Quadrennial competitions like the European Cup and the World Cup, with a one-month schedule, are actually about a parting. Take this European Cup as an example, first Modric was eliminated from the group and said goodbye to the field; Then there was the defending champion Italy, who stopped in the round of 16 and left en masse. Portugal vs. Slovenia, Cristiano Ronaldo, who missed a penalty, was about to leave early, but fortunately, the goalkeeper Costa saved him, and he himself was the first to stand up in the penalty shootout and complete his self-redemption. But looking at Portugal's performance in this game, how far can they go?
Cristiano Ronaldo was lucky to stay, but De Bruyne had to leave.
Of course, De Bruyne is not too old compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, so this may not be his last European Cup. But the problem is that Belgium's golden age is long gone. In fact, the match between France and Belgium is far from exciting, at least, it is not as exciting as De Bruyne answering reporters' tricky questions after the game.
Losing a game is always frustrating and frustrating, so it's always a quick surprise for players to hear unfriendly or even malicious questions at this juncture. The reporter asked a cliché question, which has actually been asked by many people over the years, but when it is thrown again at this node, it is a bit ridiculous-
Belgium's golden generation, why can't they win a championship for so many years?
Think about it, De Bruyne, who has just stopped in the round of 16, can he stay calm when he hears such a question? So Tintin replied directly - is there no golden generation in France, England, Spain?
Isn't it beautiful? Relieved? In fact, this question is not at a high level, first of all, the current Belgium, there are not many people left in the golden generation, nothing more than Tintin, Vertonghen and a few others, Courtois has not been called up, and the chief representative of the golden generation Hazard has long since retired, so asking this question now, the timeliness has long been discounted.
Moreover, Tintin's answer is almost perfect - why keep staring at the Belgian golden generation? Isn't there a golden generation in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal? These traditional strong teams are far better than Belgium in terms of background, and in terms of strength, at least not below Belgium. Besides, Belgium's so-called golden generation only rose around 2014, only a decade ago. In the past ten years, there have only been 6 major tournaments, three World Cups, three European Cups, and these 6 championship trophies, which are not enough for so many strong team points, in fact, since 2014, only Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, these 4 European teams have won the major championships, and England, the Netherlands, Croatia, during this period the number of champions are zero, so why just hold a magnifying glass to look at Belgium's jokes?
After answering this question, Tintin left the scene angrily, leaving behind the embarrassment of chicken feathers. However, calm down and interpret Tintin's reply, although it is beautiful on the surface, in fact, Tintin evades a very important detail.
What Ding Ding means is nothing more than that Belgium can't win the championship, but many strong teams can't win the championship either, and the competition in European football is so fierce, why do you have to stare at us? But is it really just because of the golden generation that so many people have been staring at Belgium all these years? No, there is also a ranking of the number one in the world.
Of course, in the last year or two, Belgium has not been ranked first, but for a long time, Belgium was at the top of the list. Although the world ranking can't be completely equated with the power ranking, at least it won't be too bad, right? So for a long time, Belgium was indeed the number one team in the world.
So, it's not just a question of the golden generation, it's also a problem of the number one team in the world. It's true that Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands all have golden generations, but in that era when Belgium topped the world, it didn't seem wrong that they became the team that everyone paid the most attention to, right?
However, the point is not here. In fact, the biggest detail of Tintin's answer, the evasion is that not winning the championship is just a cover, in fact, Belgium's major results in recent years have indeed been very poor.
Let's take Germany as an example. In Loew's time, Germany actually only had one World Cup title, which means that Loew has only won one major title in 15 years as German manager. Since the runner-up in the 2008 European Cup, in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, Germany has reached the semi-finals in all five major competitions.
Of course, it's a pity that you can't win the championship, but there is only one champion after all. In fact, assessing the performance of a strong team in a major tournament, the results of the semi-finals can be explained to the fans, after all, European football is too competitive.
So, look at how Belgium has mixed up in this decade. 2014 World Cup, stopped in the quarterfinals; Euro 2016, stopped in the quarterfinals; Euro 2021, stopping in the quarterfinals; 2022 World Cup, out of the group. Only the 2018 World Cup, reached the semi-finals.
What more needs to be said? If, like Germany, Belgium reached the semi-finals and even the final of every tournament during the golden generation, they might even be crowned uncrowned. But looking at Belgium's achievements in the past ten years, excluding the third place in the 2018 World Cup, the other results are not miserable, at least they are mediocre, in short, they are completely inconsistent with their status as the world's number one team.
So, that's why people are disappointed in Belgium. The championship of the tournament, no one asks them to get it, of course, it is better to get it; But you can't win the big game, you try to get closer, okay? But in almost every tournament, Belgium and the champions seem to be far away.
In fact, the reporter's question can be asked more precisely - why is Belgium always unable to achieve results that match their own strength?
I believe that Tintin has nothing to say if he asks like this.