FIFA World Cup semifinal: Argentinian pride vs Croat resilience | Football News – Times of India

Messi’s bunch revels in unique ‘home’ support in Qatar but Croatia’s mental strength is formidable
DOHA: Emotion and resilience, pride and suffering were the chief aspects that hung heavy over the first semi-final between Argentina and Croatia here.
“Both Croatia and Argentina are teams that are resilient, that are proud to show their emotions,” Zlatko Dalic would tell us. “The Argentina team, you see the hopes they’re carrying? Football is like this. It has good things and a lot of disappointments. There are only four teams now, there were 32, soon there will be two. There will be only one winner, the rest will have to find ways to hide their emotions. Or show it. Both Croatia and Argentina have the right to that,” he would say.

“Pride has no limit,” he would say, in reference to Morocco, but also as a nod to his team’s opponent tomorrow.
“I’ve said many times before, everyone in life has a right to dream. The Croatian team made that dream a reality for a small country and we made it a right for others. No one expected us back then (reaching the final in 20918) and now teams are inspired by us. Morocco is no exception. They have great support. They’ve defeated Belgium, Spain, Portugal. They have the right to dream. We have the same dream.”
“The little thing,” he would add, “is their supporters. Thousands of them. It is a handicap for us, for we have very little in comparison. But we are not complaining.”
Lionel Scaloni would realize this too. The unique edge of Argentinian support. For many, matches at this World Cup have proved something of a home game vibe for Scaloni’s men. It had happened in Brazil too in 2014, when they simply drove up over in their beat caravans or came in by the busloads and took over the Copacabana strip at Rio de Janeiro. This has been repeated here at Qatar, this time by flight, but they are here nonetheless, feeling that something special, something historic is on the cards here.

“We don’t know whether Messi will continue to play or not, we will continue to enjoy him as long as he does,” he would reply to a question on Lionel Messi’s decision to make this last World Cup, “But it’s still a long journey ahead and we have the support of the whole country behind us.
“We understand what this means for our country, our supporters. We know how much it costs to come all the way here. And they are always there, supporting us, suffering with us. We understand and appreciate this emotion,” Scaloni would say. “We have suffered in the matches, we have learnt to suffer and hopefully, we will suffer less now,” he’d add.

In Qatar, it is not the supporter from Argentina alone. Sacloni and Messi find themselves with a surplus of this emotion, an entire subcontinent almost willing them to win, to go all the way. The bulk of the nearly 700,000 migrant workforce in Qatar, is made up of labour, both skilled and semi-skilled, from Kerala. They have taken it upon themselves to stand by the Argentines. While Bangladesh may have taken all the credit for their crazed support for the South Americans back home, it is the Kerala worker here that has stood quietly and solidly in his love for Messi, Maradona and Argentina.
The astute Scaloni would recognize this. But he would also be fighting another, more personal battle — convincing a forever-doubting world that Argentina are poor losers. “We need to put an end to this idea that Argentina is just bad, and does these things,” he would say, in reference to the ugliness that dominated their quarterfinal against the Netherlands.

“It’s football. The criticism wasn’t fair because we know how to lose and we know how to win,” Scaloni would say, “We lost to Saudi Arabia, we didn’t say anything, we left quietly. We won (the Copa America) versus Brazil and there was a beautiful sporting moment between Messi, Neymar & Paredes in the Maracana tunnel after the match. So I don’t buy that argument.”
“And then there is a referee to show justice,” he’d say, “As a national team we are very far away from that idea. We have pride.”