Five-star Russia give Putin dream start
When Yuri Gazinsky headed in the first goal of the 2018 World Cup, giving hosts Russia early joy in what developed into a 5-0 thumping of Saudi Arabia, Russian President Vladimir Putin leaned across to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with his hand outstretched.
No hard feelings, the presidential gesture said.
Sandwiched in the middle, Gianni Infantino, the head of tournament organiser Fifa, looked on approvingly.
Football, bringing the world together.
Or so Putin and Fifa would have us believe.
The football mismatch of the opening game yesterday, with a Saudi team so bad it made Russia look better than they are, surely mattered less to Putin than the broader message: For the next month to the final on July 15, Russia is putting its best foot forward and showing a fair-play, gentler side of itself to the world.
Forget that Cold War-like chill in the air in the months that led up to the moment when referee Nestor Pitana of Argentina blew the opening whistle. For 90 minutes, it was old-school football, with long balls hoofed up field and a shortage of dazzling skill. That didn’t really matter. ‘‘Dobro pozhalovat’’ – welcome in Russian – is, for now, the name of the game.
‘‘Football,’’ Putin told the 78,000-strong crowd in his tournament-opening remarks, ‘‘has brought us together tonight in a single team’’.
That remains to be seen. In London, Paris and Brussels, government officials may have choked on Putin’s proclamation. The World Cup’s 32 teams and 64 matches won’t sports-wash away the multiple sources of tension that soured relations between the Kremlin and Western capitals in the
eight years since Fifa picked Russia as host in 2010, including but not limited to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its military intervention in Syria and assistance to rebels in Ukraine, and the poisoning in Britain of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter.
If a laundry list of issues like that can’t stop a World Cup, nothing can.
With the show now under way, it would be churlish not to enjoy the gathering of the global football tribe. And what a gathering it promises to be: Five-time champions Brazil looking to redeem themselves after the 7-1 semifinal heartbreak at home in 2014. Their tormentors that day? The 2014 winners Germany, looking as strong as ever. France bubbling like champagne with youthful promise. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi both desperate to cap their stellar careers with football’s greatest prize.
The good news for Russians –
those footing the bill of billions for fancy stadiums and other World Cup preening – is that their team isn’t as hopeless as many feared.
As the goals rained in, Putin’s smile seemed smug, like there was nowhere else he’d rather be. If football can deliver a show like this, with victory to boot, he’ll take it. Results:
Group A: Russia 5 (Yury Gazinsky 12, Denis Cheryshev 43, 90+1, Artem Dzyuba 71, Aleksandr Golovin 90+4) Saudi Arabia 0 at Luzhniki Stadium. Weekend fixtures:
❚ Tonight 10pm: France v Australia
❚ Sunday 1am: Argentina v Iceland
❚ Sunday 4am: Peru v Denmark
❚ Sunday 7am: Croatia v Nigeria
❚ Midnight Sunday: Costa Rica v Serbia
❚ Monday 3am: Germany v Mexico
❚ Monday 6am: Brazil v Switzerland