Day 28 WorldCup2018
At around 4.30pm this afternoon I resolved that my post for today would be a blank space. I was drained, done, not after 27 days but from two hours of tortuous emotions watching England come oh so close.
Then as I tried to carry on with the rest of the day all the thoughts popped into my head that would best describe those 2 hours.
I had a dream in 1990. I'm going to be having nightmares in 2018. Every time, I hear the names Kane and Lingard thoughts of what could have been are going to fight for prominence in my head.
England were not supposed to get this far so we should celebrate their achievement, no? Bogus. If anybody seriously thinks that they are trying very hard to find solace and consolation in manufactured emotions. Or they started watching football when England beat Sweden.
England were very, very close to being in a World Cup final. I really don't care if the team was made up of inexperienced youngsters playing way above expectations or a team of older players hoping for their last shot at glory. They were 22 minutes away from a World Cup final.
Was this run to the semifinals worth it, in hindsight? It was fun, yes, but if England had gone out in the first round we would have had a long time to get over it by the time the final came around. As we say in the tennis world when you lose in a third set tie break to somebody you've never beaten before: so what that it was close, you might as well have lost 6-0 6-0.
I was dreading Sunday and the end of the World Cup. Now I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.
Is it wrong to feel that there is nothing exciting to look forward to now? What could have been better than this? Are there more important things to worry or be happy about? Yes, but this was it, at this moment.
Can I say I write with a heavy heart? Does England's loss warrant that much of an emotional attribution?
There was one very, very drunk Croatian in the bar I watched the match at. As I watched him down beer after beer I wondered when he was going to be cut off and also where all his friends were. There are a lot of Croatians in Toronto. I wanted to believe it was a sign that he was in the huge minority and would be further drowning his sorrows after 90 mins. After 120 mins we could still hear his screams of delight as we walked down the street and turned the corner.
Maltese champions Valletta drew 0-0 in Albania in the first leg of the pre-qualifying round of the Champions League today. The qualifying rounds of the Europa League started on the 28th of June. One of the two Maltese teams made it through. Football life outside of the World Cup carries on.
As much as there is talk about how this could have been England's best opportunity for a long time to get to the final, think of what Croatian fans must have been thinking: Denmark, Russia and then England in the semis? We'll never get a better chance.
Do I feel any admiration for Croatia and their story, a young country and in their first final? A great story, yes, but I haven’t yet moved to the coping stage where I can congratulate the other team's supporters.
I hope the final is the Kylian Mbappe show.
At around 4.30pm this afternoon I resolved that my post for today would be a blank space. I was drained, done, not after 27 days but from two hours of tortuous emotions watching England come oh so close.
Then as I tried to carry on with the rest of the day all the thoughts popped into my head that would best describe those 2 hours.
I had a dream in 1990. I'm going to be having nightmares in 2018. Every time, I hear the names Kane and Lingard thoughts of what could have been are going to fight for prominence in my head.
England were not supposed to get this far so we should celebrate their achievement, no? Bogus. If anybody seriously thinks that they are trying very hard to find solace and consolation in manufactured emotions. Or they started watching football when England beat Sweden.
England were very, very close to being in a World Cup final. I really don't care if the team was made up of inexperienced youngsters playing way above expectations or a team of older players hoping for their last shot at glory. They were 22 minutes away from a World Cup final.
Was this run to the semifinals worth it, in hindsight? It was fun, yes, but if England had gone out in the first round we would have had a long time to get over it by the time the final came around. As we say in the tennis world when you lose in a third set tie break to somebody you've never beaten before: so what that it was close, you might as well have lost 6-0 6-0.
I was dreading Sunday and the end of the World Cup. Now I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.
Is it wrong to feel that there is nothing exciting to look forward to now? What could have been better than this? Are there more important things to worry or be happy about? Yes, but this was it, at this moment.
Can I say I write with a heavy heart? Does England's loss warrant that much of an emotional attribution?
There was one very, very drunk Croatian in the bar I watched the match at. As I watched him down beer after beer I wondered when he was going to be cut off and also where all his friends were. There are a lot of Croatians in Toronto. I wanted to believe it was a sign that he was in the huge minority and would be further drowning his sorrows after 90 mins. After 120 mins we could still hear his screams of delight as we walked down the street and turned the corner.
Maltese champions Valletta drew 0-0 in Albania in the first leg of the pre-qualifying round of the Champions League today. The qualifying rounds of the Europa League started on the 28th of June. One of the two Maltese teams made it through. Football life outside of the World Cup carries on.
As much as there is talk about how this could have been England's best opportunity for a long time to get to the final, think of what Croatian fans must have been thinking: Denmark, Russia and then England in the semis? We'll never get a better chance.
Do I feel any admiration for Croatia and their story, a young country and in their first final? A great story, yes, but I haven’t yet moved to the coping stage where I can congratulate the other team's supporters.
I hope the final is the Kylian Mbappe show.
No comments:
Post a Comment