Bad day for Mexico

Yesterday I decided to relax with some beers and football, as Mexico were playing two matches. Firstly, the young Mexicans were facing Argentina in the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup. The Mexicans were not bad, they tried to play the Argentineans, but Argentina went ahead by Maher Carrizo, who caught a rebound from the Mexican goalkeeper after only 9 minutes in what was effectively Argentina's first shot on goal. The rest of the game Argentina were in control despite Mexico playing well. In the second half the new Inter Miami player Mateo Silvetti completely outran two Mexican defenders to make it 2-0 and seal the match. It was a pity that two Mexican players got red cards in the dying minutes of a match they had already lost; but Mexico had a great tournament and can hold their heads high.

Argentina will face Colombia in the semifinals. Colombia defeated Spain 3-2. 

The bar I was at slowly filled out with Colombians, who came to watch the friendly match between Mexico and Colombia. These friendlies should be important for Mexico, who has not gone through qualification, as they try to find a squad for the World Cup here in Mexico. In the meantime, Colombia have qualified strongly and by far outplayed the Mexicans: 4-0, with goals by established players Luis Diaz and Jefersson Lerma, but also Bologna's defender Jhon Lucumi scoring his first goal for Colombia, and Internacional's Johan Carbonero scoring in his debut for Colombia.

Colombia is looking strong (and look at their strong u-20 side), but Mexico is hopefully going to improve before they receive the world in 2026.

 

U20 World Cup in Chile

The U-20 World Cup is taking place in Chile. A group with Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Morocco should be considered a group of death at any level, and yesterday I watched the final group match between Morocco and Mexico. Morocco have been flying and defeated Spain and Brazil 2-0 and 2-1 respectively, and before the match against Mexico were sure to win the group no matter the result as Mexico arrived in the match with two 2-2 ties. 

Mexico ensured the second spot by winning 1-0 on a penalty goal by the 16-year Tijuana player Gilberto Mora (also the youngest goalscorer in the history of the Mexican top league). In the meantime Spain won 1-0 against Brazil, who are surely disappointed to be eliminated in the group stage.

Morocco and Mexico are through, and so are Argentina and Japan, with three victories, as well as Ukraine, Chile, Paraguay and Italy. There are still matches left in the last groups before we have all the teams in the last-16 of a very interesting tournament.

Technology to save the Ballon d'Or

The Ballon d'Or is considered the main individual award in football (as silly as it is to have an individual award in a team sport), even more important than the FIFA player of the year award (FIFA used to participate in the Ballon d'Or award, but created its own, something that powerful people always do if they cannot have it their way). Over the 2010s the award was largely a competition between two of the most gifted players of all time, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But as they have entered the winters of their careers the prize is now open for competition among many great (but not the greatest) players, and this year it was PSGs Ousmane Dembele who took the title that is decided among a vote from football journalists from all over the world.

In my personal and deeply subjective opinion, Ousmane Dembele is the correct winner in 2025; he has been on fire for PSGs Champions League and French champions, and has also become an important player in the French national team, finally showing the quality he was only able to show sometimes in FC Barcelona. He is a great player - but not one of the greatest, as were none of the other candidates to the title.

Of course, in a world of narcissists and sore losers nobody congratulates the winner but rather bitches that they should rather have won it, and invent conspiracy theories about the voting and the "objectivity of the voting journalists.

As if there was such a thing called "objectivity" when it comes to football...

So I have a proposal for everyone: why not let AI choose the best player in the world? We feed it all information of all players in the world for a year, and based on number of goals, passes, touches, minutes played; and partly on tournaments won and ranking of the teams played for and against, the AI could find a completely objective winner of the Ballon d'Or that you can not argue against!

Just as objective as VAR! 

Firpo

In 1923, Argentine boxer Luis Ángel Firpo faced heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in what many hailed as the fight of the century (little did they know greater spectacles were still to come). All of Latin America rallied behind the powerful Argentine, who even managed to knock Dempsey out of the ring in the first round. Yet, in a controversial decision, Firpo ultimately lost the match. 

Just months earlier, in the small Salvadoran town of Usulután, a football club named Tecún Umán had been founded. Inspired by Firpo’s epic bout, its members voted overwhelmingly to rename the team Club Deportivo Luis Ángel Firpo. Along with the new name came new identity: the club adopted the red, white, and blue colors of Firpo’s beloved Argentine side, San Lorenzo de Almagro, and chose as its emblem a bull, honoring the boxer’s nickname—El Toro de las Pampas (The Bull of the Pampas). 

During the 1980s and 1990s, Firpo became one of the most successful teams in El Salvador’s top division, where it still competes today, proudly carrying forward the fighting spirit of the legendary Argentine whose name it bears.

New CL season

Yesterday was Mexico's independence day, so after seeing the parade I took advantage of my day off to see the start of a new Champions league season with Real Madrid facing Olympique Marseille over a few beers.

It was a good match with Real Madrid winning 2-1, after going 0-1 down on a great goal by Timothy Weah (whose father George had incidentally scored for PSG against Real Madrid in 1994). Real Madrid equalised on a penalty kick taken by Kylian Mbappe. A correct penalty in my view, but a pity for a well-playing Marseille. In the second half Real Madrid put more pressure, but Marseille held well, and it was only a penalty gift from the referee, on one of those "handballs" that should never have been given. Kylian Mbappe made it 2-1 again, and Real Madrid starts with a win with referee help...