& a blog

i just got back from lunch at three aces, my favorite pizza/sub joint in the entire boston area. they have a mrs. pacman machine, which still plays for a quarter, chicken finger subs (oh my god it’s so bad its good), alcohol (heineken thru sutton house) and, most importantly, soccer on tv.

a little over a month ago, I was watching the Euro on a daily basis in three aces. I’d time my lunch for just the right half hour slot, and catch the final 30 minutes second half. it was glorious.

especially because i got to see the dutch light up italy. and if it weren’t for these football-loving greek americans, i’d definitely have missed what maybe the highlight of my soccer year

this afternoon, the greeks were watching a game between two clubs in uruguay. it was clearly not an important game to be on at roughly 4 pm (local time uruguay) on a tuesday afternoon. nonetheless, i miss soccer this time of year (when Europe is taking a break, and the mls remains the mls) so i appreciated any televised men-hitting-ball-with-feet-strategically that i could get my eyes on.

i’d also never seen uruguayan soccer. despite the fact Uruguay hosted and won the first world cup. despite the fact that the best book i’d ever read on soccer (soccer in sun and shadow) was written by a uruguayan (eduardo galeano). despite the fact that as i understand it, soccer was invented by the english, incubated by the uruguayans, and perfected by the brazilians. in short, i’d been denied seeing the adolescence of soccer.

one reason why i have been denied this look is because uruguay flatly does not exist on the international soccer scene. between brazil and argentina, the men from montevideo have been simply outclassed.

and this was clear as soon as i began watching the game. it was the second half (which is ideal, because i can stay at three aces for about 40 minutes max) and the competitors were two teams from montevideo, River Plate (which seems to be the name of every soccer team in South America) and Danubio (which, ironically, is also named for a river, but one you may recognize from europe).

the field was tiny, the grass was tired, and the weather looked novemberish (long sleeve shirts, leaves turning on trees in the background). but the athletes were playing hard, and the fans (though few) were excited for the game.

and what a game it was. violent would be an understatement. these guys were absolutely assaulting one another on the pitch, and within minutes four yellow cards had been dispensed, two of which were to the same player, resulting in a red card and his instant ejection. the fouls were hard.

the uruguayan style of soccer seemed sloppy. the passing was poor, and the emphasis appeared to be on the individual player. far too many times, i watched a player try to go it alone, and blow it. the game ended in a tie, but i saw why the uruguayans haven’t been to the world cup in a while:

their scoring is poor, their spacing is atrocious, their strategy is adolescent, but their keepers are amazing.

*the icon above is for danubio. which has roughly the same diagonal black stripe thru their jerseys… SO BAD ASS.