Letters from South of the Border
During a two week span I was engrossed in four sporting events that did not include American football, hockey or basketball. (Only because I'm starting this timeline after the Monday night game between Green Bay & Baltimore) My fascination with these events may cause my American citizenship into question. The following excerpts display an unhealthy addiction to "the beautiful game". It began south of the border during the Champions League and the first leg of the Mexican final between Cruz Azul and Monterrey, and it concludes with notes on the Club World Cup Final between Barcelona and Estudiantes. I will be piecing this together with notes taken from my cell phone and random bar napkins.
Dec-8-2009 Real Madrid vs Marseille, UEFA Champions League
Apparently ESPN Deportes has lost the rights to the UEFA Champions League. This is great for me at home where Fox Soccer is carried by my cable provider. No small victory considering that provider refuses to carry more than one Spanish language station. However, in Puerto Vallarta I now have to find a sports bar who carries the matches. Even more disappointing is that ESPN has replaced the Champions League in Mexico with the same crap they broadcast in America: World Series of Poker in Espanol, Cheerleading in Espanol, PTI & Around the Horn in Espanol only with different journalists. I'm getting the highlights on Futbol Picante, the soccer highlight show on Deportes, it's like NFL Live for Mexico. Amidst the shots of Christiano Ronaldo putting in a free kick from 30-something yards is a topic of discussion, my Spanish is pretty borderline but I believe it's asking if Real Madrid bought a spot in the knockout stage for the Champions League. Is there a question about that? When you spend $250 million on transfers I think you're not only buying a spot in the knockout, you're hoping for the finals.
Dec-10-2009 Monterrey vs Cruz Azul, Mexican Apetura Final 1st Leg
Found a local sports bar in Puerto Vallarata to watch the first leg of the Mexican final. In Mexico their soccer season is very different than anything in the US or Europe. Much like most South and Central American countries they break their season into two halves. Apetura and Clausara (opening and closing) The season spans roughly the same time frame as the English Premier League or to bring to term a baby conceived during a late party night during training camp, around 9 months. The nice thing for fans of the teams is that there are 2 championships. Really this isn't too different than in England or Spain where they have the league champion and the tournament champion. Much like college football bowl trophies, there's a lot of hardware to go around.
It's a monsoon in Monterrey and yet these players have put two goals in the net during the first 10 minutes. The Mexican League is run-and-gun without the physical nature of the Premier League. Very similar to Big 12 football. Cruz Azul put Monterrey's first goal in their own net but recovered quickly with a nice set piece. At 17' Riveros puts one in off a corner from Chavez. Cruz Azul up 2-1. This place hasn't figured out how to make money off of appetizers. $5 for 8 wings, plus salad and fries? Mr. Friday or Mr. Wild Wings should school Mexico on how to jack up the price of appetizers for profitability.
Lots of locals in this bar want Monterrey to win. Every time the ball gets close to goal the place erupts with applause. And in the Mexican game a lot of those close shots go in. The final is 4-3 Monterrey. That own goal really stings Azul. Plus Cruz Azul dropped everyone back to play defense the entire 2nd half. You can't wait out a 3-1 advantage in the Mexican Primera Division. You either attack or fall by their attack. I've just realized that those wings didn't specify they were from a chicken. I guess pigeon wings would be pretty cheap.
Dec-12-2009 Atlante vs Auckland, FIFA Club World Cup
At the airport in Vallarta. I love cultural differences, over the loudspeaker they keep announcing that a flight to Kansas is boarding. I wonder if they've picked a specific place in Kansas or are just going to land on I-70. Found a place with American looking chicken wings. I love Mexico, but after a week I get tired of the food. I always end up craving a burger or sandwich. These wings are not good. The bones are dyed red. They are way too big to be pigeon though. Up on the television they're broadcasting the FIFA Club World Cup. Atlante is the North/Central American (CONCACAF) representative. Although Central America has some good teams, the Mexican teams really dominate the CONCACAF Champions League. And currently Atlante is handing it to Auckland 3-0. Auckland City may be a dominant force in the Oceanic Football Confederation, but they stand about as much of a chance of winning this tournament as I do of finishing these wings without toxifying the aircraft with "bbq wing fallout".
Dec-13-2009 Cruz Azul vs Monterrey, Mexican Apetura Final 2nd Leg
Second leg of the Mexican final and I'm finally back in the US. Now it's a little more difficult to find the game thanks to my cable provider's unwillingness to carry multiple popular Spanish language stations. Of course my cable provider is unwilling to carry NFL Network either, so that tells you about their quality of service. Luckily I've found an international website that carries sports from around the globe and I've located the match. I've managed to chase my wife out of the room despite the fact that she's a big Cruz Azul fan. She wanted to watch Heroes, I complained about our internet provider's bandwidth. That's such a dirty term.
