Mexicans in Europe 11/15-16/08

An update on the players as you ponder if they deserved to be called up for the WC qualifying game against Honduras and a story about my mom.

Spain

Rafael Marquez(Barcelona)-Marquez had a very good game. He showed up at the right time and is at a high level this season. Barcelona is looking like the best team in the world at the moment and Marquez is part of that solid defense. The game against Recreativo Huelva didn’t provide as many goals as previous games have accustomed us to expect but it was sold nonetheless. 2-0. Marquez played all 90 mins and Barcelona are now top of the table.

Guillermo Franco(Villarreal)-El Guille Franco only played 14 mins in the game against Malaga in which the Yellow Submarine drew 2-2.

Andres Guardado(Deportivo La Coruna)- After last week’s impressive game, Depor went slightly down and lost 4-1 to Atletico. Guardado played all 90 mins.

Omar Bravo(Deportivo La Coruna)-Bravo only made the bench for the game. Midweek he scored his first goal for Deportivo.

Javier Aguirre(Atletico De Madrid)-Atleti won this week 4-1 against Deportivo. Great result for an Atleti that has been up and down.

England

Carlos Vela(Arsenal)-Vela played 22 mins. He had a pretty good game. He had a superb moment of magic in which he chested down the ball for Adebayor. The ball didn’t seem to want to go into the back of the net and Arsenal lost 2-0 to Aston Villa. Right before the second goal Carlos was fouled at the edge of the area but the ref didn’t call it and that led to the goal for Aston Villa. Otherwise it was at a very dangerous position. Midweek he scored an incredible goal against Wigan.

Giovanni Dos Santos(Tottenham)- Gio is currently out with a knee injury. Spurs lost 2-1 against Fulham.

Nery Castillo(Manchester City)- Nery is MIA for Man City and is currently with the Seleccion.

Germany

Pavel Pardo(Stuttgart)- Pardo played all 90 mins in Stuttgart’s 0-0 tie against Arminia Belefield.

Ricardo Osorio(Stuttgart)-Played all 90 mins.

Aaron Galindo(Eintracht Frankfurt)-Eintracht lost 4-0 against Borussia Dortmund and Galindo played all 90 mins.

Netherlands

Carlos Salcido(PSV)-Salcido played all 90 mins in the loss to rivals Ajax. The Dutch champs lost 4-1 to Ajax and it wasn’t the Mexican pair’s best day.

Maza Rodriguez(PSV)- Maza played all 90 mins but was humiliated in the 4-1 loss to Ajax.

Hector Moreno(AZ Alkaamar)-Moreno played all 90 mins in the game against Vitesse where the teams tied 0-0.

Turkey

Antonio De Nigris(Anaranksapor)-Anaranksapor lost 2-0 against Fenerbahce.

Everyone gather around as I prepare to tell a story about my mom. My family is full of a bunch of soccer fanatics. This week La Seleccion came to play a friendly against Ecuador near my home. Sadly, this was at an unfortunate time. Any other time the family would have piled up into the car and headed towards the stadium. This time we had the trouble of choosing whether to watch the Chivas game or the Mexico game. This turned out to be a clear case of club vs country. The Club won out. Also, there was a phone call that we were dreading to receive. Unfortunately, my grandfather had been very sick and well we were expecting the dreaded phone call. So we kept away from the game just in case. The night passed and my grandfather did not make it(RIP). So early that morning my mom had to catch an early flight out to her family and at the same time she was at the airport ticketing and all that jazz the Seleccion turned up. She chatted with all of them(or so she tells me) and even made Ochoa blush. Turns out no one at the airport gave a hoot about who they were. A couple of fans did follow them there but they weren’t allowed very far past airport security.

So as they went in to catch their flight my mom took pictures with a few of them. Security asked what the big deal was with these guys and my mom explained who they were and what they had been there for. And she explained who the guy in front of her was(Memo Ochoa). We hate America but my mom obviously has a small crush on the goalkeeper and she said he was the best in Latin America, blah blah. She then translated what she’d said and she claims that he laughed and his face became flushed. She saw “the brow” as well but didn’t take any photos with him. My mother does not like Nery at all so she bypassed that opportunity. She also took a picture with a big group although she couldn’t tell exactly who they were. All she remembers is telling them as the players went by to come over and take a picture. I’m sure airport security thought she was crazy for grabbing them randomly and forcing everyone to stare into her cell phone forcing them to say “cheese”. So in a way my grandfather left her a small gift of his own, a brief moment of happiness.

She was with the players for a bit of time while they waited at the departing gate. Luckily, none of the “regulars” were there or I’m sure security would have been called(I’ve been traumatized of encounters with players with her there). If anyone knows how to upload photos from a Sprint cell that’s not hooked up to the internet and the pictures are not saved on a memory card, I’d be glad to share. And if you were wondering, no she did not leave on the same flight. Mexico flies on AeroMexico and she left on a different flight.