It seems easy, but transforming a thought into football requires imagination, precision and a tool. This is; that an idea descends to the remote foot, that the foot tells it to the ball and that the ball obeys like a domesticated animal. It is wonderful to know that an effective and beautiful play begins in a privileged head. The result can be a bureaucratic issue or genius. Kroos, who is a crack, manages both. The same thing puts the house in order with a caressing “take, give me” that puts the rival to sleep, which revolutionizes the game with a poisonous pass that turns everything upside down. With the “take, give me” he takes over the game in his own strategic way; with the poison pass, he beats you. Always with the complicity of a teammate, because there is no more sociable player.
At the other end of the play that you and I know, was Vinicius. Kroos’ perfect pass to the space where Vinicius will arrive is nothing more than a dialogue between two complementary talents. But it is a new wonder to witness two brains connected, with the ball as an intermediary, thanks to a complicity that time reinforced. For that reason, Kroos and Vinicius know an old trick that by the time the defender manages to interpret it, it is already too late. If the deception had been discussed, Vinicius would have told his partner something like this: “When it seems like I’m coming, I’m coming; and when I seem to go, I come.” It is called feint and it is used to invent a space. But when two superior talents meet, it is the bodies that speak so that the ball ends up reaching the place that Vinicius is going and not the one it seemed to be going to. If you find it difficult to understand it, imagine what it must cost to do it. The result was an unforgettable goal.
Madrid has learned to overcome critical moments in its own mythological way. In Munich we saw the two thousandth chapter of Madrid never gives up. But be careful, because the resistance manual is showing a dangerous weakness. Winning by playing worse than your opponent is becoming an ugly habit. We have to continue competing with soul and life, we have to win the duels, we have to believe in the energy of those who have strong legs. All of this excites people and amazes the world. But what Kroos is proposing in his delicate way is that you have to believe in the game. That there is merit, of course, in not giving up, but deserving a match adds honor and justice. Madrid has weapons to do it: firmness at the back, judgment in the middle, fantasy in the midfielder and concreteness up front. All, better resources than believing in the gods of football, people of dubious reputation who should not be trusted.
The idea waits in the mind, but discipline also lives and confidence is triggered, or not. Jadon Sancho comes from a time of football decline at Manchester United, where he arrived for a fortune and was loaned to Borussia because the ball, at his feet, looked like wet gunpowder. Against PSG, Sancho broke the dribble record for the last four years in the Champions League. He regained his faith and that is fundamental for a player with his characteristics, because no one dares to take risks if he is afraid. On this Champions League matchday we saw in Kroos the relevance of intelligence to sustain a wayward match and we saw in Jadon Sancho the importance of emotion in a footballer’s performance. Clarity of ideas and confidence to develop them, this is the only way great football emerges.
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