Disappointment and sadness

I have been so disappointed and sad about the racist songs of Argentina's national team players at France's national team, and understand the anger of the French. Argentineans would be as angry, justifiably, if anyone sang about the victims of the Malvinas, but they cannot look at themselves with any hint of criticism or empathy with the French players. Ignorant players as Enzo Fernandez even saw no problem at publishing on social media, while they are complete ignorant about French history or society (and probably as ignorant about anything beyond social media); because saying that "Frenchmen are already racist", by being racist against Frenchmen who have experienced racism for years, is one of the most idiotic things one can imagine someone saying.

I am disappointed and sad because I have always supported and defended Argentina. But I need to remember that Argentina fans (and apparently players) are as ignorant and hateful as anyone in this pitiful world.

Hjulmand out

Kasper Hjulmand, who has been manager of the Danish national team for the last three tournaments is a nice guy and a popular manager for Denmark who in 2021 made Danish fans happier for the national team that we had been for many years. That said, it was time for him to leave, and indeed since the disastrous 2022 World Cup he overstayed his job.

While one can argue that over his stay he has achieved good results in terms of qualifying Denmark to two Euros and a World Cup, the problem is less in terms of result and more in terms of style and commitment. There are plenty of excuses about the disaster in Qatar, but in truth there can be few excuses for what was the loss to Australia that eliminated Denmark. Following that, Denmark was shaky in qualification: leads were thrown away and a team with strong players from big clubs appeared to get nervous when subjected to pressure. They were unable to keep their heads cool.

Following a close qualification, expectation were not big in Denmark to these Euros, just a careful optimism (totally different from Qatar), and Danes appeared happy to have made it to the last-16 only to be eliminated by Germany. But in my view there were many troubles; I firmly believe that Denmark could have been much better if they had not played a cowardly defensive style in their first matches against Slovenia and Serbia, when instead they seemed satisfied against sides that were not better than Denmark. In small moments one saw the Denmark that could exist, as against England, but there was too much respect from the Danes about "the big teams". 

Denmark under Hjulmand has followed the trend of many teams: defend and be afraid to win. That only makes football less popular; the teams that are remembered are those who play good football and do not necessarily win, and in Denmark we have many examples of this: 1986, 1998, and even 2021.

I wish Mr. Hjulmand the best, but it is time for new blood and back to better football.

The Aftermaths

The aftermath of both tournaments has started, firstly with Gareth Southgate stepping down as England manager. He is undoubtedly the most successful English Manager having taken England to the 2018 World Cup semifinals, to the 2021 Euro final, and to these 2024 Euro finals.

Yet Gareth Southgate was widely criticized, justly in my view, for his defensive and cautious style, as well as team selection (for instance insisting on Harry Kane this tournament). That said, these results speak for themselves for a country that had hardly achieved anything since 1966, and despite the criticism I think it will be difficult to follow in the footsteps of Mr. Southgate.

Spain's victory in the tournament was well-deserved, and one can hope that the only side that did not focus on only defending will inspire the many other sides who most often chose to defend than to attack. In this regard it was in my view one of the most boring tournaments in history, not helped by a poor refereeing that was just helped along by VAR.

Finally, as so many tournaments, passions were too high, both at the Euro, but certainly at the Copa America, where a shameful organization culminated in a final where the organizers, US and CONMEBOL, seemed on the one hand to not understand what football means for Latin Americans (in case of the North Americans), and on the other hand a CONMEBOL that prioritized making money and having pictures with Shakira.

This dreadful organization is at a country that will host next World Cup....

But otherwise it was also a boring tournament with defensive sides, and an Argentine side that won in majorly on routine and cold-bloodiness, while Colombia played entertaining football, but simply lacked mentality to win (they basically also lacked mentality to lose). The most positive thing about the tournament was sadly Canada who played a good 2-2 match for third place with Uruguay, but ended losing at penalties after Luis Suarez had equalized in the last second of the match.

I say sadly, because it is of course good to have a new strong side in North America, but sad because in terms of football Canada provides nothing new, but plays a defensive, controlled tactical game that is choking the entertainment value of football.

