border wars

last night the united states played mexico in soccer. the game was in phoenix, but whenever the us plays mexico along our southern border it's more like a home game for them. and we keep playing them down there because that way the stadium's full. it's a complicated issue, but the point is, the crowd was decidedly pro-mexico.

it was officially a friendly match, but as one fan's sign at the stadium pointed out, when it comes to these two sides "there are no friendlies". it's true. there's been bad blood between the teams for years, and since lately we've been the dominant side, things have gotten especially ugly. there's usually some elbows thrown, words exchanged, and...name-calling, too! and of course during the corner kicks, there was the requisite throwing of water cups at our players.

so there they all were, a crowd of 60,000-plus people, most of whom HATED the united states, and as i watched i couldn't help but think how nice it was to have so many people gathered together, hating our great nation just for our soccer, and irrespective of our politics and diplomacy.

oh, sport! i love you!