We couldn’t make it beyond the quarter finals. Perhaps because we did our job and qualified in the groups and already achieved “the best performance” at the European Championship. In the match with Italy, we no longer played with a knife above our heads, a variant so dear to us that seemed to secure victory; and defeat is regarded with understanding.
Where we are is already a performance. Statistically speaking, nothing more. For these footballers, playing among the first eight teams shouldn’t mean anything for the talent and the team they had. They won nothing.
We were a deception in this quarter final with Italy. And for this deception to bear a name, it wasn’t the Romanian team, but Hagi. Its symbol.
If Romania were to win, this editorial would certainty look different. If Hagi played well, not one “mean word” would be said. Anyway, even today writing “against” Hagi is too much, for everything he did.
But it was a deception. If Chivu was the revelation, Hagi was by far the deception of the Romanian team. He did nothing in this championship in the three matches where he played. Furthermore, it was said the team is better off without Hagi, by the way he played with England.
He was the most irritating Romanian player. Every ball was kicked to him, but everything ended there. He couldn’t do anything, even more, he lashed at the other players. When everyone expected a coup de grace from him – a genius pass or a goal – he was eliminated. For what? For a dead-on foul on Conte and then for a simulation, in an effort to earn a penalty kick. Although his shirt was pulled, the simulation was obvious. He went in for a penalty, not for a goal.
Hagi eliminated Romania, not Italy. Zoff’s team didn’t outdo Romania. It wasn’t better, and the two goals came from defence and tactical flaws.
No one could leave Hagi out of the team. Even now, he finds a place, and to challenge it is meaningless. But we are disappointed because we expected so much of him and got so little. The more you expect, the worse the disappointment.
An undesired finale to Hagi’s career. One can’t help thinking what made him come out and play in the first place. A cruel end, now that he came to slow down the whole team. Instead of pulling the team ahead, he stalled it. One is afraid to say it because he is an idol, who has earned his place in the hall of fame.
Since everyone is an expert in football and politics, everything can be extrapolated from football to politics. However, keeping proportions and distances. Do people know better when to pull out, before they become a disappointment? Everyone thinks they do, and when they are backed from behind, the world is not enough. Which makes people think time is theirs, when it’s not. Lifelong experience, support, the fact that nothing “better” comes from behind, are some of the explanations. “I feel I am useful,” says the former president, Ion Iliescu. President Ion Diaconescu doesn’t feel tired of leading the party. Examples are rife.
But their time is gone. Although no one challenges their place, even more, although these symbols cannot be contested, their time is gone. Paradoxically, as in football, the team would be better off.
And it did, so it’s possible. The times are changing.