So these tournaments were another step towards the inevitable demise of national team football. At least we still have the club game, in particular the Champions League, for intense and good football, as well as avoiding the horrible specter of nationalism, xenophobia and racism that increasingly seems to be what national team football has going for it.

Football, hate

 Today I was happy.

For a while only. I was happy Spain won. Never supported England, and happy for the many Spanish people I know, even family, would be celebrating.

And then I was watching two countries I deeply love, Colombia and Argentina, face one another in the final of Copa America. I wore my Argentina shirt, but honestly, I would have been happy for anybody to win.

And then I was no longer happy.

All the hate I got for supporting Argentina (absolutely nobody bothers to congratulate), all the fucking problems in Miami where fans can't behave and an organizing committee who is more concerned about seeing second rate washed up pop stars than actually putting on a performance.

Angel Di Maria, Lionel Messi, footballing stars who may have played their last match, and all they got is hate.

I had every reason to be happy, and instead football is just as depressing as ever, and I wonder if I even want to continue watching it. Irony is that I had every reason to be happy, but all people can do is punch you no matter what.

My recommendation for everyone in the final

After my gloomy previous post I want to give a recommendation to fans, players and any supporter of England, Spain, Argentina and Colombia. No matter what happens in the final, no matter the result or the match, it all has a simple solution:

A Death Foretold

 

Marcelo Bielsa is already a legend as a Manager and Football thinker, and his recent reflection on the decay of the football game is as timely as ever as we await the two finals tomorrow of tournaments which seem to confirm the grim future of the game.

Paraphrasing another great Latin American, this is the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and I agree as I have been watching (and blogging) football for 20 years.

We have increasingly seen in these tournaments that teams are more afraid to lose than with a desire to win, so they largely retreat in a tactically result-oriented style. Some teams try to play more open, but they seem naive as they fight against the tide of boredom; in the meantime you have teams with a great amount of individual talent who treat their players like robots who are not to enjoy or entertain.

And let us face it, players contribute to this decay as well as the gentlemen of the game have all but disappeared: they act, they cry, they protest, they fight, play dirty. It is amazing how VAR has come in and not being used for this, but I also understand it: it seems incredible that we need to treat highly paid grown men as little children.

And VAR... I am not against it per se, but I have said before that it is being used completely wrong. It is being used to justify decisions that will always and have always been subjective, like a penalty, as well as searching with a microscope for faults where they were never seen before and where nobody protests. The blind faith in technology is only creating more doubt and distrust about the game as idiotic conspiracies flourish like never before.

Is it money? Of course it is. The people who can afford to go to a game are not your average income guy. Do you think that people who were in Charlotte for the Colombia-Uruguay match were the bottom of the Latin American income scale? No. And add TV rights, commercial deals and propaganda, and we have the explanation for all the things happening that are undermining the beauty of the game, just as Mr. Bielsa underlines.

Football has totally overtaken religion and politics as "Opium of the People", and as such it has been grasped by those in power as a way of controlling societies. Do these people in power fix matches? Is there a grand conspiracy to make certain teams win? No. But the spread of these conspiracies is useful to take attention away from other of societies' problems. 

We, the fans, are as guilty too. We are puppets. We let them control our primitive tribal instincts to hate other teams and other nations; the worst human instincts. We love being the martyrs, being rightful losers who fought against an evil force, and will never congratulate or thank another fan for a good match. And if we win we will rather insult the losers than recognize that in fact we need two teams trying to win to enjoy a game! (people who say, "I hate them because they defeated us" have in my view not really understood the point that it would be rather boring if they did not try to defeat us....).

There is no such thing as friendly competition in football any longer; it is war and you are judged by who you support - the Political Culture Wars taken to the most primitive level. 

It is a fact that football fans will rather see a team they hate lose than see their own side win. How fucked up is that!?? 

This is an angry rant indeed; but the decay of football is a symbol of the decay of our societies: tribalism, discrimination and hate are the order of the day, and in football we can't even any longer be happy for a beautiful play no matter who does it and a friendly taunt is always seen as an insult.

A sad state of affairs, and I do not have much of expectations of tomorrow's finals, even though I will watch them over beers with my cats and hoping that I get a bit of the happiness that made me fall in love with Football back in the day.

El Mundo de los Primeros?

The South American football Association CONMEBOL has published a video for the 2024 Copa America where they talk about how Latin America are "first" at football and life and that Latin Americans are firstly "brothers".

One would have been excused for thinking this video, made by and for the richest Latin Americans, is somewhat of a joke when looking at the "brotherhood" between Uruguayans and Colombians in last night's semifinal of the Copa America.

The match started well; Colombia was superior, attacking, and coming close on headers, and it was exactly on a header that Jefferson Lerma brought Colombia ahead, deservedly, and it looked like Uruguay had to show some style, but the few chances they created were shamefully wasted by one Darwin Nuñez.

Uruguayans are provocative, and it was perhaps a provocation towards the end of the first half that led the Crystal Palace defender Daniel Muñoz to try to elbow a Uruguayan. He already had a yellow card, so he obviously got a red card for losing his head in such a stupid way. It is not that we like the Uruguayans, but you cannot lose your head like that.

And in the end too many were too close to lose their head on both sides. The second half was not elegant; it was dirty, as Uruguay tried to push forward in any way possible, and Colombians were too often losing their heads and the referee losing control amid fouls, dives and constant protesting (these are things the Latin Americans are truly "first" at). Only the entrance of veterans Yerry Mina and Mateus Uribe (who shamefully missed two big chances to seal the match) gave Colombia some stability to defend to the end of the match.

But the end of the match was the most shameful thing of an already dirty affair as players, instead of thanking one another for an intense contest, started fighting. At the same time something happened in the stands (allegedly Colombian fans attacked the Uruguayan player's families), and Uruguayan players, notably Darwin Nuñez, started fighting with the fans.

It was a sad sad spectacle of Latin American "Brotherhood"

Distrust is one thing that Latin Americans are first at. Even before the tournament starting they were saying that the tournament had been fixed for Argentina and Messi to win in Miami. Just like Uruguayans bitched about a conspiracy against them when they were eliminated in the 2022 World Cup.

I find it strange that you would bother watching the Copa America if you believe that it is fixed. But surely the Colombians have an excuse in case they lose on Sunday! In fact, I think they will lose because the players as well as the fans will enter the stadium believing that they match has already been fixed against them, and losing will be the best way to confirm that the corrupt world is against them.

Just await a boxing match between Latin American "brothers".

But no matter what, they will all be there as the "first ones" bitching and crying at the next tournament!

Spain and England in the final

Today I was supporting the Netherlands alongside one of my cats, hoping that football would still not be coming home. 

So it was with great happiness that we saw the Dutch get an early lead from a splendid long-range kick by Xavi Simons, and great expectations to my cat as well as the thousands of orange fans in Dortmund.

But only ten minutes later England was given a penalty kick by the referee and VAR. It was not a big obvious penalty kick, and VAR gives no answer as to whether it was indeed a penalty kick; that said, after a review, the referee called a penalty, and Harry Kane was unforgiving.

As grudging as it is to accept, England was playing well, and the score was not unfair as we approached halftime with the tied score. Someone who was happy, besides the many annoying English fans, was my other cat, who in his young rebellious streak had decided to support England.

He was not a popular cat, and will probably get no food later.

Halftime went well for the Netherlands, although England also defended well, and as the second half advanced with nerves among the fans and my cats, we started to plan for extra time when England pulled one of those crazy late goals that they appear to have patented for this tournament. Substitute Ollie Watkins, the Aston Villa striker, scored a splendid goal in the 90th minute, and that was simply enough to take them to their second consecutive Euro final, but one where they are certainly not favourites as they will face a Spanish side that defeated France 2-1, and where the young Lamine Yamal is on fire!

So English fans and my one cat are happy, while my other cat has decided never to watch football again: 

 

Copa America 2024 Semifinals

Copa America 2024 has reached the semifinals, and my cat Whisky is still an excited sellout on all the teams that will play:

Canada	Argentina
Uruguay	Colombia

Canada, the only CONCACAF team left are surely the surprise in their first semifinal ever and will face the World and defending Copa America Champions of Argentina in the semifinals. Canada, who have only scored two ordinary goals in the tournament, already lost 0-2 to Argentina in their opening match, and if they manage to win, it will surely be one of the greatest upsets in the history of the game.

