1 Year And a Week Ago a Miracle Happened-1st Part

November 25th, 2010 | by: Zala | Comments Off

One year and one week ago I remember a day. A day when every one thought was going to be a failure all the way. There were very few people who believed in success. Very few people who knew there was a chance, there was a way, there was trust, belief and love.
There were 12. 435 tickets. But there were also 2 000 000 people. Everyone praying. Everyone fighting to get that one ticket. But at the end, there were few people who got it. Some of them even bought it just to sell it to the opponents fans who were sure of a win, they rather went home with 1000 € than with tears in their eyes. It didn’t metter if those were the tears of joy or sadness. The important thing was to be there. To be there for our country, to show everyone we can believe and we can do it.
Those who didn’t get the tickets gathered with friends in bars, diners, homes, places… Everyone to support one team. Everyone to beat along with one and only heart. That night was D-night. And even though there were so little chances for a success, everyone left jobs early, everyone bought crisps, beers… everyone prepared for 90 minutes of hell.
And if you think we, fans had it hard, then think how the most important part of this story felt. The players and their staff. If they succeeded (again almost no possibility for that) they’d be heroes, but if they failed everyone would talk over them. But still when the time came to step on the pitch, to cross our hearts(even if we didn’t believe in God we crossed them), to held our breaths. They came out with heads held high, smiles on their faces and hearts beating fast.
All the newspapers, all the media said Russia had it all. They’d be the ones on the WC and we’d be the losers. We said nothing. We just told everyone we’d give our best, let it happen what ever happens. We wanted to talk on the pitch. And so they did. They came, fought and showed they aren’t the ones to mess with.
We succeeded with our shaking hands, but with one and only hope: To win over Russia and show them that little dragons can win over the huge bear. We confused them, scored and kept trying until the final whistle. After that everyone cryed. We, the Russians, and FIFA. We, because we finally made it, Russians because of being naive and losing and FIFA because of losing the biggest country with I don’t know how many more fans who wanted to go on WC than ours.
Before the WC started I dedicated my first post on this blog to this game. It was actually my first post ever. It’s still my favourite and I think the best I’ve ever written. I never felt so good about any other post. I would love to show it to you, but I don’t know why it was deleted.
So here it is. A dedication to our second qulifying on the WC:
Slovenia. Where is this country anyway? I bet every second one of you has asked this question. Well, this is a small country next to Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. The last time this small but BEAUTIFUL country qualified on a World Cup was in 2002(it was the first time qualified EVER).
Qualifications for the World Cup 2010: In November 2009 whole Slovenia was standing and cheering for our boys to win over really BIG Russia. Yes, our lucky country beat Russia (which has exactly 70 times more people than Slovenia does) in playoffs. We(Slovenia) managed to score in first leg in Moscow. The final result of first leg playoff was 2:1 for Russia, so we still had (a little) hope. All schools (well, mine did I don’t know for the others) celebrated the day when Slovenia beat the big Russian bear(1:0).

So this is how Russia looked like after the Maribor game.

It was a huge day for our country (have I already mentioned this was only second time we qualified for the World cup? Well, it was). Russia was in shock. Andrey Arshavin literally cried at the end of second leg playoff in Maribor. Dedić was the hero. He saved our country and became MOTY(Man Of the Year). I don’t agree, because the only thing he did was that final goal and we had so many other better players, but let our people enjoy.

Can you see a tear in a right corner of his right eye? Now that tear was our fault. But let say he wasn’t the only one crying that night.

