El Piojo puts the credibility of the FIFA ranking in check (and in the process, sticks a pin in Mexico)
Oh, FIFA, that organization that delights us with rankings as objective as a lottery draw. Miguel Herrera, the Costa Rica coach who never had a microphone he didn’t love, attacked the world list with the subtlety of an elephant in a glass shop. Your argument? That Mexico appears mysteriously in the Top 5 when, according to him, “it is not true” (translation: “they don’t even see football greatness with a magnifying glass”).
When the ranking smells of favoritism (and not of freshly cut grass)
In a press conference prior to the game against the Dominican Republic (yes, that fearsome rival that is ranked 139), El Piojo dropped pearls like: “The ranking is quite subjective“. Wow, what a revelation, Miguel. Are the points distributed like candy in a piñata? The curious thing is that Costa Rica is in 56th place, but he, instead of crying for his team, dedicated himself to questioning why Mexico—that giant that we all know shines… sometimes—appears so high. Jealousy? Envy? Or simply the harsh reality?
And of course, the condescending wink could not be missing: “You see these teams play and they have good football,” he said, referring to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, as if he were trying to sell smoke to his own players. Or could it be that he already anticipates a defeat and wants to look good? Of course, he highlighted that “many play in Europe” (read: “we’re not that bad, okay?”).
Meanwhile, FIFA continues to calculate its rankings with the same transparency as a fixed friendly match. Algorithms? Results? Nah, they probably use a dartboard and a couple of drunks picking random numbers.
Moral: football is passion… and also a recurring joke
In the end, Herrera gave us another gem from his repertoire: criticizing the uncriticizable while his team remains as low in the ranking as the salary of a sports journalist. Will his rant change anything? Of course not. But at least it gave us material to laugh for a while before Costa Rica lost 1-0 against a team that doesn’t even know how to spell “FIFA.”
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