Liner Notes: The State of El Tri with Iván Fernández
Or why do I even care about The Mexican National Soccer Team?
I never really bought an album with liner notes, to be honest. However I understand the concept as a sort of companion piece to something. In “Liner Notes” I will talk about a Pochcast episode a little bit more on depth. It could be a behind the scenes or a commentary.
In this episode of El Pochcast I spend a little under an hour talking with Iván Fernandez about the current state of Mexican Soccer but I think it’s worth going into WHY I care about this team.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this so I’m not gonna belabor it. It really comes down to A major point and a subpoint of that.
Cheering for Mexico’s soccer team is a link to Mexico itself
Being a Pocho, supporting/following the National Team was a very easy way to get some Mexa street cred. Talking about the game and being able to name players and where they played at or drop some fact about em and you’re in. It’s the team of my parents. It’s the only reason why I learned the Mexican National Anthem just incase I ever attend a World Cup game I could scream it loudly. It is Mexican to support Mexico. Simple.
But here’s the biggest one…
Soccer is not an American thing, it’s our thing
Asi nomas.
I KNOW the American Women are the GOATs…but still.
There’s this line in the Rafa Marquez Netflix documentary in which Rafa talks about his disdain for the USMNT and he says something along the lines of
“They’re a superpower and they’re the best at every other sport but not this one, this one is ours”
I feel that in my bones.
For years soccer was ignored here, relegated to the “Weird foreign sport”. The Gabachos who DID care about soccer were weirdo gingers with beards and long hair. Everyone knew it too.
Soccer is ours. Not theirs.
The Big Green, Disney’s children soccer movie. Made the BEST player in the team a Mexican kid from El Paso. It’s ours.
In fact growing up (and even now) El Paso Texas was not a powerhouse in any sport at the state level except for Soccer. Schools from Dallas and Austin feared El Paso schools. There’s been multiple state champions. It’s ours.
Every effort to make it theirs is lame. I had an encounter with it later.
Like a lot of Mexican kids I played organized soccer growing up. It was some league, we’d play on Saturdays and it was all Mexican kids. At one particular game this white guy showed up, watched us play, and during the game approached the lady who ran our team, her name was Rosario. After the game she told my friend Manny, who was the best kid on the team, and me if we’d be interested in attending some info session for his AYSO team.
AYSO is officially a part of the US Soccer system and this dude immediately looked like a douche. This man had on a visor like if he was a football coach at Oklahoma State. He gave us some crappy duffel bag to mark our “invitation” and left.
I didn’t go.
A couple of weeks later dude called my house, my mom not speaking English very well answered the phone and asked for clarification wether he wanted to speak to me or my dad and my mom handed me the phone looking puzzled and stood close enough that she could hear what was being said to me.
”Why didn’t you show up?”
”I don’t know.”
The guy then went on to say there was another camp coming up and that I should go and he’d make a space for me. I said no, and then he said to just come and take a look, I don’t have to do anything else beside look. Hung up, and my mom said that it wouldn’t hurt to go look. No commitment.
The camp was in Bowie highschool, right after school at like 4pm. My mom drives me there and I get down to see a bunch of kids in cleats running up and down doing some stupid drill with those dorky little cones. Visor boy blows a whistle and signals me over, I walk over and he says “Where’s your fucking gear?” I had no idea what he’s talking about but right away didn’t like that this doofus was cussing at me. I didn’t have soccer “gear” I just wore whatever shorts and shirt and cleats I had. Furthermore I wasn’t even coming for anything just to watch. "Suit up and get out there” I told him I didn’t bring anything and he just looked at me with a stupid face. I don’t remember exactly what he said after but it was along the lines of “Didn’t you read the letter?”
At this point my mom stepped in and said “Vamonos mijo”
When I got home I found the stupid duffel bag and inside it was a sheet of paper listing some “equipment” required for the camp. It included multiple shorts, shirts, socks, tape, and stupid little cones. I’d never used these in any game before. The hell kinda crap is this.
And that was the last time I interacted with anything related to US Soccer.
Buncha dorks, with their cheap ass duffels. Running around orange nipples in the grass. Playing stupid, soulless soccer. No one on that field was laughing or having a good time. No one looked cool. Dude was wearing a visor. Now they’re rocking scarves.
American soccer is swagless. Their coolest player of all time is from Nacogdoches. Their best player of all time was bald at 20. They played in denim at one point. The players can’t beat the allegations of not being good enough at Basketball or Football. The only thing dorkier than them is the 2nd division english teams they go to play for because there’s no language barrier to cross the sea, Sheffield Wednesday NO SEAS MAMON. American soccer is a safe sport for rich kids who grew being handed duffel bags with a list of materials required to be able to play.
A couple of years after the encounter with Visor guy, Mexico was eliminated from the 2002 World Cup by the dorks of the USMNT. I cried in front of my dad as we watched the game. I was so angry, I hated them. Visor dork was on my mind when Rafa Marquez, in a fit of rage, head butted Cobi Jones in the jaw. Dirty. Dangerous. Reckless. Stupid. But it’s what I wanted to do to Visor guy who embarrassed me and made me feel so little with his stupid duffel bag. I’ll always love Rafa Marquez for that.
I don’t think Mexico will win a world cup.
I think the USMNT is better now. Probably will continue being better.
The worst part is? There’s been a number of high profile El Paso players who have chosen USMNT over Mexico….
But even then I will never support them. Dorks.
It’s our thing.
Listen to the full episode here: