Mexico Gold Cup Champion

I am currently in Denmark, so I was unable to watch the CONCACAF Gold Cup final between USA and Mexico. Despite making the final both sides have been looking shaky lately, with particularly the USA appearing weak under the leadership of Mauricio Pochettino. That said, the arch-rivals were now in their 8th final after difficult matches against Guatemala and Honduras respectively. Of the previous finals Mexico have won five, and the USA two. 

USA opened the scoring on an early header by the Crystal Palace striker Chris Richards, with the Fulham striker Raul Jimenez equalizing for Mexico (and dedicating the goal to his former teammate Diogo Jota). Second half it was another PL player, Wast Ham's Edson Alvarez, who scored the winner for Mexico, giving them their 10th Gold Cup title of 18 possible.

Three finals in a day

The Champions League final was the first match that I watched on TV since the World Cup Final. I was happy for friends who are Liverpool fans, but otherwise it did not do anything for me, besides an immense sadness that I have no interests any longer.
For the last month, nevertheless, I had started watching some football news as three interesting national team tournaments have been going on: the Copa America, the Gold Cup, and most interesting, the World Cup for teams made up of female players.
I carefully started watching the Copa America quarterfinals, when Argentina played Venezuela (two countries I have lived in), and Colombia played Chile (the country of my Mother and the country of my birth).
Argentina, and not least Messi, have been one of my great disappointments over the last years, and watching them against Venezuela made me support the "Vinotinto", who undoubtedly are a better team, but still lost to the lucky Argentines. And although I supported Colombia, I was not unhappy to see Chile progress. I watched both semifinals: Argentina lost as expected against a superior Brazil (although they did not play bad), while Peru played the best I have ever seen them play in defeating Chile 3-0. After a disgrace of a third place match between Argentina and Chile, Peru were no match for Brazil, who played well to win 3-1 today.
I like this Brazil side by Tite. They play quick modern football, using the qualities of their spectacular players, instead of the defensive destruction of Dunga or the overambitious arrogance of Scolari. With a good Brazil it might even be worth to watch football again....

It has been difficult to watch matches from the World Cup in France because of the time difference, but I have followed with interest as the tournament has had as much interest as it deserves. As I sat to watch the final this morning I must admit that I was supporting the Dutch, but also that it was always clear that the US ladies were by far the better team, winning 2-0, and they are deserved repeat winners in what in many ways has been a historical tournament.
But congratulations to the USA ladies; in particular I like Megan Rapinoe (as so many people do): she is a great player (better than so many, also men!), but also a fantastic personality. She is the rare person who loves the sport, and knows that all the nationalism around it is just that: nationalistic crap. A well-deserved Golden Boot.

I started to watch the Gold Cup when the country I am currently in, El Salvador, started doing well: they defeated Jamaica and tied Curacao, and were set to go through with a tie against their arch-rivals of Honduras, who had already been eliminated. But El Salvador completely lost their nerves against Honduras, who trashed them 4-0, and then they both were eliminated to the delight of Jamaica and Curacao. I did not watch any matches until today's final between the two CONCACAF archrivals of USA and Mexico. It was a good and intense match which Mexico won 1-0 on a spectacular Jonathan Dos Santos goal. While Mexico were overall the better team, USA had some huge wasted chances to score, and one has to wonder, surely, how these guys get more in salary than the amazing USA soccer ladies....
Open discrimination lives on in football....

I enjoyed watching the matches today, but I still feel that football mostly appeals to the worst in people and that football is an all to open expression of everything that is bad in the world (which is an awful lot).

El Salvador doing well

A few weeks ago someone said to me that they did not trust El Salvador´s national team. "Every country I have ever been in does well in football", I replied. Even though I have not been watching football for six months, and I continue my disillusion with the hate, commercialism and discrimination that football today is (I think it has been amply demonstrated lately, from players tax evasion, attacks on fans, open discrimination against women footballers, to racism against players without UEFA acting on it), I am still confident of the good influence I have on the football karma of the country I am in.
El Salvador is no exception.
Last week El Salvador played Jamaica in match they had to win to qualify to the Gold Cup, and they won 3-1 to qualify for the tournament. A few days later, El Salvador played the World Cup participants of Peru and won 2-0 to everyone's surprise (it appeared most of all to the team itself). I wish El Salvador´s football well. But they will probably fall into the exaggerated and aggressive nationalism that happens to everyone when they win in football. A country that has so much to offer as El Salvador, should care less about how 11 guys kicking a ball do.

USA-Mexico

After the spectacular performance at the Confederations Cup I think there were great expectations to the US team as they went into the Gold Cup - the nearest thing to a Concacaf regional trophy. And the US seemed on the way to fulfill these expectations as they were to face the arch-rivals from Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup in front of 80,000 spectators in New Jersey. After 0-0 at half-time Mexico was awarded a doubtful penalty kick that Gerardo Torredo scored on. After this, the otherwise solid US side fell apart, and Mexico humilliated the US 5-0, winning on US for the first time this century!
This fifth Gold Cup title is surely good for the Mexican's confidence as they struggle to qualify for the World Cup, while it is surely a huge disappointment to the US. However, I don't think this is necessarily bad for the US: as they have now been brought to the world's attention, they nevertheless need to keep their feet on the ground, and enter next year's world cup with some necessary humility, no matter how disappointing this match may have been. This was an extraordinary result, and I still think the US is a better team than Mexico overall.