It was only a question of time

I suppose, until the 9/11 attack became an inspiration for an anti-American sports chant. It may have happened earlier, but I saw it for the first time in this report of a 2-0 win by the USA under-23 soccer team against Canada at a stadium in Mexico: "For the second match in a row, the players left the field to taunting chants of "Osama! Osama!" in reference to Al Qaeda leader bin Laden." This espn.com story omits the Osama reference but notes that "The crowd of about 1,500 at Tres de Marzo Stadium was vociferously anti-American, booing the U.S. national anthem, as well as the team."

Now, cheering bin Laden is sick, for anyone, anywhere. And it is especially hard to understand from these fans, given that numerous Mexicans were killed in the 9/11 attack. Frankly, it is hard to know precisely how to respond to something so outrageous and inappropriate.

So, I'll content myself by reliving the USA's glorious 2-0 victory over Mexico at the 2002 World Cup, a game which sent them crashing out of the tournament and us on to the next round (where we were undone by a negative German team and a blind Scottish referee. Here's the official match stats, but they don't really do the game justice. The BBC headline "US see off sorry Mexico" is a little better. Here's the Mexican coach blaming the refs and bad luck for his team's lackluster and confused performance, but here's a better picture of what happened: a diagram of Landon Donavon's beautifully taken backbreaking second goal.

- posted by Anonymous @ 12:59 PM