As anybody who follows me on twitter will know, I’m an avid cyclist, doing around 17 km every day. I love the fact that most of the city has bike paths even to the point that they refurbished the old railroad into a bike and pedestrian shortcut into the city with the charming name of Baana.
Even if now I’m out of the bike paths because of a knee injury, I have been really happy to be out and about whatever the weather (and in Finland you know it won’t be tropical for 99% of the year). You only need the proper equipment and you’ll be fine.
I read somewhere that the Helsinki ice hockey derby between HIFK & Jokerit is the most fiercely contested in the Nordic countries. Even if I don’t cheer for either team, as a neutral it was nice to attend a match with a nice atmosphere and chanting, not only clapping.
Hay dos maneras de practicar esquí de fondo con un bebé de brazos: te lo puedes poner en una mochila o si ya tiene más de 6 meses puedes sentarlo en un trineo especialmente diseñado para ello (obviamente abrigado adecuadamente en ambos casos)
El caso es que ser papá no significa empezar a echar panza.
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
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:
Mexico was drawn together with South Africa, France, and Uruguay, in group A, and will play the opening match of the tournament in Johannesburg against the hosts.
While the reaction in both France and South African media seems to have been mostly relieved, I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Uruguay can be a very tough opponent, and Mexico ended its qualification campaign much better than it started.
The opening match will be crucial and for that there is a couple of things I wanted to bring up:
Altitude: South Africa and Mexico are used to playing at altitude, so that should not be a factor.
Home advantage: Certain reports were making a lot of noise about vuvuzelas, the trumpets South African supporters use, and how they would inspire fear in their opponents. Sorry, bafana bafana, but the Mexicans will just feel right at home if they hear loud blowing horns as that matches the conditions at Azteca Stadium.
Rankings, team quality, World Cup experience…: I like the South Africans, but the team hasn’t really shown that much lately. Mexico started qualification in the doldrums and ended on a high.
Opening match: No host team has lost the opening match in the history of the World Cup.
Now we just have to wait for July to come over, right?
I was very fortunate to have watched two Eurobasket quarterfinals in Poland (Russia-Serbia & Spain-France). Spain especially impressed me with their fast handling of the ball, tough defense and great offensive mobility. This Spanish team has 4 players in the professional leage of North America (soon to be 5) and it shows. No wonder the “ÑBA” won the championship in the end.
Quite a different story from the Olypic games in Barcelona in 1992, where the Spanish star Jofresa went to ask the American team for their autographs after their game if memory serves me right.
You know the result, you probably also watched the game. The second consecutive win for Mexico against the US in just a few weeks featured this time the A squads from both sides playing at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
The interesting thing for me as a Mexico fan was not only the win, but the way it was achieved. After the tactical incompetence of the Hugo Sánchez years and the endless tinkering of the Sven-Göran Eriksson times, it was nice to see a team that had a solid base of players based in Mexico and Europe who understood each other. Furthermore, we saw that some of the U-17 champions of 2005 have made the transition to the senior team well after a shaky start.
The most important lesson, however, was the way this team finally showed (and used) the patience and maturity to win matches against hard-as-nails opposition. While any other Mexican team would have started to panic after going one goal down against the Americans at the cradle of Mexican football, these guys kept their cool, followed their game plan, moved the ball around and finally scored. Maybe Rafael Márquez not being there actually helped as he has a long sad history in situations like these with the national team.
El Tri wouldn’t be in this situation if it were not for the complete lack of long term planning by the Mexican Football Federation, but this victory comes at the right time to steady the ship and qualify for South Africa. We don’t need this rollercoaster the next World Cup cycle, please.
