Saturday, June 24, 2006

Mexico was eliminated from the world cup by Argentina just fifteen minutes ago. I’m a big fan of the Mexican national soccer team, but I’m doing all right. This elimination — so far — is nowhere near as painful as that in 2002. In 2002, not only did we go through the now habitual second-round elimination, it was at the hands of the Americans — Mexico’s biggest foe in the last ten years. To say that I had a hard time sleeping for a couple of days would be an understatement. There were non-soccer-related reasons why that defeat was extremely painful, but I’m too ashamed to write about them. Love was involved. The mind can be such a bitch.

I have La Volpe (Mexico’s coach) to thank for making this latest defeat a more-than-bearable one. I disliked a lot of the things he said and many of the choices he made. So many false promises. So many contradictions. My dislike for his antics caused me to lose some interest on my still beloved Mexican team. I watched Mexico fall against France, Holland, Portugal, and just now Argentina. My head didn’t explode. There was a simple reason for this: low expectations. The relatively bad results against two of our opening round rivals (Angola and Portugal) kept my feet on the ground. On top of that, Argentina massacred one of its first round opponents 6-0. There was no room to dream.

I also want to take the time to thank the Spanish-language television networks, specially Univision. I was getting fed up watching all the pseudo-fans wearing Mexican jerseys and making ballooned score predictions (Mexican victories by two or more goals) on television. Mexico’s elimination from the world cup will bring some peace to the news shows. Monotony is underrated. No more having to watch a reporter holding his earplug as fans wearing green shirts wait for the reporter’s subtle verbal signal to start jumping and cheering. Excessively planned.

The best thing about this defeat is that I have more than 36 hours to further adapt to it. By Monday, I should be able to walk the halls at work without being annoyed when a student stops me to matter-of-factedly say to me, “Mexico lost 2-1.” Instead, I’ll probably respond with my trademarked “cooooooooooool!” And my day will go on as usual… once I make it past the first 100 kids reminding me the score, that is.

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