Although Cruz Azul's prevent defense killed them in the first leg, they only need a one goal win to seal the championship. The two-legged-tie is a strange system to Americans who are used to odd numbered playoff series. If each team wins a game the tie breaker is the total goals scored. If the number is even, the second tie-breaker is the total goals each team scored on the road. Cruz Azul has a huge road goal advantage thanks to their performance at Monterrey. All they have to do is hold Monterrey to two goals or less and win by one. It's not going to happen. Early in the second half Monterrey is up. And after an equalizer by Azul the lead jumps right back to Monterrey in the closing minutes. Somehow Humberto Suazo is left alone to break against the overmatched Cruz Azul keeper. Suazo is probably headed to England in the January transfer window so it was a sweet good-bye goal for the Monterrey supporters. Monterrey's first title since 2003. Cruz Azul's 3rd loss in a championship game in little over a year (Apetura 2008, CONCACAF Champions League, Apetura 2009).
Dec-15-2009 Estudiantes vs Pohang Steelers, FIFA Club World Cup Semifinal
This tournament has just recently become an annual event for the champions of the six confederations. Previously only the champions of South America and Europe would compete against each other for the title. And actually not much has really changed. Although there are now representatives from North/Central America, Africa, Asia, and the Oceanic confederations, every championship game pits the European champ against the South American champ. Estudiantes is an Argentinean club and the South American (CONMEBOL) champions. The Pohang Steelers hail from South Korea, but feature a Brazilian striker, Denilson.
I'm kind of drifting in and out of this game as I lie on my couch. What wakes me up is Denilson scoring while Pohang is actually down a man. A minute later they lose another player via red card. And five minutes later Pohang's goalie manages to get the team's 3rd red card of the match. They're down to 8 players, without a goalkeeper, and they are only losing 2-1 to the South American champs! Denilson moves into goal and they stall the game for 5 minutes to find him a different colored jersey. Apparently the Steelers traveled all the way from South Korea to Abu Dhabi and forgot to bring a spare goal shirt. Denilson not only has to switch from striker to goalie, he now has to don the old keeper's sweaty jersey. In the end Denilson and the Steelers fend off the last twenty minutes of Estudiantes 11 on 8 attack, but can't muster an equalizer.
Dec-16-2009 Atlante vs Barcelona, FIFA Club World Cup Semifinal
Barcelona finished their previous season by earning a European Treble. In one season they won their home league: La Liga, the UEFA Champions League, and the Spanish Cup: Copa del Rey. Only four other teams in the history of the European game have accomplished that feat. In addition, they have earned themselves the UEFA Supercup and the Supercup de Espana this season. If they claimed this Club World Cup trophy they would be owners of all six trophies which they are eligible to compete for in one year. No team has ever completed a Sextuple. Is this current Barcelona club the greatest team in the history of the game?
I'm an amateur at this whole soccer thing. I do know this, in order to be in this competition they had to win the UEFA Champions League Final. In that match they competed against a Manchester United team who were the defending champions of the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the Carling Cup, the Community Shield and this tournament. That United team owned 5 of the 7 trophies they were eligible for (England has two domestic tournaments while Spain has only one). If Barcelona wins this tournament they are much like the Karate Kid: the best around.
Atlante goes up 1-0 on a fluke goal and holds onto the lead for a half an hour. Barcelona equalizes and is dominating in terms of possession. I think it's close to 80-20. In the second half Barca's wonder-coach Pep Guardiola subs in the "injured" superstar Argentinian Lionel Messi. Messi's in for less than a minute before blows past the Atlante defense, takes a brilliant pass and puts it in the back of the net. He's the best player in the world, Barca probably is the best team in the world. Final 3-1.
Dec-18-2009 UEFA Champions League Draw
The UEFA Champions league draw. Wow, someone wants to make this tournament tough on the Italians and English. 2008 Champions Manchester United will matchup against former golden boy David Beckham's AC Milan, the 2007 Champions. Chelsea, the current Premiere League leader and defending FA Cup champ, get the defending Italian league champ Inter Milan. Maybe the UEFA figures the Italians can't fix games if the English are involved. Either way these matchups put the top two teams from two of the top three countries in Europe against each other. Not to mention the top two countries for hooliganism. For you American's imagine Raiders vs Eagles, where both teams are really good.
