DR Congo fans and the greatest moment of this World Cup so far | OneFootball

For a great many reasons we didn’t want to like this World Cup. For a great many reasons we still don’t.

But the fundamental problem, if that’s at all the right word, and the reason bad actors are so keen to insert themselves into football is obvious: football is f*cking great.

Frequently already in the first round of games across North America that old gag about a bad day fishing beating a good day working has come to mind. A bad day watching World Cup football beats pretty much anything else on earth and we keep being reminded of that.

This World Cup has been devoid thus far of a true stinker. The only goalless draw we’ve seen is in fact one of the greatest moments in modern World Cup history, and the worst game of the tournament – Ghana v Panama – had a thrilling denouement after its farcical Hydration Breaks in the p*ssing rain. Football finds a way.

But it still feels apt and fitting indeed that perhaps our favourite single moment of the whole tournament didn’t happen in the USA or Canada or even Proper Football Country Mexico. It happened in Very Proper Football Country Portugal, at the Lisbon fan park.

We are aware now that we are about a million years old and that fan parks are Not For Us. Not any more. There was without a doubt a long period of time where we’d have loved it and we absolutely do not judge those who indulge. We have issues with the beer-throwing, but that’s just because it seems like an enormous waste.

But if we were to venture back into a World Cup fan park, it would definitely be the one in Lisbon. That’s how you do a fan park. If you’ve ever been to what is one of the very greatest cities, you’ll know it’s not short of a picturesque backdrop or two, but whacking a massive fan zone in the middle of Terreiro do Paco is a magnificent decision in a World Cup that needs magnificent decisions at this time.

When they showed the response to Portugal’s early goal against DR Congo, we were already thinking that looked like it might at that moment be the very greatest place to be on the entirety of planet earth.

But then they showed that small pocket of DR Congo fans going absolutely mental for their equaliser and we were sure of it. Just a genuinely wonderful moment that a) was incredibly funny and b) reminds us all why we’re here. We’re sure there will probably be another image that comes to replace it as the first that comes to mind when we think of this tournament, but we’d be happy enough if there isn’t.

Everything about it was perfect. The gorgeous backdrop obviously helps with the framing of the whole thing, but even without that it would still have worked perfectly. That could have been the greyest, most featureless middle England town square and it would still have looked sensational.

That perfectly formed pocket of DR Congo fans among the sea of dark red shirts could not have been more perfectly placed in the centre of the shot, for one thing, but was also just the right size of pocket. Enough of them to make a compelling visual, but not so many that their blue could be easily discerned among the sea of sombre red around them before the limbs were unleashed. It’s just a magnificent reveal. And notice how the Portugal fans don’t even shower them with beer, p*ss or worse.

Football is and remains brilliant. No matter what sh*t the worst people throw at it.