I’d like to unfold my tale of soccer struggles from the clear beginning on August 12th. Since I haven’t started schooling yet, I have been left at home with nothing to do but mundane choirs or nothing at all. On August 12th I woke a little later than I should of and was immediately called by someone to help them around their yard. I told the lady I was working for that I only had till three o’ clock to work. At three thirty, ESPN was going to have pre-game to the very important and potentially history making match between the USA and Mexico at Estadio Azteca. I watched all of the pre-game hype with Alexi Lalas and Bob Ley in which they showed the rivalry between the USA and Mexico over the years. They showed all the fights, all the excellent goals, and all the smack talk. They showed the old days when Alexi Lalas was kneed in the groin, when some of the American Players would be bloody, and when the Mexican fans and players all put a death threat of Landon Donovan’s family. I never knew this, but apparently Donovan was seen urinating on the field of Azteca during a training session because the staff at Azteca wouldn’t let him go to the bathroom. This led to many players or fans giving death threats to his family because Mexican consider the grounds at Azteca sacred. Estadio Azteca is the fifth largest stadium in the world, is just a little over a mile in the sky, and hosted the 1968 Olympics, 1970 World Cup, and the 1986 World Cup. In the Olympics, the most memorable moments were Tommie Smith and John Carlos demonstration of Black Power, Dick Fosbury radical new technique the Fosbury Flop in High Jump, and was one of the first Olympics Games to be played at a high altitude. As for the two World Cup, the most lasting moments were the “Game of the Century” in 1970 when Italy Defeated West Germany 4-3 when three of the goals were scored in extra time, the ” Hand of God” in 1986 when Diego Maradona scored a goal with his hand , and the “Goal of the Century”, in the same game as the “Hand of God” against England, Diego Maradona ran from mid field passing four English defenders and the Keeper to score a goal.
With all this history aside, and w ith Lexi Lalas and Bob Ley setting the scene, I was completely ready for the game to start. After some commercials and wrap-up, ESPN went straight to NFL Live. I was utterly surprised and wondered what had happened. Never before in my life had there been pregame without the game immediately following it. I was flabbergasted, astonished,and perplexed. I was in fury. Words just can’t describe the fustration. I quickly went to the internet and found live trackers. I found that it was only on Telemundo networks and hurriedly went to the Telemundo site finding live video. So, I watched from 30th minute on till the end of the game in Spanish. I missed the first two goals, but had the privilege on the winning goal to have the Mexican Announcer yell, “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! ” for two minutes. I guess it brightened the disappointment just a little bit.
Whelp, on the plus side, I did get to see the scrum over Charlie Davies, and the second goal. I also thought that the Americans played very well for their situation. Bob Bradley, which I am a skeptic on the way he is running the team and which I don’t want to get into right now, didn’t start Jozy Altidore or Jonathan Spector which seemed odd, but the Premier League does start this Saturday, August 15th. The Americans didn’t possess the ball with great strength in the second half which made their attack suffer. They didn’t play it to feet, and tried to play it to space which they lost to the Mexicans every time it seemed like. The midfield just seemed to taper off in the second half completely till the last eight minutes when they were down. And that reminds me, that in the last couple minutes of the game the Americans had a corner kick, and Donovan went to go take it and was showered by trash from the fans. I did get to watch the highlights after the game, and I thought the first two goals were completely stunning which made me wish it was on TV even more. I guess that’s the story of soccer in America. I’ve just never seen such disrespect shown towards one of American’s national teams competing for a sport in a global tournament. I mean who has a pregame and then not show the game you are pregaming? The anger I felt almost prompted me to write a Letter or Email to ESPN asking why they didn’t play the game. Maybe since it was in Mexico, they couldn’t get the rights to be in the Stadium, but then why did you have a pregame outside the Stadium and not in a studio? I also thought about sending an email to Alexi Lalas on his video short called the Sitter on mlsnet.com, which is the Official site of the MLS. None of this materialized, and probably never will.
At the end of the day the scoreboard was this in CONCACAF, Mexico def. USA 2-1, Trinidad and Tobago def. El Salvador 1-0, and Honduras def. Costa Rica 4-0. This puts the US third in the table behind Costa Rica in first and Honduras on Goal Differential. I still believe they will Qualify. They play the two bottom feeder teams next, and then they go to Honduras with a finish at home against Costa Rica. Other action is as followed, Solvenia def. San Marino 5-0, Germany def. Azerbaijan 2-0, Croatia def Belarus 3-1, France def Faroe Islands 1-0, and Norway def. Scotland 4-0. All Confederations continue qualifying September 5th, till then everybody. And I put some youtubes on here tomorrow of the highlights and Estadio Azteca. Maybe the rivalry over the years too.
