A Deja Vu that Smells Like Wet Gunpowder
It seems that the scriptwriter of the soccer tragedies of the Mexican National Team has run out of original ideas. In a performance that we have already seen more times than the episodes of El Chavo del 8, the U-17 team offered us another masterful act of ephemeral hope followed by an outcome as predictable as the rise of bread. With the elegance of an elephant in a china shop, the team managed to make their fans believe, for exactly one minute, that the feat was possible. How kind.
The play, worthy of a theater of the absurd, began with Mladen Mijajilovic scoring for Switzerland in the 17th minute. Of course, conceding an early goal is just an advanced strategy to make the match more exciting for the neutral spectator, right? We don’t want the Swiss to get bored with an easy victory. You have to give them a little drama.
The Sigh that Drowned in the Throat
The 57th minute arrived and, in an outburst of what some unwary people could call quality play, Aldo de Nigris (yes, that surname that sounds like football déjà vu) successfully headed home. The score was 2-1. The stadium, or at least the small portion that wasn’t wearing red with a white cross, went crazy. Faith was a phoenix reborn from the ashes… a phoenix with an extremely short life expectancy, it must be said.
And then, in a plot twist that would only surprise someone who has just landed from Mars, the Mexican defense decided that staying focused was too mundane a task. Barely sixty seconds later, Mijajilovic himself, who apparently had an exclusive contract to martyr Tricolor, appeared to sign the final 3-1. It was the final blow, the bucket of cold water, the confirmation that, once again, we had fallen into the trap of illusion.
One wonders what went through the minds of the youth during that minute of collective madness. Did you think that with discounting everything was done? Did they think that the Swiss, moved by the gesture, would give them a tie? The consistency with which these Mexican teams find new and creative ways to disappoint is, to say the least, admirable. It is a special talent, a kind of genius for failure that should be studied by scientists.
As it is, the road to the round of 32 of the U17 World Cup looks as far away as an oasis in the desert. Switzerland, cold and calculating like clockwork in its country, simply did its job. They applied the law of least effort: they let Mexico believe, and then reminded them, with brutal efficiency, what the natural order of things is in these scenarios. A lesson in reality, with a touch of sarcasm included.
What do we have left? Well, analyze, reflect and hope that the next “youth project” does not repeat the same mistakes as always. Although, let’s face it, it probably will. Hope, after all, is the last thing you lose… even when you lose it every now and then on the field.
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