The red card (very fair: an opponent’s face is not touched, neither with force nor without force) by Vinicius in Valencia is unforgivable for many reasons, but one is especially delicate in regards to intelligence or memory, being more indulgent, from the Brazilian.
Last season Valencia’s goalkeeper, Stole Dimitrievski, was from Rayo Vallecano; He had a silly scuffle with Vinicius that ended with Dimitrievski collapsed on the ground without the Madrid forward touching him. Vinicius started laughing looking at him, Dimitrievski remained on the ground even until receiving assistance and, when no one was about to go to the VAR, he got up and continued the game. Even then, Vinicius (you have to talk to this boy, vol. 34) snapped at him: “You and me in the street, you and me in the street.” How out of your mind do you have to be to imagine yourself, still hot, on a dimly lit street being the Madrid striker with the Rayo goalkeeper: would they both be wearing their team’s uniforms?
That a year later this goalkeeper pulls your shirt (his usual practice: he already did it with Gavi, who almost ate him, but without touching him) and you go to touch his face, demonstrates the psychological journey that remains to be done with a 24-year-old player who is already, despite these trapalladasthe best in the world. This is part of the game too, and not a minor part: a part that decides matches, titles, even Ballon d’Ors. Dimitrievski had already taught you, right under your nose, that he is a theater player, like so many others (in Argentina they call them alive: also ok); who tries, by any means, for his team to win by causing an expulsion. And if a year ago he collapsed in front of you without you touching him, what did you expect him to do if you were to directly touch his face now? Call the referee and tell him that nothing is wrong, that it wasn’t a big deal, that it was even good for him to wake up because the game, like any Valencia-Madrid, was very calm? Where was Vinicius going, enraged after the red card, when he went to the referee to talk to him about Lalachus?
No, Zinedine Zidane had an anger management problem and it cost France a World Cup, but Zidane short-circuited at times, he did not spend every game at clear risk of expulsion. It is true that Zidane could not stand the racist insults of many fans either, nor were there social networks at that time in which racists, scrupulously anonymous, filled cell phones with montages, insults and various atrocities that have to do with the color of Vinicius’s skin. But when that doesn’t happen, you can’t spend fifteen years in the elite facing everyone, rightly or wrongly: the physical and mental exhaustion of fighting every day is brutal. And even worse than that is doing it knowing that the fans and rivals know what they expect from you: the unpredictability that you experience with the ball at your feet, you lose it when the opponents know that, by pulling on your shirt a little, you are going to lose your nerve And there are games in which it is more important not to lose your nerve than the ball: in almost all of them.
There is something in the character of the unleashed and explosive Vinicius that has correspondence in his game, in the impudence, in the impertinence, in the constant challenge of taking revenge on a world that conspired against you to the point of ridicule. But that debt is settled, those who pointed the finger at Vinicius’ cost have seen the Brazilian win and score in two Champions Leagues and now they are not laughing at him but are asking, directly, for his exit from the League, an honor that he did not even win. Cristiano: they want him outside of Spain. It is urgent to know, therefore, to prevent Real Madrid upsets in more important matches, if they have found the best way to mark Vinicius, which is to literally take him out of the game.
As for Dimitrievski, he is honored by his gesture of resignation when Bellingham, having consummated the red card against Vinicius, throws the water from the bottle at him: there is something dignified in the cheater, and that is that when he is successful, he always has a trace of guilt left inside him. which prevents him from boasting about his action. He did everything in his power, the mission was successful, now it’s time to be a little embarrassed. It happens not only in football.
