The last month has seen a dearth of posts in this blog for two very simple reasons: work has been absolutely hectic and the World Cup has overtaken the little available spare time I have.

The Mexican team was eliminated in the second round of the World Cup, but I wanted to recap on its campaign in the tournament (for the full tactical analysis go here).  Its preparations were the best in recent memory, doing not only the usual tour of the US against mid- to low-tier teams but also a tour of Europe, where the team lost against England and the Netherlands but beat Gambia and Italy.

As the Tricolor played the opening match against South Africa expectations were very high, but the team looked imprecise (if you could blame the ball the time was now) and lacking killer instinct in the last third of the pitch.  South Africa scored a beautiful goal on the counter and Mexico had to search further, with captain Márquez saving our blushes (and our chances to qualify for the next round).

The second game, against France, was the one everybody expected the team to lose.  The French team, however, hadn’t read the script and arrived tired, divided and overconfident.  Mexico, having performed some changes in defense compared to the first game, looked the better team throughout, but it was the introduction of  youngsters “Chicharito” Hernández and Pablo “Dinamita” Barrera that really made a difference.  The first open the scoreboard and the second provoked a penalty that sealed the game as 2-0 in our favour.  The victory was celebrated by the 110 million Mexicans in Mexico and the 30 million abroad, it was the main news item in domestic media and life was good.

The third game of the group stage was weird: Mexico and Uruguay could go through to the next stage with a draw, while a victory by either team would mean trouble.  Both came out swinging anyway but it was Uruguay who scored the only game in the match.  Mexico would meet Argentina in the second round… just like in 2006.

Expectations being enormous, it was the Mexicans who played the better football in the first 30 minutes, until a blatant offside goal gave Argentina the lead and totally crushed Tri concentration.  That was obvious with the second albiceleste goal, rising from a childish error in defense.  The 3rd goal for the South Americans, however, was a thing of beauty and there’s nothing the opposing fan can say about it.  Mexico picked up the pieces and it was again “Chicharito”, coming as a sub, who led the Mexican charge and scored what in Spanish is called the “honourable” goal, but that was it.

Aguirre, the coach who saved the Mexican qualification campaign, will not continue at the helm of the national team, but many of the men he picked are called to become the backbone of the group that will seek to play in the next World Cup in Brazil: Ochoa, Moreno, Aguilar, Guardado, Dos Santos, Vela, Hernández, Barrera are all under 24 years old, and many are either playing in Europe or have the possibility to move here within the next 4 years.  Other players who figured in the team but didn’t make the trip to South Africa are also young, so right now would be the time to find a good coach, create a proper plan and stick with it.

Regardless of what happens, this is the moment I’ll cherish until I see the guys in green, white and red sing the anthem at the World Cup again:

After a week and a half of having declared the emergency, everything is slowly going back to normal in Mexico City now that the government has declared that the worst has passed (at least in Mexico itself, as the virus is still being reported in the U.S.). Tomorrow people will go back to work and in a few days schools will reopen.  There are a couple of diplomatic incidents still ongoing, and I for one am not planning to go to China nor Argentina anytime soon (both suspended flights, and Mexicans without symptoms are .

I really hope that the Mexican tourism industry recovers once this emergency is over, as the economic cost of this emergency runs in the billions.  At least it’s not the main news item in international media anymore at the time of writing.

Even though the name is rather contentious, it is definitely the main news topic worldwide.   The rate of new cases seems to be going down in Mexico according to the Health Ministry, but there have been more deaths in Mexico and the first one abroad and the disease has spread to more countries, including a suspected case in Finland.  In Mexico City most of my friends and family keep on staying home, and most have already paid a heavy-duty visit to the supermarket.  I certainly hope the situation stabilises before other countries besides Argentina and Cuba suspend flights to the country.

In the cultural reaction front, there is plenty of photoshopped images doing the rounds, and others taken from the scene.  There is now a second swine flu song, the first has been translated to English, and people keep on using humour as a way to cope, especially that now even restaurants in the city are closed (with losses of more than 70 million USD per day).

Anybody who knows me a little bit (or has seen my profile at Last.fm) has probably realised that my musical taste is quite varied.  On any given day I could be listening to raï, ranchera, punk, samba, rock, jazz, metal, classical music, ska, axé, or electronica from Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Algeria, France, Belgium, Israel, India, Canada, Argentina, Egypt, China, etc… which if they’re not your usual Anglo-Saxon pop-rock will usually be clumped together into World Music, with very awkward results.