Real Madrid paid 35 million Euros for striker Karim Benzema, and now gets to face off against his former team Lyon. Arsenal gets the Portuguese defending champs FC Porto. Meanwhile the other Spanish teams, Sevilla and Barcelona, draw a Russian team that dropped a few rungs in its home league, CSKA Moskow, and a German team that's borderline on relegation, Stuttgart, respectively. At this point you probably couldn't convince me that this system isn't as rigged as an NBA game.
Dec-19-2009 Arsenal vs Hull City, Pohang Steelers vs Atlante, Barcelona vs Estudiantes
Arsenal v Hull pits a Big 4 Premier League club against a team that found itself under threat of relegation from the top flight of English soccer last season. Imagine Colts and Rams. Not much has improved for Hull City. I was hoping to see American Jozy Altidore on the pitch for Hull. Manager Phil Brown did not elect to start him today, he was probably too busy chatting with his wife about the groceries on that wireless microphone that's permanently attached to his head to watch practice. There was an excellent altercation a couple minutes ago where Aresnal's Samir Nasri got shoved in the face after possibly cleating a Hull City player. Emotions ran high goalies sprinted across the field to join in the fray. Soccer fights are roughly the equivalent of a hits batsmen in a MLB game, without the occasional karate kicks or old man tossing, essentially five minutes with lots of shoving. Arsenal goes on to win 3-0. It was never in doubt.
I'm waiting for the Club World Cup final to begin. Meanwhile the Steelers and Atlante have gone into free kicks to determine the third place winner. Atlante's already missed 2 kicks. And Pohang's Park Hee-Chul can put away the third place trophy win one kick and.... he missed it. This is worse than missing free throws, the goalie stands little chance in these situations. The goal is too big and the distance the ball has to travel is too short. In the fifth round Atlante's goalie, the Argentinian Frederico Vilar, is going to be a kicker and then try to save Pohang's last chance to survive to the next kicks. Wow, Vilar has a leg, that was like a Brett Favre pass and the goalie ducked out of the way like a receiver with four already broken fingers. However, Vilar cannot stop the final shot by the Steelers and the Asian team wins 3rd place. Fourth time in a row that a CONCACAF team has failed to place in the top three.
Estudiantes came out to play. With a goal in the 1st half to take the lead, they look able to stand up to the best team in Europe. However in the second half they make the fatal mistake of dropping back on defense and waiting to counter-attack. And with superior passing Barcelona bleeds them dry, tying the game in the 89'. Good game until now for the Argentinean club but now they're going into added extra time against a Barcelona team that's found its second wind. 110'. Messi. He's the best player in the world. And Barcelona's the best club in the world.
Dec-8-2009 Real Madrid vs Marseille, UEFA Champions League
Apparently ESPN Deportes has lost the rights to the UEFA Champions League. This is great for me at home where Fox Soccer is carried by my cable provider. No small victory considering that provider refuses to carry more than one Spanish language station. However, in Puerto Vallarta I now have to find a sports bar who carries the matches. Even more disappointing is that ESPN has replaced the Champions League in Mexico with the same crap they broadcast in America: World Series of Poker in Espanol, Cheerleading in Espanol, PTI & Around the Horn in Espanol only with different journalists. I'm getting the highlights on Futbol Picante, the soccer highlight show on Deportes, it's like NFL Live for Mexico. Amidst the shots of Christiano Ronaldo putting in a free kick from 30-something yards is a topic of discussion, my Spanish is pretty borderline but I believe it's asking if Real Madrid bought a spot in the knockout stage for the Champions League. Is there a question about that? When you spend $250 million on transfers I think you're not only buying a spot in the knockout, you're hoping for the finals.
Dec-10-2009 Monterrey vs Cruz Azul, Mexican Apetura Final 1st Leg
Found a local sports bar in Puerto Vallarata to watch the first leg of the Mexican final. In Mexico their soccer season is very different than anything in the US or Europe. Much like most South and Central American countries they break their season into two halves. Apetura and Clausara (opening and closing) The season spans roughly the same time frame as the English Premier League or to bring to term a baby conceived during a late party night during training camp, around 9 months. The nice thing for fans of the teams is that there are 2 championships. Really this isn't too different than in England or Spain where they have the league champion and the tournament champion. Much like college football bowl trophies, there's a lot of hardware to go around.
It's a monsoon in Monterrey and yet these players have put two goals in the net during the first 10 minutes. The Mexican League is run-and-gun without the physical nature of the Premier League. Very similar to Big 12 football. Cruz Azul put Monterrey's first goal in their own net but recovered quickly with a nice set piece. At 17' Riveros puts one in off a corner from Chavez. Cruz Azul up 2-1. This place hasn't figured out how to make money off of appetizers. $5 for 8 wings, plus salad and fries? Mr. Friday or Mr. Wild Wings should school Mexico on how to jack up the price of appetizers for profitability.
