It’s not just about football and talent. It’s also fate, fortune and confidence, which you draw closer or move away with time. Here is the difference, just as in life.
Fate was with us in the match against England. From the beginning to the end. We were outscored, we levelled the score and then we were awarded a penalty kick in the final minutes, when no one believed in anything. Ganea transformed it. Beyond a good game by Romania, beyond the fact that England put up a poor fight, apparently there was something else that transgressed the field and made the team win. In the last minutes.
Fate was with us namely because we wanted to win and played to win. How can one define the fact that we got a penalty kick in the last minutes? No one would have thought about it, especially since the referee should have paid heed to the powerful. Because football is also about money and interests, where we simply don’t count. No one gains anything with us. The case was for penalty and the referee awarded it. It’s more than football. Romania was rewarded by someone else for playing in England’s court, for bettering them and for wanting to win. Not on our half of the field, but on theirs, near their goal. England played exactly like us, as we played in so many matches – trying to win on our half.
What a great difference between the matches with Germany and Portugal and the one with England. We had the same team throughout these games. The same players were on the field every time. We lost with Germany and Portugal because we played to win, but from our half, and tried to make it “as good it comes.” Fate was against us then, because we betrayed its trust. Simply because of doubting the ability to win and because the team apparently walked onto the field for something else. First of all, not to lose, and then, if possible, to score a goal.
You have to believe in what you think can happen. Any shadow of doubt means you no longer believe. And then, you lose. What made Ganea say in the half-time break that we would win by 3-2? What else made him walk to the ball, full of confidence, and make the kick, than the fact that he wanted to win and believed in this? Fate didn’t let him down.
Chivu, Contra and Dorinel Munteanu are the best players in the team by the standards of game play. Chivu is by far the revelation in the Romanian team. He walked into the field to win and played near the adverse goal, while being a defender. I don’t think it was tactics – it was his way of knowing victory was possible. Not defend first and try to score later. He played to win, as he believed he could. So did Contra. Perhaps the others also played to win again Germany and Portugal, but they also showed something else: doubt in what they believed, that they can win. And they lost.
Fate and fortune or destiny can be drawn closer by how you believe. We look with admiration at English teams, Western teams, or at the best example, the UEFA cup winner, Galatasaray. They went into the field to win, from the first minute to the last. Although you can’t always win, you must constantly want this, without a shade of doubt.
We’ve seen that we can win, when we play to win, near the opponent’s goal. And not from our half of the field. Here are two styles to play a match. Which one will we display against Italy? Every Romanian wants in moments like these to be on the field, to play in the Italians’ half. And the street cheering that followed the match with England showed that the road ahead is open. Believe in what you believe, and fate will be with you.