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Dispatches

A Peñarol Fanatic’s Journey Back to Montevideo

June 15, 2011 — by Suman

Two weeks ago, storied Uruguayan club Peñarol stunned Argentinian Clausura table-toppers Vélez Sársfield to set up a historic matchup against Brazilian side Santos for this year’s Copa Libertadores (1st leg tonight is tonight in Montevideo; 9pm ET on Fox Deportes in the USA).  A couple days later we received this message from a Uruguayan friend–born and raised in Montevideo as a supporters of los Aurinegros, los Peñarolenses:

Can you take 3 days to go to São Paulo?  I am in some state of delirium.

Here is the story, still in progress, of where that delirium has taken him:

Forlan's Wall Photo - June 2, 2011

After that initial message, our friend (let’s call him Forlán, after another lifelong Peñarol supporter and prodigal son of Montevideo who has gone abroad to pursue his craft; the real Forlán, btw, is a newly inducted honorary member of the club ahead of tonight’s game*) was looking for someone to accompany him on a trip to São Paulo for the 2nd leg (which is next week–Wednesday June 22). But then Monday we received this via email:

date: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 4:23 PM
subject: drama begins

I’m at the Philadelphia airport.
The tickets went on sale this morning at 9 and they were gone in 15 minutes.
(Some 24 thousand had been sold before to club members. The stadium fits
around 65 thousand.)
As of now, I’m without a ticket. But there’s always hope.
On top of everything, all flights yesterday and today in and out of Montevideo
have been cancelled because of the volcano in Chile. Looking at the
wind forecast
for tomorrow, I’m wanting to believe my flight tonight won’t get cancelled.
The game itself might get postponed if Santos cannot fly in.

Presumably he’d travelled to Philly from Ithaca (where he summers, playing the beautiful game and doing his mathematics) by either plane or automobile.

We next heard from him later that evening, via IM:

date: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 10:35 PM
10:35 PM Forlán: i’m in miami. they canceled the flight to mvd, but luckily i knew just before leaving phl. So now i’m flying to Sao Paolo and sometime tomorrow from there to Mvd.

10:36 PM My brothers were able to get 2 tickets. Need one more for my niece, will try to get it a travel agency in sao paulo (from the tickets for Santos)

And then back on email the next day (yesterday):

date: Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 2:35 PM
subject: Re: drama begins

Stuck in Sao Paulo. Will fly to Porto Alegre and catch a bus from
there (12 hours).

He left us in suspense overnight–would he make the flight to Porto Alegre and catch the bus? 12 hours on a bus?? Would that even get him home in time for the game??

But then this email arrived just a few minutes ago:

date Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 10:29 AM
subject Re: drama begins

At home in Montevideo, ready for the game in 12 hours.
A bit rainy and cold. The city awaits the big moment.
Vamos Peñarol!

So the initial leg of the drama is successfully completed–prodigal son of Peñarol completes the odyssey home in time for the next leg..the 1st leg.  Stay tuned..

*: From that goal.com article about (the real) Forlan and tonight’s match–read to the quote at the end:

CommentaryNewsVideo

Real Madrid best Atletico

November 8, 2010 — by Sean

Carvalho drives to goal. Real continue their 11-year unbeaten streak against their city rivals.

Los Blancos eased passed city rivals Atletico yesterday with the glamor side firing on all cylinders. Strong in defense and quick in attack, Real put Los Colchoneros (an odd name, yes) on the back foot early. The score ended 2-0 but really should’ve been more.

Sadly, Forlan, a favorite from the World Cup, hasn’t scored since September, and while Atletico did look like they’re capable of stringing together potent attacking movement, nothing actually came off in their favor.

We’re about brevity this week, so here’s one audacious play that somewhat sums up the afternoon — outrageousness from Ronaldo, followed by a near miss. (Ps. Benzema, who looked like crap earlier in the season, appears much fitter these days, and has been doing very well coming on in later stages of the game). And as we’re not actually all about brevity, following the video is some public domain description of el derbi madrileño.

Historically, Real Madrid have long been seen as the establishment club. On the other side, Atletico was always characterized by a ‘sentimiento de rebeldía’ (a sense of rebellion) although, during the early Franco years, it was Atlético that was the preferred team of the regime, being associated with the military airforce, until the regime’s preferences moved towards Real Madrid in the 1950s. Franco sought to make political capital out of Real Madrid’s European Cup titles at a time when Spain was internationally isolated – “Real Madrid are the best embassy we ever had”, said one minister. Thus, Atleti fans regularly chanted that Real was “el equipo del gobierno, la vergueñza del país”–the team of the government, the shame of the country—and adopted a more left-wing slant (tempered by the rise of ultras culture and Rayo Vallecano‘s presence as the “true” leftist club) to combat the conservative Real fanbase. BernabeuReal Madrid‘s stadium, is majestic, alongside banks and businesses on the classy andaristocratic Castellana, while Calderon can be found beside a brewery along the river; Real Madrid draw greater support because of its successes, while Atletico has a more working class fan base, which comes particularly from the south of the city.

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News

Shortlists for FIFA Balon d’Or 2010

October 27, 2010 — by Suman

2009 Balon d'Or Winners

Via FIFA.com:

The following 23 men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010:
Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlán (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Júlio César (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Mesut Özil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).

The odd man in there seems to Asamoah Gyan.  Don’t get us wrong, we were impressed by Baby Jet performances this summer in Africa (this one against the USMNT in the World Cup of course–but also this more recent performance)–but he hasn’t accomplished what the other players on the list have.  (Özil and Müller are two even younger players that one might argue about–but those two have already impressed and achieved more for both club and country than Gyan has.)

There’s more to the Balon d’Or than just the men’s player award however.  The shortlists for the other three categories:

News

Quarterfinalists News Roundup: Elano, van Persie, Forlan

July 1, 2010 — by Suman2

Asamoah Gyan and Kevin-Prince Boateng: "Let's set those records!"

As we eagerly await the resumption of play with tomorrow’s two quarterfinal matches (Brazil vs. Holland in the early game, Uruguay vs Ghana in the late game), here are a few links with the some news on each side:

Brazil’s Elano will miss tomorrow’s game due to an ankle injury–and may be done for the tournament;

Robin van Persie’s petulance causes yet more rumblings of strife within the Dutch camp;

Off the Post blog posts a handful of clips from Diego Forlan’s WC video diary;

and from GhanaWeb.com, “Top Five Records Ghana Will Set If They Beat Uruguay.”