The spiritual intervention that made Mexico beat Germany

Moscow Chronicles,by Jacob Icia

On Sunday morning, the biggest Orthodox assembly in Moscow– Russia’s capital, Christ the Savior Cathedral– was a busy place.

Thousands of believers gathered in the magnificent cathedral, but uniquely, German and Mexican fans in Russia for the World Cup fiesta made the biggest numbers seeking spiritual intervention for their teams.

The Group ‘F’ clash pitting the two sides later in the evening invited them to the “Eclessia of Christ’’ with some of them telling the priests to intercede for their teams.

Mexicans were of course more than Germans, and were not as confident as their opponents before the match. Though both came to seek God’s favour for the match, it was the Mexicans who were perhaps more persistent in their prayers as evidenced in the results thereafter.

Yours truly could not have missed the Sunday service after the first hectic week of the World Cup action. So I thought I would have good time worshipping but ended up working inside the church.

I observed how emotional they were, scrutinized how they addressed the priests and even ensured that I finished my Sunday service devotion in time to catch up with some of them for the interviews outside the cathedral.

“I believe with God everything is possible. We know we are playing the Word champions today (Sunday) but champions are beatable too. No one imagined Iceland could hold Argentina, so we believe God has answered our prayers,” one of the fans said.

Interestingly, he mentioned PSV Eindhoven Hirving Lozano as the man to watch for the Mexicans, noting: “Lozano is our star, I have prayed that he scores today, if we win he will certainly matter. We are Catholics and so we felt almost at home in the Orthodox cathedral.”

In the 35th minute at the Luzhiniki Stadium, Lozano indeed lit up the mood for the Mexicans with his spectacular finish past Manuel Neuer to sink the Germans .

At the final whistle, I jotted in my journal, “when Harambee Stars qualify for a big tournament in the near or far future, I will lead fans en masse  to a church service for  Stars to experience a similar intervention atleast agaisnt a tougher opposition.”