Monday, a day without football in Doha, while I have a coffee on a terrace, allowing my eyes to be recreated with the buildings of this singular city and my mind thinking of another singularity, the Qatar 2022 World Cup, that game played in winter and in eight single venue stadiums.
I hope to remember everything that comes to mind and be able to keep the most important.
Argentina vs. Croatia, something more than a duel between two "10", both Ballon d'Or and hope for their teams, and much more than two unknown goalkeepers and for penalties.
I prefer the return to the "pasture football" of Argentina that is capable of showing its intensity, on some occasions, beyond the limits and with the capacity of Croatia, of the suffering of some players that represent the country that percentage has more success in the sport with such a small population.
And I'm envious of both, healthy envy.
I see the intensity, the suffering, the personal and collective effort, the solidarity that lead you to those goals in the last moments, to intense and heartbreaking extra time and to emotional penalty shootouts.
I think of France vs Morocco and the healthy envy of a team that has been able to make the generational changes it needed without diminishing its potential and that can repeat the victory returns.
In front of them, I see the commitment of some players led by slogans and simple values that are what their coach transmits, but above all I see players who are pursuing a dream that is already much more than what they dreamed of at the beginning.
I imagine both games and I don't want to venture to think about the winners, maybe that's why I start thinking about their game, which is what seems most predictable to me.
I'm sure Messi still has some rabbits left in that inexhaustible magic hat and I know we'll see them.
I think so much magic makes us all want him to win the Cup. Couldn't you give it to him?
May Modrić forgive me, an eternal player who may have been eclipsed by the great monsters, but who has the enormous merit of leading two teams that, at times, go beyond what is understandable, and what is even more difficult, does so. with unmatched simplicity.
I think of those two coaches, who with what seems like a low profile before the fans are very high profile when it is their turn to direct the orchestra of the stars of their teams in the most decisive moments of a World Cup.
When Morocco comes to mind I remember the Denmark of 1992. A few days before they left the beach to put on their boots.
In Morocco it was a little different, a couple of months before an emergency coach was called to solve the problems derived from the egos of some and raise the ego of the team, their soccer school and the country to the highest levels.
He has done it with the necessary calm off the pitch, but with the intensity that they show on it.
Only Messi will have more followers, the entire Muslim world, the entire African world and many more will be with them.
Griezmann is in a way the success of France, but Kilian is the star.
Giroud is the goals of the absent Benzema that added to those of Mbappé take France into the air, even when England made it difficult for them.
And, speaking of absentees, with everyone in Qatar, I haven't seen Zidane, who is supposed to be Deschamps' replacement.
It seems to me that it will be difficult to get him off the bench seeing how he hits the key of generational change without losing any of the team's virtues... and that is that France is a huge seedbed of players.
Only at the end do I think of another absence, Spain.
And from a distance I see the events and try to return to Qatar, perhaps because I selfishly do not want to stop enjoying the semifinals of the Cup. I do not want to think about how the decisions were made, before and after, how it came to this... how The fluctuations in the style will be managed and... I know that there are young and good players, I know that there is a future and hope.
What I don't know is if we will be able to return to the championships, not being favorites like in 2008.
I'm going to finish the coffee and return for a few more days to soccer.
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