South America

Day -833. WorldCup2018

I'm looking ahead (because it's supposed to be better than the reminiscing I've been doing recently, right?) to the next round of World Cup qualifying in South America, starting March 24th. And it looks like there's some pretty good matches. But here's my thing about South American qualifying. There's two thing really. One is that there are 10 teams. Qualifying takes two years. 10 teams, two years. There are 53 associations in Europe. Qualifying starts a year after South America. 53 teams, 1 year.

My other thing is more emotional than logistical. I look at the matches in March and two stand out right away: Chile-Argentina and Brazil-Uruguay. What a treat for the neutral viewer, you would think. Messi vs. Sanchez, Neymar vs. Suarez. Time and time again I get excited by these South American matches, the talented players, the passion from the crowd and the players, the highly charged atmosphere. And then I watch them and it reminds me of many a New Year's Eve. The party's lined up, the excitement builds in the days and hours leading up to it,the drinks are chilled. And then you (or is it just me, uh oh!) have a  couple of drinks, realise the party has kind of fallen flat and you wished you'd stayed home with a few drinks and New Year's Eve specials on TV. Is this just me? Hmmm.

I've watched many a Brazil-Argentina, Chile-Colombia where the free flowing, highly technical football you expect doesn't happen. Instead they are cagey matches with lots of niggly fouls and no flow to the game. The crowd gets excited about an over the top tackle and the obligatory retaliation and coming together of most of the teams, but there isn't much happening in front of the goal. Last year's Copa America final between Chile and Argentina was a perfect example. What a prospect. I hadn't been that excited about a football match for a long time. I think I remember one shot on goal in 120 minutes, before the unsurprising penalties to decide a winner.

And again, maybe it's just me But I'll say this. I'm sure there is no more exciting stadium in the world to be than then the one where Chile are playing Argentina. Those supporters are probably some of the most fanatical in the world and the atmosphere (as seen on TV) seems to be second to none. Maybe what I need is to be there one day.

And maybe, this qualifying campaign will be lit up by team doing a Colombia to Argentina and repeating one of the most amazing qualifying performances ever. That 5-0 win in 1993, in Argentina, will be hard to beat. And, who knows, we could finally see the Lionel Messi who looks like a world beater in his star studded Barcelona team actually doing some work and making a difference for Argentina.

Maybe, on March 24th I'll be happily proven wrong.