For example, with the current version of iTunes you have a “Genius” feature that promises to make perfect playlists for you.  However, the database they use seems to have been made by the record companies instead of users, so when it does find the music I have (which is less often than I would expect), if I ask to create a Genius playlist out of e.g. one of my favourite Mexican rock bands it will put it together with Mexican & Argentine traditional music too since they’re “Latin”, something akin to lumping James Brown together with Enya because they come from the English-speaking world.  It gets even better when I try it with some of my favourite samba artists, as they will be lumped together  with salsa, raï, Bollywood and tango acts because they are “World Music”, even if I do have plenty of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) to make a list with.

David Byrne said it best: he hates world music.

Libro Recomendado: Cuentos Chinos
Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Andrés Oppenheimer otra vez saca un libro sobre actualidad latinoamericana altamente recomendable. Aunque en algunas cosas se nota un poco que fue escrito hace ya dos años, en general se trata de un libro que nos muestra qué es lo que han hecho los países que sí se han subido al tren de la globalización y el desarrollo y por qué Latinoamérica aún no ha hecho lo propio, con resultados mediocres.

Me quedo con tres reflexiones:

-Países como México o Argentina harían bien con seguir el ejemplo de Corea del Sur, que con un consenso político ha alcanzado niveles de desarrollo que ya quisiéramos nosotros con una tamaño de población similar.

-Sabía que Brasil se trata de posicionar como el líder de la región, pero no estaba enterado que por eso han empezado a referirse a la integración de Sudamérica en lugar de Latinoamérica (que incluiría a México, el único país que tal vez le haría sombra). Obviamente, las políticas de Tlatelolco tampoco han ayudado mucho en contrarrestar esta jugada de Itamaratí.

-El crecimiento actual de las economías argentina y brasileña, dependiente de los precios elevados de las materias primas, no es sustentable al largo plazo a menos a que decidan invertir esas ganancias en otros negocios. Si no, pregúntenle a México cuando iba a “administrar la abundancia” bajo la presidencia de López Portillo.

Antes de que el Sr. La Volpe dirigiera a Vélez en Argentina, algunos medios de ese país (especialmente "Olé") decían que en México no se le apreciaba dado que es argentino.

Después de haber experimentado las malas formas de este entrenador con la prensa, con los jugadores y hasta con sus partidarios, se dieron cuenta que aunque esta persona es realmente es uno de los que más saben de táctica en el balompié mundial, sus formas y su trato humano es lo que lo hacen fallar.

Después de escuchar la frase que da título a este post de boca de un amigo argentino, me dí cuenta que ellos habían llegado a la misma conclusión.  Escribo esto aún cuando sigo siendo de la opinión que el partido México-Argentina del Mundial pasado fue el mejor que una selección mexicana jamás haya jugado en una Copa del Mundo.

Un amigo me mandó este artículo.  Me quedo con el párrafo referenciado abajo:

"Tengo la impresión de que cualquier ser humano que, por necesidad o elección, se va de su tierra en la edad madura para vivir en otro sitio ajeno, perdiendo sus códigos, su acento, sus amigos del alma, su familia y sus libros y discos de adolescencia, se convierte en otra persona a la fuerza. Y esa otra persona no es ya de ninguna parte. Pero tiene un pariente cercano en cualquier inmigrante, tiene historias comunes con todos los que se han ido. Yo tengo más temas en común con un senegalés que llegó a España en patera que con un francés que vive en París. Somos muchísimos los que estamos en otra parte, los que ya no tenemos en el bolsillo la llave de la casa de nuestros padres. Los inmigrantes somos un país sin bandera y sin himno, pero nos reconocemos por la calle y sabemos cuánto nos cuesta cada día no olvidar de dónde vinimos, de dónde somos."

And Chivas lost against Arsenal de Sarandí at home for the second leg of their knockout tie in the Sudamericana Cup.

Chiva Congelado suffers…

Por lo singularmente parecidos.  Hoy cené con 4 mexicanos, dos argentinos y una colombiana y me sentí tan a gusto como si los conociera de siglos.  Estoy seguro que esto a un nórdico no le pasa.

Now that the Copa América finished with Brasil winning 3-0 over Argentina, we can safely say that effectivity won over beauty.  The Argentines had an excellent semi-finals game against Mexico, who had come from thrashing Paraguay 6-0, and had beaten Brazil and Ecuador and tied with Chile in the first round.

In the U-20's WC, the kids lost also against Argentina, this time in quarters.  Furthermore, in the Pan-American games, the women also lost against the albiceleste, this time in the group stage.  So, if you bet in a Mexico-Argentina game, don't say you don't have enough background =(.

A good summary can be found here, where they basically say what I was going to write about:  Mexican football has grown and most probably the third place won against Uruguay reflects its status in the continent, but is still missing the leap in quality that will let it win when it matters against the top teams.