Interview: Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks Digital Audio Fidelity and Recording in Analog | Sound & Vision

Interview: Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Talks Digital Audio Fidelity and Recording in Analog | Sound & Vision

The problem with soccer

I'm not a big soccer fan…

Don't worry, this will not be a "soccer sux w0rst sport ever made!" thing. I just want to share my opinion of what have happened in my country in the past few weeks, the way people reacted to the great performance our soccer team did in the FIFA World Cup.

After being selected for the Group D in the World Cup of this year, well… it was hard not to feel very discouraged (at least for soccer fans, I really didn't give a hoot about it). The thing is, getting to the world cup had been already a challenge on itself, but the Group D was a whole other level of destiny (or the FIFA, who knows this days) telling us "Well, fuck you". It was labeled as the "Death Group" and rightfully so. Italy, England and Uruguay, all of them champions of the world cup previously and soccer potencies were in it… oh yeah, and Costa Rica.

Everybody thought (and with good reason) that we were going to be the punching bag for those teams, that it was impossible for us to even score one goal… how wrong they (or rather we, I wouldn't had bet 5 colones for my own country at the time) were.  At the end Costa Rica came invictous out of there, winning to Uruguay 3-1, to Italy 1-0 and drawing with England (which was ridiculous in my oppinion).

After that we also win to Greece on penalties after a very long and tiring match, were Costa Rica had to play with only 10 men after one of them was expulsed, Greece had 11 men still and it was clear the referee was on their side.

After the match they went on to quarter-finals (is that the correct term?) were they had to play against Holand… It was very close, but at the end Holand win us in penalties (after switching to another goal keeper who was clearly trained for that situation, that is).

Anyway… What I'm going to talk about is about the celebrations that took place after those victories, and even after the loss of yesterday.

I don't know if other countries of simmilar soccer quality than Costa Rica (such as Mexico for example)  celebrate to such a level after winning a world cup match, or after passing to the next fase of the thing, but I do find a little ridiculous  what happened here.

I did celebrate with my family and friends of course (even a not-fan of soccer like me felt very proud of what the team was doing), but they were small stuff, having a drink, going to eat, even some tears of joy (from the others, I didn't got to that point… well almost), hug each other, you know, celebrations as the ones you have when, geez I don't know, just, happy celebrations… simple things.

But not like what happened in San Jose.

(Im sorry if the images end up at the bottom, this Blogger app for android is just crap, I can't even choose where to put them).

There is this place in San Jose (the capital city of Costa Rica) called "La Fuente de la Hispanidad". It is and has always been a point of reunion for the people, politics propaganda and yes, celebrations, such as New Year and that kind of stuff. The place completely turn to red after each of the matches (because the soccer t-shirts), people singing the National Anthem, people crying, pleople drinking, everybody hugging each other, even if they were complete strangers.

It was truly a sight to behold, a whole country together, forgetting their problems and stuff. But, why to wait to a soccer match?

In my almost 19 years of living strictly in this country (that is, I have never visited other places besides what lies in our limits), I had never seen that amount of people singing the National Anthem at unison, being proud of their country, happy to be called "ticos", of being born here as they did in those ocasions.

Why doen't that happen on September 15th (independece day)? Yes there are celebrations , but on the schools, not in the streets, or at least not at the same level of winning a soccer match against Italy.

I may not be sure of how they celebrated the matches in Mexico, but I'm sure that they know that it isn't as important as being a free country.

Why isn't the country this united on May 4th (another patriotic day)? As I said before, is just ridiculous.

I was talking with a friend about it (a soccer fan), it has always been one of the resons I don't like soccer anymore (I used to be very passionate before turning 15), the way people become crazy neanderthals about the whole thing. He answered me "I'm actually embarrased of what other countries might think when they see this".

And I am too, honestly. Embarrased of what people of other countries think of us (I know I shouldn't care what other people think about me, but it's a whole country we're talking about). I believe I don't need to tell you about the amount of garbage you could find on the streets the following days. It was ridiculous for a country known for it's high  degree of ambientalism laws. (I know I have used the word "ridiculous" a lot, but I can't think of any other more suitable, I do need to get into some english class though).

I am, nevertheless very proud of what the Costa Rican soccer team accomplished in the World Cup, and even though it has all passed and I am starting to forget about soccer again, I will remember the good things of these past few weeks for a very, very long time… until they do something even greater, that is.

PURA VIDA!!!