I noticed tickets for the WC aren’t selling really well. And I believe the one who is responsible for selling them, is cursing our beloved country for defeating and beating out of the world cup biggest country in the whole world. Can you imagine how many people would come to see Russia and how many people is coming to see Slovenia. Well, if you can’t just go to see Russia and Slovenia on Wikipedia and everything will be clear at once.
But let’s start at the beginning.
For the WC qualifications Slovenia got(as it seemed)a really hard group. Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland and San Marino. Czech Republic And Poland qualified to the last World and European Cup, so it seemed like the first two places in our group were already taken.
But the first match(which was in Poland) showed us everything was still possible. Our boys came from Poland with a draw. 1:1 was the final result and we were happy with it. All the results that followed showed that our national team is improving very well. Whole qualifications ended with 2 loses, 2 draws and 6 wins for us. Even though we had 20 points and were leading the table at the moment, Slovakia won in Poland and overtook the first place with 2 pts advantage. So Slovakia qualified directly and we had to play playoffs.
As I already told you the draw got us Russia. Moscow match was hard and till the 88th minute Slovenian people thought we lost everything. Russia was winning with 2 goals from Biljaletdinov. He was obviously the hero, but 2 minutes before the final whistle…have a look at it yourself:

Because of Pečnik our hopes were growing. And of course everyone wanted to go and see the match in Maribor. One Friday, tickets went for sale exactly at 12 am. I was at school and I was annoying teacher with sentences like this: “Teach, can we please finish this period, look at the weather outside is so beautiful(it was raining) and we are sitting here doing nothing…” Of course I nearly got kicked out, but it was okay for me as long as I got home in time. So I came home opened the page where the tickets were selling and started to buy them. Soon I found out I can only buy two so I bought two. The computer said I had to wait because the page is too crowded. And I waited, and waited, AND WAITED… Finally the page opened. I was so happy I got tickets, but then I read the sign. “We are so sorry but this tickets are already sold.” I almost grabbed the computer and threw it out of window. And then I had to do everything from the beginning so I went to order some other tickets and the picture said. There is NO tickets left. This was the worst day of my life (well, almost the worst).
So we had to watch the match at home. It was nerve-wrecking. Anyway my Mum (she hates football) was killing the mood. I was the only one in our school that believed we could qualify and with my Mum saying:”We’re going to lose so why do you even bother?” I freaked out. Really people, are you even little optimistic or should I rather say realistic. So when Dedić scored (and became blablabla…I still can’t believe our country voted him as second best player in our national team) I was so happy that I was right. It wasn’t the end yet but I knew we could do it. Final 15 minutes even my MUM sat in front of TV and YELLED: “Oh c’mon are you kidding me! Don’t let them take you the ball! Heey leave them alone!” And every time Russian came in front of Handanović’s (the real MOTY for me) goal she screamed:”Hey, uu, huh that was close! Watch out! No No you can’t do this!” It was really weird anyway.
My heart was beating like never before, I couldn’t breathe and her yelling didn’t help much. I almost died without air in my lungs. But when referee blew the final whistle I cried happily. It was me who was right not all the other pessimistic people and we were going to Africa. Hiddink(Russian coach)was so shocked at the end of the match he just ran of the pitch and didn’t even shake hands with our coach Kek.. Shame on him. So many experience and then doing such a shameful thing. I was shocked really. What would be for him to come and shake hands. He should really go to Pep Guardiola to learn some basic manner.

It was a joy to shake hands the first time when you won, huh? But when you lost you suddenly had to really really go to the bathroom.

But let’s finish this post in a nice way.

This is the history goal.

This was my first post. And according to it I thought we had amazing chances of reaching the knock out stage. We were close. We were one minute away from it. But Donovan wanted to change our plans, and he did. I don’t blame him. He deserved that goal. And maybe that goal came with a reason. Maybe we have to wait until the next Euro Cup, or WC to come back stronger and reach the knock out stage with style. But with the game we saw against Georgia we won’t even reach a second place in group C let out a knock out stage itself.

Oh yeah and currently, we are without a president. Simič resigned after a long long long battle and before the New Years it’s said we won’t vote for a new one.
Who’s next? We don’t know yet, but we can hope he’ll bring less troubles than Simič.
There’ll be a 2nd part of this story, so come back and read it. Oh and tomorrow Georgia review will be posted.
Enjoy!