87 minutes. 88.
Bray's watch was in his hand. The fourth official was fiddling with the board. My whole technical area stood in a line on the touchline like men at a rail, 30 of us shoulder to shoulder with our fists on the advertising hoardings, and I could feel the wood juddering under all our hands at once.
France cleared one long and won 20 seconds of breathing and the clock ate them.
Then the board went up, and the light on it burned through the rain.
4 minutes.
WHRRROOOOAAAR. The ground found another gear that should not have existed.
And down on the running track, in front of the tunnel, they had started to build it.
I caught it between waves. 2 men in FIFA bibs wheeling a low black podium into place. A woman behind them with a flight case of medals held under a sheet of clear plastic against the rain. On the gantry above the tunnel 4 confetti cannons stood angled up into the black, loaded, waiting.
