Kyle Hepp

July 20, 2007

Hearts were broken tonight in Chile. And, no, don’t worry. I’m not talking about another act of terrorism. What I speak of is even worse. The Chile U20 soccer team lost to the Argentine U20 soccer team in the semi-finals of the U20 World Cup.

To understand what this defeat means to the people of this country, you have to first understand their relationship with Argentina. Pure competition. The two countries hate each other. Chile thinks that Argentina stole their land (it’s true that they took a huge chunk of it during a war a really long time ago). Both countries claim to own Antartica (as does the US). When you go to Argentina and tell them that you are a foreigner living in Chile the first thing they do is start to ask you questions, “What country is pretty, Argentina or Chile? Do you like Chilean guys or Argentine guys? Whose shit stinks less, ours or theirs?” You get the idea. Futbolistically speaking, Argentina has always been far superior. Maradona, who’s right up there with Pele, a soccer legend and all time great, comes from Argentina, for all you people who are out of the soccer loop.

Now, let me tell you about the present day. There has been talk that the future generations of Chilean futbol (sorry, just can’t bring myself to call it soccer) players coming up the ranks, will form the best Chilean team ever. Well, this was supposed to be the miracle generation. These kids playing in the U20 W.C. made it out of the group stages of play in 1st place. They went on to beat Portugal, a world reknowned futbol playing nation, and Nigeria, a team that on paper was physically superior. The hopes in Chile continued to rise with each passing game that this miracle team won. THIS team was going to be the one. TODAY was going to be the day that the Chilean futbol team FINALLY put those Argentines in their place once and for all. The players were full of boyish confidence, and unlike any other generation before them, they actually believed they could do it.

That’s what made me cry when the final whistle blew. Other teams before them had always accepted that Argentina was better. Asi de simple. But this team dared to dream, as corny as that may sound.

The officials in the game were horrid. The temper tantrums and out of control play from the Chilean side were even worse. After the game 10 Chilean players got arrested for fighting with the cops in Canada (although there has been talk that the cops were abusing the players and Chile is filing a formal complaint with Canadian officials first thing tomorrow).

All in all, what was supposed to be a really beautiful day of hope for the Chilean people, turned into a nightmare.

One thing I think most people from the States will never understand is the amount of pride that goes into a futbol game in a third world country. If you are a developed country, there are so many things that you can be proud of. In the US some people are proud of our economy. For others, their sense of pride of country comes from our military strength. We certainly never lack gold medal winners at the Olympics. Our athletes hold world records, our movie stars are known world wide, our military prowess is feared (or was).

In the history of this country, Chile has won one Olympic gold medal (tennis). ONE! Winning a major sporting event is everything to the people of this country…and seeing as how soccer is almost the only sport that is played here…well, you do the math.

The loss today was devestating.