The Final Four

Regular readers know my affection for international soccer tournaments. Which is why this past Sunday, I peered through the grainy reception of Univision to watch Mexico and Costa Rica battle it out for a spot in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. It was a slow, ugly game, which Mexico won in extra time. Costa Rica managed to have two(!) players sent off with red cards. It wasn't the best game I've seen, but it was nice to have meaningful soccer on TV.

For those of you not familiar with this (ahem) storied tournament, the Gold Cup is the biennial tourney among all of the national teams in the CONCACAF region (North & Central America and the Caribbean; motto: At least we send more teams to the World Cup than Oceania). The semifinals are this Thursday, and will feature the US against Canada (they play soccer there?) and, in the other game, Mexico against the tiny island protectorate of Guadaloupe, which doesn't even qualify for World Cup play because FIFA doesn't recognize it as a nation (it's still a French colony). Guadaloupe prevailed over Honduras in the late game on Sunday with the help of a goal from 42(!) year old midfielder Jocelyn Angloma, a native Guadaloupean who's played for the French national team. (Small piece of soccer trivia gleaned from the ever-reliable Wikipedia: Thierry Henry's father is from Guadaloupe.)

So this Thursday's games have all you could ask for: home team rooting interest (U-S-A! U-S-A!), players who grew up playing soccer on frozen ponds (Canada), the team that more people who live in America support than the US team (Mexico), and a plucky underdog (Guadaloupe). Also, you get to brush up on your Spanish, because as far as I can tell, none of the games are on an English-language network. My fearless prediction is that the US and Mexico will face each other in Sunday's final, and that even though it will be played in the US, it will be virtually a home game for Mexico, as is the case any time they play here. (Virtually everyone in the capacity crowd for Sunday's game in Houston was wearing green, red, and white.) But you never know. They Canadians may surprise us, and never estimate a team from the Lesser Antilles with nothing to lose.