God Save Soccer

Jugamos como nunca y perdimos como siempre - Mexican soccer analysis and last results.

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:53:44 -0500

It´s interesting to analize Mexican soccer. And also analize Mexican teams' growth. América, Pachuca and Guadalajara give to their National team most of Mexican players. America is the last Concacaf Champions Cup winner on 2006. Barcelona have beaten America 4-0 in last December with a weak performance of Club America de Futbol. Pachuca is the new holders of Concacaf Champions Cup on 2007. Pachuca is also the last Copa Sudamerica winner on 2006. Pachuca have beaten the traditional Colo-Colo with 3-2 on aggreate and a surprising 2-1 win in National Stadium of Santiago. On 2007, Pachuca have beaten Chivas Guadalajara to became the new Concacaf Champions Cup winner on two ties of 0-0 and 2-2. Pachuca have achieved also this year the Conmebol Recopa Sudamericana after being beaten by Internacional de Porto Alegre with 2-1 in Mexico and 0-4 in Porto Alegre. Chivas Guadalajara have reached Libertadores semi-finals and have been beaten by São Paulo with 0-1 in Mexico and 0-3 in São Paulo with 0-4 on aggregate. But this large aggregate that São Paulo have achieved on the semi-final isn´t the best mirror for the new level of Chivas Guadalajara. Chivas Guadalajara have beaten São Paulo twice on the first stage in Mexico and in São Paulo, with two 2-1 victories. This titles are results of a lot of investments, good scout and youth work. Guadalajara have given to the Mexican World Cup line-up Oswaldo Sanchez, Omar Bravo, Rodriguez, Morales and Pineda and the old bald Baustita and his kicks' kiss for the Mexican Copa America line-up. América have given José Antonio Castro and Ochoa for Mexican World Cup, but Cuauhtemoc Blanco is the greatest América star on Copa América. Pumas, Tigres and Cruz Azul are other good footnotes for Mexican performance on Latin America soccer. Pumas have Copa Sudamerica runner-up, Tigres have achieved two Libertadores second round in a row and Cruz Azul have achieved the best Mexican result on Libertadores. Cruz Azul have achieved Libertadores runner-up on 2001. Jugamos como nunca y perdimos como siempre. Not anymore. Mexico are winners again. Saludos.

Avante, Celeste

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:20:29 -0500

This game that will be played tonight will be a great game. But a tough game too. Uruguay is always a brave team. They will fight every ball. They have their blood exploding when they play against Argentina and Brazil. Centenario is not called this way without a special reason. Uruguay have played the first match on Centenario on July 18th, 1930. Exactly 100 years after the signement of the Uruguayan Constitution (July 18th, 1830). Uruguay have been olympic champions twice, in the Olympic Games of 1924 in Paris and 1928 in Amsterdam. Their shirt is called "La Celeste Olimpica" due to this 2 titles and the sky blue of the Uruguayan t-shirt.. Uruguay have been also World Cup champions twice. Urugays hosted the first World Cup. And Uruguay have beaten Argentina 4-2 in the final match. 20 years later Uruguay have beaten Brazil 2-1 when for Brazil the tie was enough to be this World Cup champions. This was for sure the greatest tragedy of the Brazilian soccer. Besides this, Uruguay was absent of 1934 and 1938 World Cup to answer the plot of the European National teams that were absent to the first World Cup. After being champions in 1950, Uruguay with almost the same team, but 4 years older, have reached the semi-final on 1954 in Switzerland. Uruguay was absent on 1958, failed in the first stage on 1962 and have reached quarter finals on 1966. The last great result of Uruguay in a World Cup was on 1970. Uruguay have reached the semi-final, and have been beaten by Brazil with a 3-1 defeat.

This team had great players: Mazurkiewicz, Ubiñas, Ancheta, Matosas, Montero Castillo; Mujica, Fontes and Cortés; Cubilla, Maneiro (Esparrago) and Morales. This team have been several times champions of the Libertadores playing by Peñarol and Nacional.

This team was a warrior one, besides the 1930 and 1950 were very skillful. After this, Uruguay have been successful to qualify to 1974, 1986, 1990 and 2002. The team have failed in the first stage on 1974 and 2002 and have been beaten in the seconed stage on 1986 and 1990. Hopeless results after being champions twice. This is the consequence of the bankrupt situation of Nacional and Peñarol. Avante Celeste, Avante.

