Blog: Panama's first World Cup goal is as valuable as Maxim Gorki's museum in Nizhny Novgorod

At the Ulitsa Semashko, number 19, in downtown Nizhny Novgorod, just a stone's throw away from the city's Kremlin, the museum of Maxim Gorki remembers the extraordinary life of the Soviet writer, the founder of the socialist realism literary method.

Gorki wrote the book 'Mother,' opined in the newspaper Pravda and defied, first, the Tsar, and then Lenin.

The museum, with its dimly-lit exhibitions rooms, showcasing memorabilia from Gorki's life, including his writing cabinet and mimeograph he gave to workers, oozed the ambience of the literary salons in which Gorki participated and cultivated intellectualism.

It is but one of the many stories that in Nizhny Novgorod, a city built at the confluence of the rivers Oka and the mighty Volga. In the recent past, Nizhny Novgorod was associated with military secrecy and exiled dissidents as a city off-limits to foreigners. 

At the Museum, there were neither Panama nor England fans. On Saturday evening, Los Canaleros fans had boarded trains in Moscow as their long Odyssey from middle America was about to come to an end.

They had crisscrossed Europe - via Rome, London, Berlin - to reach the Russian capital. The central Americans vastly outnumbered their English counterparts.

In Volgograd, the Three Lions fans had also been in the minority for their opening game against Tunisia. History beckoned in the 'hero city' as well. The Mamayev Kurgan memorial overlooks Volgograd, remembering the battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest in the history of mankind.

Back in Novgorod, the Panama fans, clad in red, sang 'Si, se Puede' -Yes, we can and for a moment their team threatened the Three Lions when Barcenas teed up the unmarked Anibal Goodoy early on, but the latter miscued his attempt.

A fairytale was not to be as England defender John Stones headed home a corner and thereafter, England never looked like relinquishing the lead. England didn't simply defeat Panama but destroyed the World Cup debutants, 6-1. 

In spite of the drubbing, Panama fans will cherish memories of a lifetime. In the 78th minute, they went berserk when substitute Felipe Baloy poked home their first ever goal at a World Cup. Never had a consolation goal been scored so wildly.