Mexican Football: Crossing The Desert, Or; You Say Futbol, I Say Football. Let's Call The Whole Thing Offsides.

In the Chronicle, the sports on TV section doesn't even list the Mexican football games, even though there seem to be at least three or four games every weekend. That seems odd, given the Latino influence in San Francisco, but I guess it is at least artistically appropriate, given the difficulties I've had in finding traction as a wannabe fan of Mexican football, which will lend an air of profundity to this blog.

It just makes sense that I should follow Mexican football, aka soccer. I love soccer. Major League Soccer can be okay, but the quality of play in the Mexican games I've seen has always felt a step above in terms of fluidity and overall skill of the games. Plus, Mexico is a heck of a lot closer than Europe, and I've now been to the country.

Still, the challenges are several. For one thing, I have only a rudimentary understanding of Spanish. I can get the gist of some of what the soccer announcers are saying, helped by the fact that I understand the context, knowing soccer as a game. And in my week in Mexico, I managed to follow some of Marina's conversations with Mexicans. But still, the announcers talk so damn fast.

Also, I'm not familiar with where the teams are, so I have no sense for the identity of the clubs, and no sense of connection, even with my recent trip--an Internet search indicates there were no major teams near where we traveled to Baja California Sur, which is not surprising, as remote as it was. So I don't have any club to feel any particular allegiance to, although Chivas de Guadelajara at least is connected with Major League Soccer, serving as a parent club for Chivas USA. But Chivas USA is in Los Angeles. Ick.

But there are some points of possible connections that I can pursue. With so many games being shown, I could watch the same teams over and over, which would give me the chance to cultivate an appreciation for how a certain team plays. And there are some Americans who play in Mexico; Jonathan Bornstein, for instance, recently moved from MLS to a Mexican team. Or there is a team from Monterrey, whose name reminds me of Monterey in Alto California (California for the gringos)--I love Monterey, so maybe I would like Monterrey. Or there are the comments of the staff at a restaurant we ate at in Loreto, who were watching a game and saying that Club America was a good team. Maybe I should take their advice, except that my stumbling efforts to talk to them about soccer were kind of embarrassing. "Chicharito Hernandez!" (thumbs up).

Some teams are sponsored by Corona, which tastes great with fish tacos, although based on my own experience, if there were a team sponsored by Pacifico, I might have to go with them. Pacifico is refreshing. (Back to the Internet: Pacifico and Corona are from the same large brewery.)

In any case, I have finally found a section of soccernet.com, and another website, goal.com, that seem to have more coverage of Mexican football, so I'll start trying to follow it more. Heck, with American football having just gone into a lockout, committing a potential corporate-sports suicide like baseball did in 1994, I need another source of football, it seems. Might as well be the beautiful version from Mexico.