late stage hallucinations

A double-headed eagle flies over Qatar. Four years ago she persecutes the Serbs. It comes from Russia. She is not interested in the snow or the desert, nor that it is forbidden to invoke her with her hands. Any. The animal spreads its wings for each left-handed strike that catches the net. He prefers to cover Shaqiri and Xhaka with gold, and he might as well perch on Embolo or Frueler. His protégés may be inferior to archrivals, but faith makes strength low. For the Swiss, coming back does not mean getting back on a horse in the middle of a race, it is holding on to the eagle.

Soccer makes Switzerland stop being neutral; bombards the country of his aggressors with goals. It makes Kosovo feel older than Serbia by 90 minutes. It makes football more than football, and that, more than national teams, there are disappointments.

Shaqiri and Xhaka fled to Switzerland to escape the war in the former Yugoslavia and Serb persecution against ethnic Albanians. When they eliminated the Balkans four years ago (just like they did now in Qatar), they celebrated by making the eagle gesture, the symbol of the Albanian flag. Kosovo, a former Serbian province with an Albanian majority, gained independence in 2008, but Serbia has never recognized it.

Belgrade does not believe in Kosovo, but in tears after the World Cup. Life gives these revenges to Shaqiri the size of her body. It seems that he only came to the Cup to score the goal against Serbia, eliminated at the hands of Switzerland, his own executioner in 2018. Vlahovic’s reappearance was not enough, nor was the game of Tadic, Milenkovic-Savic or Mitrovic. There is no way in the face of so much third-round pressure.

This final instance of the group stage generates more hallucinations than the drought in the desert. Cameroon found their oasis by defeating a relaxed Brazil (they have known where camels go for a long time) in added time. The yellow-green was one goal away from passing key seconds.

Meanwhile, South Korea was extinguishing Uruguay at the root, albeit indirectly. In the history books, 200 years ago, it is said that a group of Spanish soldiers massacred the Charrúa ethnic group, but it is not entirely true. In Qatar, the field winner wore a mask, came from Asia and was called Son. He forced the powerhouse Portugal to destroy all vestiges of civilization. He used them as figureheads, since nothing was at stake.

Like all disappearances, that of the Charrúas was a gradual process. That of the Uruguayans in the World Cup, too. First they lost the rapture they had from the body to the name. Then their caciques got big. If before, defeat meant losing a phalanx, on the soccer field Uruguay faces death as something inevitable.

They became very men. Against Ghana they had a free kick in the last action of the clash. A goal saved them. Until that moment, the Koreans had passed for more targets in favor. Perhaps it was too late in the Cup to launch the shaman De Arrascaeta into war. The only mystique left for the team is to counter the Ghanaian captains from 11 steps.

Luisito bit the shirt and Nicolás de la Cruz charged the free kick at the hands of the goalkeeper. “If I had my Forlán”, Diego Alonso shouted. Uruguay lost its name in soccer. He lost his grip.

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Round of 16 crosses of the World Cup in Qatar

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