| ‘Mixed’ feelings Qatar is about queues. Entry to metro stations is never going straight in even if you are the only person. It is about going through lanes, turning left, right, left, and right again before doors open automatically. It is the same at stadium gates. It is also something 830 players in World Cup do not have to face. Unless they are in the mixed zone. The mixed zone is where players and journalists meet for flash interviews. It is on the way out for the team and is usually in the basement of stadium complexes. Players and staff exit the dressing room and pass through lanes stopping when they want to for a brief conversation. Entry is monitored and journalists need to apply for a pass, like they must for press conferences. That is because in the time of Covid-19 and influenza (more on that later) this is where players, coaches and technical staff are closest to a group of unknown people. It was where Carlos Queiroz thought someone was making fun of him after Iran lost to USA. You are separated from Lionel Messi by nothing but a waist-high barricade that zigzags through an unventilated hall. Photography is not permitted though there have been occasions here when the rule was observed in the breach.  With five goals, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe are in the race for the Golden Boot going into Sunday's final (Source: Reuters) Often at games, the media tribune is the only place where you find people sitting. The tribalism of football fans and their energy prohibit that in the stands which have people bouncing through the game and then some if they are celebrating. In the mixed zone everybody stands. Sometimes for two hours after a game. But if it’s Messi, you wait. Like many did after the semi-final in the bowels of Lusail. Messi appeared long after shepherding Argentina to the final. Starting with a murmur, a buzz spread that he had left the changing room and recording devices were kept at the ready. A man, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has said in an interview, who lives with people, even team members, staring at him all the time, Messi could choose to walk through but stopped to speak. It brought to a pause the giant centipede of journalists on the other side of the low divide and they thrust their recorders inches from his face and fired questions. Closer to the exit, another group waited. “Will he stop if we say we are from news outlets in Bangladesh,” asked a reporter in a thick Arabic accent. The Bangladesh ruse is tried but it was not enough to stop Messi. Like Josko Gvardiol, the group started tailing him. With similar outcome.  Argentinian (top) and French (bottom) players celebrate after winning their semi-final matches Emiliano Martinez and Julian Alvarez too stopped but began walking briskly when they were asked in English. Both play in England and Martinez had been lucid in his takedown of Louis van Gaal. But both smiled and said “only Spanish”. Does no one in this Argentina team speak English, someone wondered aloud. But then Argentina are in the final and Spanish is the flavour of the season. Or, at least the mixed zone at Lusail. It is not always like this. A clutch of players from Holland, Croatia and Belgium have taken questions in English and after at least one Argentina win, Messi’s answers were translated in real time. Masks please Because of how things are in the mixed zone, France asked journalists to wear a mask after the win against Morocco. Didier Deschamps spoke about “flu-like symptoms” that has affected many, even in the media – take a jacket for the air-conditioning is said in good intention here – and ruled out Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano from the semi-final. So far, barring once when Japan asked reporters at a press conference to wear them, masks have been conspicuous by their absence. Till France asked journalists to cover their face saying “we are all trying to be careful so that it doesn’t spread.” | 
