Quantum physicists don’t watch football. And Christopher Nolan neither. At least, they never noticed the presence of who seems to be the most useless person in the entire stadium: the fourth official. The fourth official ignores him, but in his hands is an artifact that any scientist would wish for. When he picks up the electronic board, he opens a wormhole. A door to teleport. If in the Stargate universe it was an ancient semicircle, in football it is a modern square.
The field and the bench as two very distant dimensions that are only delimited by a line of lime. The team manager like someone who tries to decipher four-digit codes to send his people to the point in space that he wants. So change the game of the game. So football “as a come and go, follow and guide, give and have, enter and leave phase.” An eternal transport where any modification disrupts the outcome.
But since we love the plot more, we will go until minute 52 of Spain-Germany. Luis Enrique, the coach of La Roja, puts in Álvaro Morata, his only natural center forward, for Ferrán Torres. In minute 62, the Atlético de Madrid striker beat Neuer after a pass from Jordi Alba. His counterpart Flick’s response was a triple substitution with almost a quarter of an hour to go before the match ended: Kloosterman, Sané and Fullkrug.
These last two were two intermittent spotlights that suddenly synchronized to irradiate Unai Simón’s door. And with Musiala (he looked over his shoulder at Gavi throughout the match), who was the only lighthouse in the entire German port, they generated a tie (1-1). Even, Sané had the victory in the penultimate of added time, but perhaps his lack of rhythm after an injury that did not allow him to play the first round against Japan, took its toll on him in the definition. Spain almost secured the lead of the group. The tanks will have to keep replacing parts to advance on the arid Qatari soil.
Yasine Bouno was seen in the tunnel. He sang the Moroccan anthem. But when the game woke up, another lion was already there… to guard the goal. And neither Monterroso nor the director of the transmission knew how or why. At the end of the match, the Sevilla goalkeeper explained that he is carrying an injury and insecurity would not let him even remember the lyrics of his country’s song. He spoke to the referee and he explained that he was still in time for the substitution. Bono was afraid. He didn’t want to leave his team with one less window because they might need it. And it was clear as the uniform of his selection. That preserved window was Morocco’s door to triumph.
Abdelhamid Sabiri entered the field for Achraf Hakimi, one of the stars for the Africans when the 68th game was played. Within five minutes, winger Boufhal, the best of the lions to that point, caused a foul near the Belgium right corner flag. That was his last action in the duel. He left annoyed, but without sitting on the bench yet, and his teammate Sabiri scored a goal from a direct free kick to Courtois. An awkward shot. Unlikely. The Madrid goalkeeper, after saving a penalty against Canada, went on to swallow a distant shot. Zakaria Aboukhlal, Boufhal’s substitute, would close the score (2-0) in discount.
Bob Martínez traded Carrasco for Thorgan Hazard starting. With the match locked, he entered the talented Tossard, the young De Katalaere, the veteran Mertens, the decimated Lukaku. But he did not have the luck of the initial challenge. Hell of devils continued bankrupt. It did not change the position in the field of Kevin De Bruyne. He did not find where to put it. Morocco won its first World Cup game since 1998 and is very close to surprise in the group.
It will be the last round of life or death between the Belgians and the Croatians, after the Russian 2018 runners-up recovered the magic touch of that adventure and mercilessly beat Canada (4-1), which will already have its World Cup in four years; the one in Qatar is over for them.
Zlatko Dalic put center forward Marko Livaja to open the match, and the Hajduk Split player opened the attack for his Vatreni. With Kramaric so effective, with Perisic being Perisic, Modric being Modric and Kovacic plugged in, the runners-up in the world will be able to beat anyone. A light step changed and the Canadian goal ropes resounded four times.
If until now we sing to Jorge Drexler, Luis Fernando Suarez, the DT of Costa Rica, said in the morning with Mercedes Sosa: change, everything changes. Above all, from one game to another. No team is as good when they win or as bad when conceding seven goals, cried Keysher Fuller after scoring the most muting goal of the day. The most unlikely. The Japanese fans compulsively picked up trash because they couldn’t recover from the hit.
Fuller is from Limón, like most Afro-descendants in the Costa Rican country. Acid. This is how the Japanese know that a right-back, in the only climb he does in 90 minutes, shoots with his left foot and beats Gonda’s cabin to drastically change their outlook in the Cup: they went from being almost classified to the round of 16 to having to beat him to Spain if they want to stay alive.
The Central Americans are the most effective team in the World Cup: they have a goal with a single shot (in this case on goal) in 180 minutes. As if, after the gale against Spain, they had learned the art of drowning out common sense.
For the samurai, Ito and Minamino, two of their main attackers, arrived very late to the action. Takefusa Kubo stayed on the substitute bench. Maybe his trainer didn’t figure out the right numbers. If he wants to advance in the round, against Spain, there will have to be a big change.
This is how football moves. The only transport that works in this city.
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