Lots of locals in this bar want Monterrey to win. Every time the ball gets close to goal the place erupts with applause. And in the Mexican game a lot of those close shots go in. The final is 4-3 Monterrey. That own goal really stings Azul. Plus Cruz Azul dropped everyone back to play defense the entire 2nd half. You can't wait out a 3-1 advantage in the Mexican Primera Division. You either attack or fall by their attack. I've just realized that those wings didn't specify they were from a chicken. I guess pigeon wings would be pretty cheap.
Dec-12-2009 Atlante vs Auckland, FIFA Club World Cup
At the airport in Vallarta. I love cultural differences, over the loudspeaker they keep announcing that a flight to Kansas is boarding. I wonder if they've picked a specific place in Kansas or are just going to land on I-70. Found a place with American looking chicken wings. I love Mexico, but after a week I get tired of the food. I always end up craving a burger or sandwich. These wings are not good. The bones are dyed red. They are way too big to be pigeon though. Up on the television they're broadcasting the FIFA Club World Cup. Atlante is the North/Central American (CONCACAF) representative. Although Central America has some good teams, the Mexican teams really dominate the CONCACAF Champions League. And currently Atlante is handing it to Auckland 3-0. Auckland City may be a dominant force in the Oceanic Football Confederation, but they stand about as much of a chance of winning this tournament as I do of finishing these wings without toxifying the aircraft with "bbq wing fallout".
Dec-13-2009 Cruz Azul vs Monterrey, Mexican Apetura Final 2nd Leg
Second leg of the Mexican final and I'm finally back in the US. Now it's a little more difficult to find the game thanks to my cable provider's unwillingness to carry multiple popular Spanish language stations. Of course my cable provider is unwilling to carry NFL Network either, so that tells you about their quality of service. Luckily I've found an international website that carries sports from around the globe and I've located the match. I've managed to chase my wife out of the room despite the fact that she's a big Cruz Azul fan. She wanted to watch Heroes, I complained about our internet provider's bandwidth. That's such a dirty term.
Although Cruz Azul's prevent defense killed them in the first leg, they only need a one goal win to seal the championship. The two-legged-tie is a strange system to Americans who are used to odd numbered playoff series. If each team wins a game the tie breaker is the total goals scored. If the number is even, the second tie-breaker is the total goals each team scored on the road. Cruz Azul has a huge road goal advantage thanks to their performance at Monterrey. All they have to do is hold Monterrey to two goals or less and win by one. It's not going to happen. Early in the second half Monterrey is up. And after an equalizer by Azul the lead jumps right back to Monterrey in the closing minutes. Somehow Humberto Suazo is left alone to break against the overmatched Cruz Azul keeper. Suazo is probably headed to England in the January transfer window so it was a sweet good-bye goal for the Monterrey supporters. Monterrey's first title since 2003. Cruz Azul's 3rd loss in a championship game in little over a year (Apetura 2008, CONCACAF Champions League, Apetura 2009).
Dec-15-2009 Estudiantes vs Pohang Steelers, FIFA Club World Cup Semifinal
This tournament has just recently become an annual event for the champions of the six confederations. Previously only the champions of South America and Europe would compete against each other for the title. And actually not much has really changed. Although there are now representatives from North/Central America, Africa, Asia, and the Oceanic confederations, every championship game pits the European champ against the South American champ. Estudiantes is an Argentinean club and the South American (CONMEBOL) champions. The Pohang Steelers hail from South Korea, but feature a Brazilian striker, Denilson.
I'm kind of drifting in and out of this game as I lie on my couch. What wakes me up is Denilson scoring while Pohang is actually down a man. A minute later they lose another player via red card. And five minutes later Pohang's goalie manages to get the team's 3rd red card of the match. They're down to 8 players, without a goalkeeper, and they are only losing 2-1 to the South American champs! Denilson moves into goal and they stall the game for 5 minutes to find him a different colored jersey. Apparently the Steelers traveled all the way from South Korea to Abu Dhabi and forgot to bring a spare goal shirt. Denilson not only has to switch from striker to goalie, he now has to don the old keeper's sweaty jersey. In the end Denilson and the Steelers fend off the last twenty minutes of Estudiantes 11 on 8 attack, but can't muster an equalizer.
