Mexico vs the Netherlands

So, we meet again…

“History is written by the victors”, but seldom losers have more fun; especially in sports, when there is nothing to lose and so much to win.

Warm-up

Memory is a strange place. Sometimes it takes a scent to remember a loved one, some others you spend the whole night before an exam repeating yourself dates and names for that history exam, just to find out all that cramming was useless and that you are most likely to fail the test.

Yes, memory plays tricks on us, but there are some memories that are relevant for many reasons. Most of them start like this “The first time I…”, you can insert there any pleasant, fun, sad or the emotion a particular moment evokes.

For me, one of those memorable moments was the first time I ever screamed goal, and it happened during the 98 World Cup held in France.

First Half

At the time, soccer wasn’t one if my main interests, although this event couldn’t be neglected in Mexico; a country where even a crushed can is used as a soccer ball.

It was during a school day, when our national team played its pass to the next round. Our opponent? The powerful Dutch team, a nation which motto is “I will uphold” and that’s in carved in the DNA of every one of its players.

During that day almost every classroom had a T.V so we could witness our national heroes. The World Cup excitement didn’t make distinction among those who loved soccer and those who didn’t. That’s how I ended up between the indifference of our teachers who finally took a brake from their students, and the enthusiasm of all my classmates.

To be honest, we all secretly hoped that we managed to defeat the Netherlands; an expectation shared by everyone that made us create and fashion our motto “Si se puede” (Yes we can), way before Obama.

Half Time

Some of us have daydreams where we score the winning 3 points at the last second, or a hail Mary succeeds to give our team the Super Bowl. Thousands of people chanting our name, making a whole city or nation tremble.

Every sports follower knows these moments are very rare, almost like winning the lottery. But when they happen our whole universe is shaken.

Second Half

I can’t remember much of what happened during the match. I was looking a way to escape school, somehow I ended up in a random classroom with some of my friends.

By the end of the second half, we were down 2-1 — just what the pools, and everyone expected. But something strange happened during the final minutes; from the midfield a Mexican player managed to send the ball to the penalty box. There, the massive dutch defenders were waiting to crush the last desperate attempt of our team to score. But the unthinkable happened: Jaap Stam failed to clear the ball and our forward, who was 30 cm shorter, managed to push the ball into the net. The David vs Goliath story repeated once more.

I have seen many goals in my life: some of them are worth watching again and again, others will make you smile and will give 3 points to your team. But the one that took place the 25th of June in Saint-Étienne is by far the roughest, yet the most exciting I’ve witnessed.

What happened afterwards can only be described as madness. We all screamed ‘gooooooooal’ frantically while some guy punched a locker to the point he dented it, notebooks and books flew, some others threw a desk from the second floor as early symptoms of hooliganism.

It was a tie, but it felt like the greatest of victories and that’s how I subscribed to the pains and sorrows only soccer can deliver.

Final Whistle

16 years have passed since that match and a lot of things have happened during that time; I have learned a lot of things, made a lot of mistakes, met a lot of interesting people, lost a few loved ones— things change faster than you think and then, one day, you stop to take a look at the rearview mirror and wonder where all that time has gone.

Perhaps, one of the few things that have remained the same during this time is this wonderful game. Different players, different moments of my life but the joy for matches like this hasn’t diminished. In fact, they make me believe that in a world, where it’s impossible to grasp a moment and fail to remember exactly how it was, this game may be the only constant in my life.

No matter what happens this Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to look back at this moment 16 years from now and remember what I was doing during the match of Mexico vs Holland during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil — just like that rainy day in 1998.