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WORLD CUP 2022
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In the international format of the game — country v. country, not club v. club — the same thing applies. Genuine fanaticism doesn’t allow for loyalty split between two flags. Elimination from a major tournament means just that. You don’t get to double-dip.To get more news about XemBD, you can visit xembd.cc official website.
If events transpire a certain way this weekend and Ukraine’s national team continues its hopeful, against-the-odds, fantastical, inspirational and downright tear-inducing journey to capture a spot in this winter’s FIFA World Cup 2022, the event will have the wildest of all wild cards and a unique commodity on its hands.
If the Ukrainians, having beaten Scotland 3-1 at Glasgow’s Hampden Park on Wednesday, can get past Wales on Sunday in Cardiff, the World Cup field will suddenly possess a team everyone is cheering for — unless it’s against their own nation. Heck, maybe even then.
In a sport that doesn’t do sentiment, the yellow-and-blue-clad representatives of a country whose plight has garnered humanitarian sympathy around the globe will be the sentimental choice.
How could it not be so? Listen to the words of team stalwart Oleksandr Zinchenko, 25 years old but with an old-timer’s perspective. "Every Ukrainian wants one thing: to stop this war," Zinchenko told reporters. "I have spoken with people from all around the world, from different countries and also some Ukrainian kids. They have one dream: to stop the war.
"When it comes to football, the Ukrainian team have their own dream. We want to go to the World Cup. We want to give incredible emotions to the Ukrainian people because Ukrainians deserve it so much at this very moment."
Take a glance at a video of the national anthem from inside the stadium Wednesday, when thousands of Ukraine supporters, many of them refugees relocated to the United Kingdom, belted out the tune and waved flags collectively.
Or, if you really want to tug at the heartstrings, watch this clip from before the game. When a group of Scotland fans, having spent the week learning Ukraine’s anthem with the help of a language app, joined their rivals in song on Hampden Park’s steps.If Ukraine pulls off the improbable, there will be plenty more sniffles come Sunday — and even more come Nov. 21. For that is when the United States plays its first match of the World Cup, in Group B, and takes on the winner of the Wales/Ukraine matchup.
USA v. Ukraine would be a soccer match, yes, but if it comes to pass, it will also be a historic cultural occasion. You can only imagine the thought and effort that will go into various elements of cross-national symbolism.
A 90-minute game can’t change the reality of a nation being invaded by an aggressor, but it would be a moment bigger than sports and an opportunity for Ukraine’s ordeal to be further highlighted — by a group of men, no less, who wear their nation’s colors with passion, pride and purpose.