Sunday, August 09, 2009

El Tritanicos

Y'all might not know this, but soccer is pretty popular in Mexico. The national team is called El Tri, which is short for Tricolores (from the three colors of the Mexican flag) and the title of this post is a mocking pun used in Mexico City to describe them when they are not doing well.

Which is now.

Qualifying is going on now for the 2010 World Cup. The top three teams from North and Central America will automatically qualify. The US is in second, Mexico is fourth having already lost to the US, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Wednesday, El Tri plays the US at home in the giant Azteca stadium. The US has never beaten Mexico in Mexico.

I guess it's fair to say this is a pretty big game. A fun article in the NY Times breaks down the Mexican psyche in these trying times.

I am going to predict a US victory!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the game is Wednesday.

ardyanovich said...

Mexico always loses when it matters. I don't know why there's so much energy devoted to soccer there. I think they should try their luck with baseball.

Dirty Davey said...

The game is only "today" for sufficiently large values of "today".

Angus said...

LOL, come back and re-read this post on Wednesday!! Then it will be right.

Chris Lawrence said...

Well, in Mexico's defense, they did just beat us 5-0.

And by "us" I mean basically a U-23 team that really in no way resembles the team that will play Wednesday.

But I figure they will win, if only because we don't have a sealed, indoor practice facility with Aspen's air pressure and exhaust fumes from highway tunnels pumped into it to create that fun, Azteca ambiance. Not that OSHA would allow US Soccer to build such a monstrosity.