In the meantime Uruguay and Colombia are facing one another in a semifinal that is harder to predict. Colombia, led by a resuscitated James Rodriguez, is going through their longest streak of not losing ever, and are the most scoring team of the tournament after crushing Panama 5-0. In the meantime Uruguay is coming from three straight victories in the first round, and eliminating (no longer so) mighty Brazil in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks.

What we are hoping mostly is that the sides won't defend to much, and give one another some great matches. 

And despite of what my cat says, I hope for an Argentina-Colombia final!

The Euro 2024 semifinalists

My cats are very excited about the coming Euro semifinals that nevertheless include no surprises whatsoever:

France	Spain
England	Netherlands

As you can see my cats are pretty excited about the teams (perhaps less about England), and hope, like we all do, that they do not turn into some defensive win-at-all-costs mentality.

When winning is all that counts and rules make no sense

I could care less whether Spain or Germany won. Both are fantastic countries that I love, but in football they are often hard to like.

Today was one of those days.

The good thing about German elimination is that Germany again made history: the first time ever the hosts have been eliminated in the quarterfinals of a European Championship! Secondly, it was good to see Toni Kroos play his last match; a good player sure, but completely overrated; he is not at the level of some of the greats, but merely a good player that will soon be forgotten. So no tears over Germany.

But no celebrations over Spain either.

Spain have proud traditions, and this team has some of the elements that could make it a great team. But today we saw a side that despite its quality have no qualms over how to win. Some years ago I would have lamented the lack of fair play and being a gentleman, but truth is that I learnt in El Salvador that in life you are stupid if you think you can play fair and even less be a gentleman and I am trying hard to be neither. Therefore I admire a Dani Carvajal that is ready to get a red card by violently taking down a young Florian Wirtz (who had scored the equalizer for Germany following Dani Olmo's lead goal) in the 124th minute in order to avoid any risk of losing and giving a spectacle to fans.

Winning is everything in life, no matter what, and whoever says any thing differently is bound to lose (and believe me, because I learnt this the hard way the last couple of years).

Think only of yourself and run over Florian Wirtz if it comes to it.

And then we have refereeing: a light handball and VAR review gave Germany a penalty kick over Denmark. But a clear handball in the area by a Spaniard was not deemed worthy even of a VAR review by the referee, who let the game play on. The problem is not VAR or whatever tools they use; nor is it the rules, but it is the inconsistent refereeing that seems to change from game to game.

I cannot wait till we get AI referee bots, because at least they will take responsibility.

So now Spain are in the semifinals and likely winners of the tournament. Who can take them on? Perhaps all time boring France who defeated Portugal after penalty kicks in an all-boring match that reminded of the dead boring final in 2016. Two sides who are both willing to shed any pretense of playing a game we all love, for the mere fact of winning.

It is sad, but that is today's world: win win win, no matter what or who you run over on the way.

Euro quarterfinals

The eight best national sides in Europe have been decided. A pity that we saw no surprises, and in general not very good matches, but with some drama nevertheless. The coming quarterfinals are as follows:

• Spain-Germany: perhaps the most awaited match as the hosts face the team that has perhaps played the best football. Spain defeated Georgia 4-1, but until now appear not to have been up against the best sides. The match will also be a test for Germany, who are hungering for a title.
• Portugal-France: The French remain favourites although they have not been impressive, and Kylian Mbappe is yet to score. They defeated Belgium 0-1 deservedly and have by far the best defense in the tournament. They are my favourites to defeat a Portuguese side that had to go to penalty kicks against a great Slovenia, and has already lost to Georgia as well. That said, they have a fantastic Diogo Costa in goal.
• England- Switzerland: The Swiss destroyed the defending champions of Italy, and are surely amongst the favourites. England has not reached the expected level in the tournament, and struggled to defeat Slovakia, only equalising late by a spectacular kick by Jude Bellingham. So in my view Switzerland are favourites because they have played better. I will surely support them!
• Netherlands-Turkey: Never underestimate the Dutch who sometimes may look shaky but were strong to defeat Romania 3-0. Turkey in the meantime defeated the well-playing Austrians 2-1 and it will surely be an intense clash between these two ambitious sides.

I certainly hope that the quarterfinals will be good, and the best teams win.