2014 World Cup Qualifying: Embarrassment at the Hands of Uruguay

"Tennis is my love, but soccer is my passion." A statement that I came up with myself, when trying to describe my feelings toward these two amazing sports. My life revolves around them as much as my passion for immigration and social justice. So, this was going to be a special weekend. The 2014 World Cup qualifying match-ups began a month ago in early October, and this weekend was going to be another two rounds of World Cup qualifying games. I was obviously extremely excited since Chile was going to play against Uruguay last Friday, November 11th and close out the World Cup qualifying weekend against Paraguay tonight, Tuesday, November 15th.
Since I knew these games were going to be played on these dates, I contemplated skipping work to watch the Chile-Uruguay game. It is THAT serious. But, sadly, early last week I realized that I was not going to be able to watch the game on Friday. The game was scheduled to start at 5:00 PM and I get out of work at 7:00 PM. I was not even going to be able to catch the second half of the game. The sadness sunk in. Missing games where the national team of Chile plays is worse than skipping a meal. I try to catch every game because I love watching my country battle it out with an opponent on a soccer field. It is a passion that I carry in my veins, and will always have.
So, Friday, 11/11/11 day came around, and I was anxious and nervous as ever. The pregame jitters never fail to rumble in my stomach, and I wasn't even going to watch the game. Which in turn, I think made me more nervous. Whatever. Five o'clock arrives and I turn on my international radio app on my phone as I hear the commentators talking about how great the field looks and the many fans that showed up to the mythical Centenario stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. The players are ready to begin. The whistle blows and the game is underway! I make the sign of the cross as I whisper under my breath, "Vamos Chile mierda!" It is my pregame ritual whenever I watch the national team play. Mind you, I am still at work. On the tennis court, coaching a bunch of teenage kids. All I want to do is tell my boss (the head coach) that I want to rush home to watch the game, but I cannot. I need the money and teaching tennis is what keeps food on the table and gas in the tank.
I try to listen to the game on my iPhone radio app., while at the same time paying attention to my students. But, it is too difficult of a task to successfully multitask through. I shove my phone back in my pocket and next thing I know, its 6:45 PM and I am fifteen minutes from leaving work! I nervously pull out my phone again to check the score of the game, and I cannot believe my eyes. There's ten minutes left in the game and Chile is down 4-0. Four to zero. My heart sinks. "What?!" I think to myself. "How can they score four goals on us?!?" I am in utter shock at the result. Before the game, I knew it was going to be a difficult task to win an Away match-up against Uruguay, but I never would have imagined a whooping like the one we received.

As I make my way back home, I begin to scan my Twitter feed, trying to make sense of the horrible loss Chile was just handed by the powerful Uruguay team. They are all bad news. The tweets blatantly read that the team was a disaster, that they played with no heart, no ideas to overturn the adverse score, and extremely vulnerable in the defense. I am pissed and disappointed. Even more so because I was not able to see it with my own eyes. "Good thing you didn't watch the game, Adrian," are the first words my brother utters as I step into my house. I can feel the frustration and disappointment in his voice. "Did we really played that bad?," I ask my dad whose taking off his Chilean national team jersey to put on his work shirt. He reluctantly nods "yes" to my question as he goes on to explain the fallacies that Chile had during the game and the four goals that Luis Suarez scored on us. The descriptions of the four goals resonate in my mind and then later come alive as I watch the recap of the game on TVN, the Chilean channel.
Eleven, eleven, eleven (11/11/11). A day that was suppose to bring luck by the truckloads ultimately became a sad, sorrowful event where my beloved Chilean national soccer team got their butts kicked by the almighty Uruguay team en route to the 2014 World Cup. As much as it hurts, in sports, you must learn to turn the page as fast as possible. There is no time to sulk, and the Chilean team had to regroup in order to come out stronger than ever four days from Friday against the solid defense of Paraguay on home turf.
It is a long road  ahead, and even with this catastrophic defeat at the hands of Uruguay, I have faith Chile will get one of those five qualifying spots to the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil.