thousands of fans (44,503 of them) who crowded the stadium in Doha, just as they will fill the fancy new stadiums in 2022, must have been an intimidating factor for the Russians. Oh, sorry, my mistake. I slipped a "4" in there by mistake. Attendance was 14,503. No, I read that wrong. Final answer: official attendance was 4,503. And the world was worried about interest from the locals when the US won the right to host the 1994 World Cup.
Yesterday Russia played another friendly against Romania. It was historic because it was the first time Russia played in Grozny, Chechnya, the Russian republic which was the scene of two terrible wars between the government allied to Russia and Islamic insurgents in the 1990s. Russia's 1-0 win was courtesy of a 93rd minute goal from Magomed Ozdoev, the substitute's first goal for Russia. Ozdoev was born in Grozny. What a moment, and venue, for him to score his first goal. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen Republic leader, must have been ecstatic to see the local boy play the role of the hero. At the start of the first Chechen war Kadyrov's father, Akhmad was a leader of the insurgents and declared jihad on all Russians. He switched alliances to the Russians after independence because he felt the factions of the insurgents were a threat to the separatist movement. Kadyrov senior, who once announced that each Chechen should kill 150 Russians, was killed in 2004 by the same separatists that he turned his back on. Kadyrov junior became President at the age of 30 and yesterday the close ally of Valdimir Putin was celebrating the Russians' victory. The match was played at Akhmat Arena, named in honour of Akhmad Kadyrov and built with funding allocated by Putin.
Contrary to how it may seem, the conspiracy theorist in me is not very prominent. But just read that again. The Chechen substitute scores his first goal (the winner) for Russia in the 93rd minute of the first match played by Russia in Chechnya, watched by the Chechen leader who's father helped Russia defeat the separatists who fought so violently against the Russians. Or it could have just been a beautiful sporting moment.
Meanwhile in San Juan, Argentina, Lionel Messi showed a bit more passion in a press conference than he has on the pitch for Argentina recently. After their 3-0 win against Colombia all 25 squad members filled the press conference room behind Messi to hear him announce that they will not be talking to the media anymore, because they are upset by what the media have been saying about them. The one particular incident they are upset about is that a radio reporter tweeted that Ezequiel Lavezzi smoked a joint after the loss to Brazil. An excuse maybe? Are they really just annoyed that the nasty media are doing what they are expected to do when their national team is playing so badly that they risk not qualifying for Russia 2018?
Here is Messi's best move for a long time in front of his teammates.
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