Yesterday was a special day. I still remember that morning celebrating Oribe Peralta’s goals con todo el corazón. It was a moment that will be hard to repeat. The quickness of it all was mesmerizing, I think I was still half asleep when Javi Aquino’s pressing trigger led Peralta to take a shot that ignited the magical morning.
Whenever we’re swamped with pessimistic thoughts and flooded with news that suggest that our football is heading backwards or sinking like the Titanic, I like to think about this 2012 team, or La Volpe’s team in the 2005 Confederations Cup. I also like that 1999 Confederations Cup win over Brazil, that one was crazy because I listened to the game on Radio Única, remember that station?
For some reason I couldn’t watch the game on TV, so I leaned on Jorge Ramos’ play-by-play, and he managed to take me to Estadio Azteca, while I jumped off our living room sofas with profound joy and pride. At the end of it all, how many national teams can say that they beat Brazil in finals.
Ever since I left Mexico City in May 2018, my attachment to Mexican football has receded. I look back to those days with a lot of amazement because I can’t believe I pulled it off. Living in Mexico City and actually attending Liga MX and El Tri games as a journalist still requires to pinch me a little just to recognize that it actually happened. Even when I describe it, I still feel like I’m making up a story on the fly. It’s still surreal.
One of the reasons I stepped away from that dream is that I continuously hit a wall with what I was seeing. I wasn’t so enthusiastic about the prospect for what was to come. When I chatted with Mexican colleagues, and they told me their stories about Copa América and Copa Libertadores/Copa Sudamericana coverage, I always thought, “Man, I wish I could live that.”
Yeah we had the Copa Centenario in 2016, and it was an honor to cover that one, but it felt pretty bland. Certainly, the end to that tournament has something to do with it. It was catastrophic.
The other day, I went to a hot dog stand in Jersey. It was my first time at the place, and I took a seat on the counter.
All of a sudden an old man asked me, “Who will win the World Cup?”
I told him Brazil, it’s usually the easy answer to blurt out whenever you’re put on the spot. Let it be known, I wanted to eat my hot dog.
I was wearing a cap with a Mexican flag customization, so right away the old man starts saying that El Tri is never able to take that next step. I told him that we’ve had back luck in World Cups, be it in 2014 or 2006 for example. It was specific instances that prevented México to be among the world’s top-eight. In 2014, si Robben no se tira, then what? In 2006, si Maxi hits the crossbar with that shot, entonces qué pasa? Oh in 1998, si Matador mete el 2-0 contra Alemania, then what?
As the conversation evolved, I realized the old man is Argentine. Our conversation was bilingual, which made it special. Also, he hated Alvaro Morales. You might not like the way he says some things about Chivas, Barça and other Mexican football things, but man has he built a disdainful personaje that reaches many audiences.
I told him not all Mexicans think like Morales, and that’s when he mentioned how México is a team no one wants to face because we always play like guerreros. The Copa América and Copa Libertadores games proved that our team wasn’t so far way from the Argentinas, Uruguays and Brazils.
That’s where we are right now, it does feel like a missed opportunity because now that our players are heading to Europe, we don’t have that direct competition with some of the best national teams in the world. We really don’t have a rightful measuring point heading into this World Cup. At least in 2018, we had the Confederations Cup to give us some idea how our national team would fare. This time around, we’re blind.
I don’t watch Liga MX like I used to, but I don’t want to be that dude that totally relinquishes his passion for Mexican football. I want to still feel and be present some way or another. Thankfully, this blog gives me that opportunity.
In Twitter, I do perceive a sort of polarization that just doesn’t do much.
After Pumas’ heavy defeat in Barcelona last weekend, it’s so easy to just say, “esta es nuestra realidad,” like many went on to say. But when Hugo Sánchez’s Pumas defeated Real Madrid in a similar kind of friendly years ago, eso también era nuestra realidad?
There’s a crisis in Mexican football, and it feels self-inflicted. I have no doubt that there’s a lot of talent and tools in our country to make us into one of the world’s main players. Sometimes, it just takes to creértela aunque digan que estás loco/a.
Let me tell you, ten years ago, you would have been called loco if you said that Peralta was going to get a brace in the final against Brazil at Wembley.
That’s Mexican football for you, something that just happens out of the blue, so extraordinary, that the best thing to do is to sit back, rewatch those scenes, enjoy them and say, chingada madre claro que podemos.
P.S. I want to start writing a column that will be published every Saturday AM starting next week. And then Resortera Wave is also something I will try to build up as the World Cup heads our way. Thanks for reading ❤️