MÉRIDA, YUCATÁN – ‘Futbol’ (football in
English, or ‘soccer’ to North Americans) is something of a national obsession
in Mexico, with most cities boasting at least one ‘professional’ team. Mérida
has CF Mérida, more familiarly known
as ‘Los Venados.’
We’re nearing the end of the ‘Clausura 2014’ season, and on Saturday
night, a good sized crowd of over 6000 enthusiastic supporters were at Estadio Carlos Iturralde (part of the
Kukulcan sports complex in Mérida) for the final home game of the competition.
Encouraged perhaps by the half-price tickets (special offer for the final game)
or possibly the ice cold beer on sale, the crowd was in excellent spirits.
Unfortunately however, the same could not be said of the team, which returned a
(sadly only too common) mediocre performance, even though their opponent (‘Ballenas Galeana’, from Cuernavaca,
Morelos) has been one of the worst performing teams of the ‘Ascenso MX’ league this season. The ‘Ascenso MX’ is basically Mexico’s second
division, and CF Mérida, under chairman Juan Manual Noya and manager
Ricardo Valiño, languishes at position 9 out of 15 after 13 games, with one
remaining to be played.
As often the case, the game started slowly,
with little action, and the score was 0–0 at half time. In the second half,
things warmed up (literally perhaps, given the 35°c evening temperature), and
five minutes in, Morelos scored, a lead which they held for twenty minutes, until,
finally, Mérida scored. Nine minutes later, Mérida scored again, holding a 2-1
lead until the final minutes of the game, when, a penalty awarded to Morelos
evened the score 2-2, which remained until the final whistle.
So ended a typical ‘Venados’ game. They were losing, they were equal, they were
winning, and finally they ended in a draw. Out of the 13 games so far this
season, 6 have ended in draws (along with 4 wins and 3 losses).
Once again, CF Mérida looked like a fractured team without any clear direction
or cohesion, which in fact is exactly what they are. Over the last few seasons,
there has been a revolving door of players, with few continuing from season to
season. One of the few players to remain as a permanent fixture is number 4,
Rodrigo Javier Noya, long one of the worst players in the team, who is now the
captain. Note the same last name as the Chairman… A coincidence? I think not.
Interestingly even the ‘official’
supporters of the team are fractured into two groups (unique in my experience),
always well separated at opposite ends of the stadium, each with its own flags
and band, a result, apparently of a historical ‘falling out’ which pre-dates my
knowledge. They try to out-play and out-flag each other, often causing a
cacophonous racket which must be heard to be believed. Sadly the two groups of
supporters seem a perfect metaphor for the team itself.
The season will end next week, with ´Los
Venados’, as normal, also-rans.
In the wider world, there’s a little event
called the Football World Cup coming up in June, taking place this time in
Brazil. The Mexican national team ‘El Tri’, suffered a ‘Venado-like’ year in
2013 (following a great victory in the 2012 Olympic Football tournament in
London), and barely managed to capture the final place in the tournament during
the qualifying rounds. Under new manager Miguel Herrera, they appear to be
bouncing back and Mexicans are ready to support their team’s journey in Brazil,
which will begin with a game against Cameroon on (the rather inauspicious)
Friday 13th June. Of course in Mexico, Friday 13th is not
considered unlucky (that honor goes to Tuesday 13th), so we look
forward to the first of many victories. We plan to be reporting on the Mexico
games - not ‘on the scene’ unfortunately, due to budgetary restrictions – but
thanks to the miracles of television, and the fact that every screen in every
bar in the country will be showing the games. Need a better excuse to go to a
bar at 11am on a Friday? We can’t think of one!
