Guatemalan Soccer

So last week Guatemala lost to Canada to end their run in the 2007 Gold Cup. The next day the papers in Guatemala thrashed the team for it's ineptitude. The real reason people got so worked up though was because they had been given hope, again. And, again, they felt bamboozled.

The gist of the comments in the paper (and by readers) was this:

"Here we go again. One more time the National team shows they are nothing but amateurs playing against professional athletes."

Lately they haven't been blaming the coaches, which used to be SOP. But our last two coaches have been pretty good—the one thing everyone agreed on.

Now the only thing people agree on is how slow, weak, and underskilled our players are when they play real teams.

It's an argument that has been made for a long time. Our players aren't professional athletes, they are guys who are getting paid a little bit of money (just enough) to play a sport they've played since they were kids. In a poor country like Guatemala, these guys' priorities have nothing to do with sports. It's about getting yours and providing for your family. It's the same thing that happens in politics—when anyone that isn't rich (and even those who are) get to a position of power, they go into self-preservation mode. Only they take it to an extreme. Once they realize the amount of money they can take (which everyone else is taking), they figure they better get in on in too or else they'll miss their chance at having a little bit of comfort in their lives.

It's poverty, it makes things like morals and values something you can't afford to think about, and never do.

That is all.