Dec-16-2009 Atlante vs Barcelona, FIFA Club World Cup Semifinal
Barcelona finished their previous season by earning a European Treble. In one season they won their home league: La Liga, the UEFA Champions League, and the Spanish Cup: Copa del Rey. Only four other teams in the history of the European game have accomplished that feat. In addition, they have earned themselves the UEFA Supercup and the Supercup de Espana this season. If they claimed this Club World Cup trophy they would be owners of all six trophies which they are eligible to compete for in one year. No team has ever completed a Sextuple. Is this current Barcelona club the greatest team in the history of the game?
I'm an amateur at this whole soccer thing. I do know this, in order to be in this competition they had to win the UEFA Champions League Final. In that match they competed against a Manchester United team who were the defending champions of the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the Carling Cup, the Community Shield and this tournament. That United team owned 5 of the 7 trophies they were eligible for (England has two domestic tournaments while Spain has only one). If Barcelona wins this tournament they are much like the Karate Kid: the best around.
Atlante goes up 1-0 on a fluke goal and holds onto the lead for a half an hour. Barcelona equalizes and is dominating in terms of possession. I think it's close to 80-20. In the second half Barca's wonder-coach Pep Guardiola subs in the "injured" superstar Argentinian Lionel Messi. Messi's in for less than a minute before blows past the Atlante defense, takes a brilliant pass and puts it in the back of the net. He's the best player in the world, Barca probably is the best team in the world. Final 3-1.
Dec-18-2009 UEFA Champions League Draw
The UEFA Champions league draw. Wow, someone wants to make this tournament tough on the Italians and English. 2008 Champions Manchester United will matchup against former golden boy David Beckham's AC Milan, the 2007 Champions. Chelsea, the current Premiere League leader and defending FA Cup champ, get the defending Italian league champ Inter Milan. Maybe the UEFA figures the Italians can't fix games if the English are involved. Either way these matchups put the top two teams from two of the top three countries in Europe against each other. Not to mention the top two countries for hooliganism. For you American's imagine Raiders vs Eagles, where both teams are really good.
Real Madrid paid 35 million Euros for striker Karim Benzema, and now gets to face off against his former team Lyon. Arsenal gets the Portuguese defending champs FC Porto. Meanwhile the other Spanish teams, Sevilla and Barcelona, draw a Russian team that dropped a few rungs in its home league, CSKA Moskow, and a German team that's borderline on relegation, Stuttgart, respectively. At this point you probably couldn't convince me that this system isn't as rigged as an NBA game.
Dec-19-2009 Arsenal vs Hull City, Pohang Steelers vs Atlante, Barcelona vs Estudiantes
Arsenal v Hull pits a Big 4 Premier League club against a team that found itself under threat of relegation from the top flight of English soccer last season. Imagine Colts and Rams. Not much has improved for Hull City. I was hoping to see American Jozy Altidore on the pitch for Hull. Manager Phil Brown did not elect to start him today, he was probably too busy chatting with his wife about the groceries on that wireless microphone that's permanently attached to his head to watch practice. There was an excellent altercation a couple minutes ago where Aresnal's Samir Nasri got shoved in the face after possibly cleating a Hull City player. Emotions ran high goalies sprinted across the field to join in the fray. Soccer fights are roughly the equivalent of a hits batsmen in a MLB game, without the occasional karate kicks or old man tossing, essentially five minutes with lots of shoving. Arsenal goes on to win 3-0. It was never in doubt.
I'm waiting for the Club World Cup final to begin. Meanwhile the Steelers and Atlante have gone into free kicks to determine the third place winner. Atlante's already missed 2 kicks. And Pohang's Park Hee-Chul can put away the third place trophy win one kick and.... he missed it. This is worse than missing free throws, the goalie stands little chance in these situations. The goal is too big and the distance the ball has to travel is too short. In the fifth round Atlante's goalie, the Argentinian Frederico Vilar, is going to be a kicker and then try to save Pohang's last chance to survive to the next kicks. Wow, Vilar has a leg, that was like a Brett Favre pass and the goalie ducked out of the way like a receiver with four already broken fingers. However, Vilar cannot stop the final shot by the Steelers and the Asian team wins 3rd place. Fourth time in a row that a CONCACAF team has failed to place in the top three.
Estudiantes came out to play. With a goal in the 1st half to take the lead, they look able to stand up to the best team in Europe. However in the second half they make the fatal mistake of dropping back on defense and waiting to counter-attack. And with superior passing Barcelona bleeds them dry, tying the game in the 89'. Good game until now for the Argentinean club but now they're going into added extra time against a Barcelona team that's found its second wind. 110'. Messi. He's the best player in the world. And Barcelona's the best club in the world.
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