MY WORLD CUP QUEST: ZERO SUM SPAIN

30/32 WORLD CUP TEAMS COMPLETED

SOME GAME

And then there were 3. After a few days of enjoying the World Cup in the company of old friends and new I was back on the hunt for my 30th country on day 18 of the World Cup. Spain were next on my ever shortening shortlist. We had reached the knock-out stages of the 2018 World Cup and the completion of every game now guaranteed another team was going to exit the competition. As I mentioned previously here, (https://steemit.com/sports/@highselfesteem/my-world-cup-quest-bubbles-colliding-bouncing-bopping-and-popping) the Spanish speaking community in Bangkok is varied and strong. Tonight I would be watching the game in the financial district of Sathorn. The third floor of this bar was decorated especially for the World Cup with a green astroturf carpet. The first floor of the bar often holds salsa and latin music nights and is a popular hang out for young French and Spanish speakers in this part of the city.

ZERO SUM GAME

There is nothing quite like knock out football. The bandwagon effect has often sucked in huge numbers of viewers when a country makes the knock out stages. The abstraction of team selection and team tactics gets brushed aside as the minutes tick by on that clock in the top corner of the TV screen. This is all or nothing. By the end of this game someone is going home. Every kick of the ball becomes a flash of genius or a thundering disgrace as emotion trumps rationale. Us/them. Black/white. Good/bad.

The quality of the drama may be lacking in complexity but it is made up for by the genuine unpredictability of the event. Most games follow a similar story arc. The better team usually wins. The talented players dominate the less talented ones. The teams with the greatest resources win more often than those with less resources. We nearly always know what is going to happen.

The villains and heroes are of the most pantomime kind. "The referee is quite a competent and intelligent human being doing a very necessary job under very challenging circumstances" is not something you will hear shouted at a TV screen during the game. Home players who make mistakes are traitors and opposing team players who find the back of the net are sub-human. If the home goalkeeper makes a good save he can marry any woman in the land and if a striker scores a goal he'll have a statue built for him in his own lifetime. This is cartoon madness. If this was a scripted TV drama nobody would watch it. But it is not scripted. It is live. It is engrossing. It is enough to make people forget everything else. It is enough to make you cry. It is the most meaningful pointless activity in many people's lives. It is football.

ZERO SUM SPAIN

Spain were ranked 10th in the world coming into this tournament and were one of the favourites to win the trophy. Their brand of football has massively influenced the way the game is played in the 21st century, the success of which is clear in their success at previous World Cups and European Championships. Their club teams are among the greatest in the world. They have a wealth of football talent to call upon. They had it all to lose.

Russia's greatest strength lied on their playing the game at home. Russia were ranked 70th in the world before this game. Fifty years ago the USSR had one of the best teams in the world but the Russian national team without the Armenians, Ukranians, Belorussians and many others playing alongside them have declined in tandem with the fortunes of the country since the fall of the Berlin Wall. They had already over-achieved at this tournament just by getting to the knock out stages. They had nothing to lose.

RUSSIA'S GOT GAME

Spain dominated possession without getting enough results for their labour while Russia played up to their strengths by letting Spain have the ball. Come break us, their formation taunted. Spain could not. The fresh tikki-takka football Spain had used to win tournaments ten years ago now looked redundant as Russia held on to take their chances in a penalty shoot out. A team ranked 70th versus a team ranked 10th. It would be the biggest upset on those rankings in World Cup history. They took their chance and Goliath was slayed. Nothing for Spain. All for Russia.