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They played as if: summary of the second day in the World Cup - voila! FIFA World Cup

2022-11-22T04:18:50.234Z


After the Qatari show of shame in the game against Ecuador, there was the feeling that the time had come, but then came the protest of the Iranians, when the game between the Netherlands and Senegal also had political implications


A messenger's report and voila!

Sport for Qatar, Paz Hasdai, after England - Iran (Photo: Paz Hasdai. Video editing: Tal Reznik)

The second day of the 2022 World Cup opened at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.

The fans of England and Iran made their way in a pleasant afternoon, with the song "Let's get down to business" by DJ Tiesto playing in the background.

Ironically, this is the song that accompanies the stadiums of this World Cup, as if in a paraphrase of the sentence that FIFA President Gianni Infantino asked of the national teams on the eve of the tournament: "Let's focus on the football" - let's focus on football, let's approach matters, business



. - Let's get down to business - prepared the ground for what was supposed to be the "real" opening day of the tournament, as if trying to say - all the talk, the criticisms, the calls for a boycott, have been and gone, and now time has run out.



But only in 'as if'.



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One of the boldest gestures.

The Iranian national team players do not sing the national anthem (Photo: GettyImages, Amir kheirkhah)

After the pale display of the Qatar national team in the opening game and the local fans leaving the stands early, the fan camps of England and Iran, who are known for the special atmosphere they create, crowded the stadium.

There was an Iranian majority in the stands that created an electrifying atmosphere even before the game started, but even though Tiesto urged those present to "get down to business", once again politics, which has been so entrenched in this tournament for many years, raised its head, precisely in an extraordinary gesture that once again took this World Cup the farthest from its business - football.



The massive booing that was heard in the stadium when the Iranian national anthem was played, together with the silence of all the players of the team, in protest against the Iranian authorities and in solidarity with the hijab protest by Mahsa Amini that has been sweeping the country for the past two months, is one of the craziest political moments the World Cup has known.



On the field, the Iranians collapsed against a strong English team, were defeated 6:2 and gave a reminder of what the world has already seen from the Asian champions: the huge gaps that exist between the Middle Eastern teams and the rest of the world.

As part of the consequences of the corona virus on the Asian national teams, they mainly played against each other in the last two years.

But it's not just a professional matter.

The so jarring losses of Qatar and Iran, and possibly also of Saudi Arabia to Argentina today, have an interesting socio-political charge.

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Not used to losing.

The Qataris in the stands against Ecuador (Photo: GettyImages, Richard Sellers)

Qatar, which, among other things, bought the World Cup to show that the global pendulum is moving from the West to the East, and that even in the Gulf and the Arab world it is possible to hold a big tournament and be successful in football, developed a generation of footballers who managed to win the Asian Cup, but collapsed in the most important game of their careers, for which they had been preparing for about 16 years.

All this, when the local fans leave before the 60th minute.

A day later, the Iranian national team, which is never calm before and during World Cups, uses its stage to show the world what is really important to them.



so true

The World Cup in Qatar is political, it is controversial, it stirs the mind and it has claimed victims along the way, but in all this it also exposes the Middle East to the world in such an unconventional way and angle.

Suddenly we know how Qataris react to a loss - something many of them haven't tasted - and how Iranians behave when their lives depend on it.

A finishing leg was not there.

Senegal tries to subdue the Netherlands (Photo: Reuters)

In the reality of the 2022 World Cup there is no time to even dwell on it.

You have to get down to business, and everything is fast, everything is shiny and everything is happening now.

The second match of the day at the spectacular A-Thumama Stadium, which is designed entirely like the top of the traditional fringed kaffia and gives the feeling of an almost religious structure, brought together the Netherlands, who returned to the World Cup after not qualifying for 2018, with the African champions Senegal, who were missing the big star Sadio Mane who is injured and will not take part in the tournament.

Despite the lack of real political charge in the game, somehow, in Qatar, it did bring together the expectations of the South/East of the world again, in its confrontation with the West.

"Senegal will beat the Netherlands 1:2", said Babacar Saar, a Senegalese fan to Walla Sport!, "that no one will forget that we are the champions of Africa and we are one of the best teams in the world!".



Babakar the fan was not far wrong.

Against the Netherlands, who were pale throughout most of the game, Senegal looked orderly, organized, determined, but Mane's lack was felt in the absence of a really dangerous finishing foot in the box.

Senegal played exactly to the beat of their fans' drums - uniform, rhythmic, that didn't stop for a minute.

Suddenly, when the Netherlands showed great offensive lethargy, and Senegal got stronger from move to move, the A-Thomame Stadium emphasized that this World Cup is not being played in Europe, nor in South America.

It takes place in the eastern/southern part of this world.

The pace was African, but as in the geopolitical balance of power throughout history, the points went to Europe.

In the 84th minute, Cody Gakpo scored for Holland to take the lead.

After the proud optimism of the fans, the great efforts to find the soft spot in the Dutch defense and the incessant banging on the drums, Senegal surrendered, and nine minutes of extra time didn't help either, when the substitute Davy Klaassen made it 0:2 Dutch and ensured that the order remained intact this time as well.

There is nothing to do, in the end, you have to get down to business.

I believe in simplicity.

Gareth Bale (Photo: GettyImages)

The second day ended with the most "western" game of the tournament so far, Wales against the United States at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.

There, in stark contrast to the qualifiers, in stark contrast to the few warm-up games there were, the United States looks simply excellent.

The Welsh seem to have tried to play golf with Bale and find him with long balls again and again almost without success, and the Americans, with eleven players in the squad who made their debut in the World Cup (including goal scorer Tim Waugh, who made one more appearance in the tournament than his father George, the president of Liberia and a former shoe winner the gold and one of the dominant players in Europe) played without a clear order, but presented good and engrossing football.



But among all the deep geopolitics in this World Cup, it's good to have simplicity as well.

And finally, if there's anything Gareth Bale loves more than golf, it's the Wales team and scoring in those crucial moments that save teams.

With Kiefer Moore's help in activating them, Bale squeezed a penalty and converted it into a tremendous equalizer that kept home B - and, possibly, Iran alive in the home picture, after having already played its most difficult game on paper, against England.



Today's three games had higher than usual overtimes.

14:08 in the first half of Iran-England (due to the injury of the Iranian goalkeeper Biranband), 13:08 in the second half;

10:03 in Senegal Holland;

and 10:34 in the USA and Wales. These additions are part of new guidelines for FIFA referees, to perfect almost every second that the game is not played so that there will be as close as possible to 90 minutes of net play.

Ironically, these instructions, like the theme song in the stadiums, also fit perfectly with the narrative line of this World Cup, which seems to be mostly reviews, political incidents and extra long time extensions, as if asking for Let's get down to business.



In the Middle East, and also in FIFA it should be noted, apparently there is no such thing as business without politics.

  • FIFA World Cup

  • opinions and interpretations

Tags

  • World Cup 2022

  • Iran

  • Qatar

Source: walla

All news articles on 2022-11-22

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