The doctorate is easy, but the baccalaureate confuses us

There is a national sport that we have been practicing with enthusiasm for decades: finding short paths to performance. We are masters at drawing ideal routes on paper, in which the future is bright, opponents are accessories, and qualifications are obtained before the actual confrontations. However, from time to time, reality pulls us by the sleeve and reminds us that, sometimes, the problem is not at the top, but at the first threshold.

This is how the national team's path to the World Cup looks today. Specialists opened tables, calculated probabilities, analyzed playing styles and came, almost unanimously, to the same conclusion: the group with the USA, Paraguay and Australia is an accessible one. A chance that a European team coming from the third pot rarely receives. A group from which, with a coherent plan and a minimum of courage, you can dream of the higher phase. This would be the doctorate, the part that we already see solved, because we like to look towards the most spectacular perspective.

However, before the exotic groups in America, comes the immediate, harsh reality, without exoticism: the play-off with Turkey. An uncomfortable, physical team, on an upward trend, with increasingly valuable players. In addition, if you get past Turkey, a final awaits you with Slovakia or Kosovo, two teams neglected in public discourse, but who play aggressive football, definitely not "tasting" the tricolors.

In other words: we dream of the doctorate, but we have not yet passed the baccalaureate.

This problem, the fascination with the destination, ignoring the difficulty of the road, is not only the national team. We see it perfectly reflected, every week, in Liga 1. Perhaps nowhere is it more transparent than at FCSB. The defending champion is a few millimeters away from a historic miss: the absence from the play-offs. The game hesitates, the results are shaky, the team seems still under construction or, rather, in dissolution, and the coach in the living room is struggling with his own limits.

Normally, in such a situation, the speech should talk about reconstruction, waking up to reality, tactical adjustments and discipline. But no. From the financier/coach area comes a fixed message backwards: the title is the real objective, the rest are details. Tomorrow's match doesn't matter, but the trophy the day after tomorrow. Against this background, it's no wonder that the plans for growth, at all levels, are collapsing splendidly: we want high performance, but we ignore the mandatory foundation.

We are creative, we are brave, we are able to build superb scenarios about what we can become. But when it comes to concrete thresholds, a play-off, a play-off, a complicated match with an uncomfortable team, beneath the coat of optimism trembles the emptiness of panic.

Performance is not built with endings, but with beginnings. Not with the opponents you will have someday, but with those who stand in front of you today. The national team may have a historic opportunity at the World Cup, but first it must go through the narrow and unpleasant space of the play-offs. FCSB can dream of the title, but first it must settle in the top six, without arrogance.

You can't skip stages. No matter how much you like your doctorate, the baccalaureate is still waiting for you around the corner. If we pass it, we can seriously talk about bigger plans. If not, we remain just specialists in beautiful dreams and failed beginnings.