2018 World Cup semifinal reaction: It’s okay to be happy for Croatia
Croatia are through to the World Cup final for the first time in their history after beating England in Moscow, and it’s okay to be happy about it.
England’s 1996 European Championship tune, “Football’s coming home,” has been doing the rounds on social media since the Three Lions kicked off their tournament a month ago (feels a lot longer). In Wednesday’s semifinal, England faced a team that can claim to as much hurt and misplaced optimism as that song speaks of.
Since bursting onto the scene in 1998, Croatian football has suffered on and off the pitch. They had won just two games through three previous editions of the tournaments in the lead up to this World Cup, failed to qualify for the South Africa World Cup despite their talented young roster and disappointed both at Euro 2016 and during qualifying for the World Cup. Off the pitch, this team has seen its game that has been marred by politics for over 20 years all come to the fore in the lead up to this tournament, dragging the reputations of key players like Luka Modric and Dejan Lovren through the mud.
Still, in reaching their first ever World Cup final, perhaps both neutrals and fans alike can finally put the political undertones aside for a moment and bask in the achievement of this tiny nation. It was only just a month ago where we were preparing for fights on the streets of Moscow and arming ourselves for the true ugly face of Russian football. Yet the better side of Russia has shone throughout this tournament, and those fears of violence and the political undertones that got Russia this World Cup in the first place seem long forgotten.
England, France and Belgium all have active far right, anti-immigration political groups who seem to be gaining votes day by day. It was just two years ago that England voted to leave the European Union on the promise of getting control of their borders once more. Romelu Lukaku recently wrote in the Players Tribune that, “When things were going well, I was reading newspaper articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker; when things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent.”
Yet these things havent seemed to matter during this World Cup with even the staunchest supporters of “border patrol” supporting teams that are mostly made up of players from migrant backgrounds.
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Croatia have achieved something remarkable in Russia this year. They topped a group containing Argentina, Nigeria and Iceland with a game to spare. They defied the odds in the knockout stages continuously, from beating the hosts to finding an extra gear even after going the full 120 minutes back to back to beat a clearly better rested England team. Its important to emphasize that we shouldn’t cast politics to the wayside, but instead, a more balanced approach is needed. One should be informed about the political context of this World Cup, however, one should be equally informed of the infectious joy that comes with this game and that when you sit in the stands or in front of your TV at home, nothing else matters. That release can be huge for people; look no further than the supporters that made their way to Moscow tonight despite the political turmoil their team has embroiled in. Look no further than the fans celebrating on the streets of Zagreb despite their own personal poverty.
In the middle ground of knowing the bad but celebrating the good, it’s difficult to know what the end product is. When it all ends on the 15th of July, what do we take from this World Cup? Here, I suggest that we harness that community and act on it. This World Cup has shown that Croatian football deserves better than the hands it currently lies in, and it has demonstrated that nationalism merely boils down to what jersey you wear. This World Cup started off with so much bad, perhaps it can end with something good.