Guest in the throat – Newspaper Kommersant No. 215 (7416) dated 11/21/2022

The opening match of the World Cup in Qatar confirmed the correctness of one of the assumptions about the current championship. He seems to have a rather hospitable host team. The Qatari team, in any case, lost to the Ecuadorians – 0:2, without causing any problems to the rivals.

This match in Group A at the chic Al Bayt stadium broke one of the traditions of the world championships, albeit not so long ago. The International Football Federation (FIFA) at the beginning of this century decided that world championships must certainly open with meetings with the participation of the national team of the host country. Since then, four championships have taken place. And at all the hosts at the start achieved positive results. The Germans in 2006, the Brazilians in 2014 and the Russians in 2018 confidently won their matches against the Costa Rican, Croatian and Saudi teams. And only the South Africans lost points in 2010, dispersing peace with the Mexicans. Well, the South African team was quoted low.

The trend was interrupted by a team with an application, entirely formed from no one but the inhabitants of Qatar, unknown players, with a modest background, because of the team, about the class of which there were serious suspicions even before the World Cup. The match with the Ecuadorians – maybe not a top, but definitely not a weak opponent – confirmed them extremely convincingly.

It took the Ecuador team two and a half minutes to highlight Qatari weaknesses.

In that episode, goalkeeper Saad al-Shib played insanely awkward at the exit. The entire defense was completely lost, as if deciding instead of covering the Ecuadorian players, to enjoy the acrobatics performed by Felix Torres and his kick with “scissors”, which turned into a pass to the goalkeeper Enner Valencia standing on the line. Various media resources have already announced the record. So quickly, in 160 seconds, in the first matches of the World Championships, the gates have not yet been unsealed. And then VAR suddenly turned on, and few people understood why. It seems to be nothing to complain about. A few seconds later, referee Daniele Orsato canceled Valencia’s goal.

BBC commentator Dion Dublin, a good forward in the past, said that the goalkeeper must have been pushed. In the chat, he was corrected: “No, FIFA has already reported that it was because of offside.” And they admitted that they could not see it: “A strange decision.” But then FIFA put up their schedule, and it turned out that Mikael Estrada, when serving from a set piece, really got into the “offside”. Well, as he climbed – half a foot and the edge of his knee.

The Qataris did not triumph for long – until a penetrating transfer that ripped open their defense and went to Valencia. The striking Ecuadorian striker, the most honored player of his national team, circled around Saad al-Shiba, forcing him to foul, and realized the penalty in a manner that ideally spoke about his and, presumably, his partners’ condition. He rolled the ball into the goal slightly, but so calmly, so coolly, as only people who have no reason to be nervous and worried can roll. They know that everything will work out anyway.

And to accuse him of excessive arrogance, for which retribution will surely follow, did not work.

Looking at the stupid and sluggish Qatari game, many probably wanted to ask their coach Felix Sanchez: “And where is the five months of focused, long-term training preparation? Where, if not skill, then at least teamwork, coherence, militancy?

Four years ago, starting at the home World Cup, the Russian team defeated a team from the same non-football region as Qatar, formally with a shameful score for the enemy – 5:0. But memory has not erased some of the details of that match. The Saudis after the first, after the second missed goal had excellent chances. They kicked, they forced the Russians to work, and the stands to worry.

The Qatar team did not stick anything. Against its background, the Ecuadorians looked like football academics, who knew everything and could do everything. And the second goal was ripe when their motorist Moises Caicedo scratched the ball and set up an opportunity for a flank serve, which was closed by a Michael Jordan-style hovering in the air, unstoppable that evening Valencia.

Before the break, the Qataris staged a hunt for him, sending him to the lawn several times, and after another, just minutes before the pause, the striker hardly got to his feet, perhaps slightly disappointing the fans of the next rivals of the South American team – the Senegalese and the Dutch. After such a match, Valencia seems not just formidable, but a terrible weapon.

The hero left the field a quarter of an hour before the final whistle with a clear conscience. The Qataris in the second half, of course, a little brightened up, but not enough to cause real difficulties for the Ecuadorians. Before shots on target, for example, it never came.

And from the feeling that in the end the Ecuadorians were no longer tearing their veins, saving strength for much more difficult opponents, there was nowhere to go, including the rapidly empty stadium.

In this match, they have already achieved everything they wanted, and the opportunity, suddenly, out of the blue, arose from the Qatari striker Mohammed Muntari, even if he used it, could not change anything.

Alexey Dospekhov