We don´t care about Brazilian World Tour. We need our soccer back.

Sun, 8 Jul 2007 19:28:03 -0500

I have heard Frank Rikjaard after the FIFA Club World Cup final press conference. He was expecting a Samba team. As Abel Braga, Internacional ' manager, have said, Carnival happens once a year and the other part of the year we work hard. We can mark all the field hard also. Samba is the main exported product of Brazil but we have other parts of the country. I´ll use again the example of Internacional de Porto Alegre. Porto Alegre is a city that is close from Argentinian and Uruguayan boarder, in the South of Brazil and milonga, candomble and tango are much closer to us than samba. We are closer to Buenos Aires and Montevideu than to Rio. We look much more to Boca Juniors, River Plate, Nacional and Peñarol than to Flamengo, São Paulo and Corinthians. And we are far, far, far away from the jungle. I think when you european guys comment about Brazilian football don´t forget to study a little bit more about our football, our geography and our history. They are all connected to our soccer. We are a huge country. A mixed people that lives and plays soccer different from place to place. This simplist analsys causes to us Brazilian fans that you just know our National team. And this sounds wierd to us, because we are much more in touch to the European footbal than you to the real Brazilian football. What will you think about us if we don´t know the difference between Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea for example? Does Sir Alex Ferguson uses blue and Jose Mourinho uses red? I´m kidding. I know that Alex Ferguson rules on Old Trafford and Jose Mourinho rules on Stamford Bridge. Don´t forget. We are the Brazilian boys. The barbecue boys, the samba boys, the caipirinha boys. the jungle boys. All the boys from the 27 states of our wondeful country. We can play a beautiful football, but we also want to be competitive. Do we have great strikes? Yes we have. But we have great goalkeepers as Dida and Taffarel, great defenders as Lucio and Juan, great central midfielders as Emerson and Gilberto Silva. They are not ballerinas as Ronaldinho Gaucho. Even Kaka isn´t. But they are competitive. You, european guys, pay 100, 200 euros to see 'Joga Bonito' on 'Brazil World Tour'. Brazilian people don´t care about it. I wish that soon we can organize our continent soccer with Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay. We need and we will recover our south american soccer identity. Cost what it costs. Hurt whom it hurts.

We need a strong Libertadores. Power to the South American soccer.

Fri, 6 Jul 2007 07:39:11 -0500

If we want to compete to the players´flow to Europe we must have a strong Libertadores. Is it enough just to give power to Brazilian and Argentinian leagues? No. We have not just to give power to Boca Juniors, São Paulo, Internacional and Grêmio. They were the last champions and runners-up of the tournament. They are great and powerful South American teams. But they need other powerful support role teams. We have to give power to LDU, Union Maracaibo, Bolivar, Cienciano and other teams that come from Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru. This countries didn´t have the proud of being Libertadores champions. We have to give power also to Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay. They have already achieved glory, but ancient glory. Uruguayan Nacional and Peñarol are 2 of the great champions of Libertadores. Together they have achieved 8 titles. But the last title of both were on 1988 for Nacional and on 1987 for Peñarol. It´s almost 20 years of the last Uruguayan title. Colombia have given to South America Atlético Nacional from Medellin, América from Cali and Once Caldas from Manizales. Atletico Nacional and Once Caldas have achieved their titles on 1989 and 2004. But these were random occasions. America from Cali have worst profile. They have achieve 1985, 1986 and 1987 runners-up title and have lost their titles to Argentinos Juniors, River Plate and Peñarol in a row. Paraguay and Chile are armies of just one soldier. They have given Olimpia and Colo Colo to Libertadores. Olimpia have achieved their titles on 1979, 1990 and 2002. The first one beating the holders Boca Juniors. Chile have given Colo Colo to Libertadores list of Champions. They have achieved their title on 1991 after beating the holders Olimpia. But Chile have given also Union Española and Universidad Catolica. Union Española have been beaten by the capo of the tutti capi Independiente de Avellaneda on 1975. Universidad Catolica have been beaten by the holders São Paulo on 1993. It´s our will to have a great Libertadores as Europe have a great UEFA Champions League. Power to the South American soccer.