The US men did not qualify, which in my opinion is a good deal more embarrassing than going three and out at the World Cup would be/has been. We fell out of contention after suffering a last minute draw to El Salvador, in a game played in Nashville, Tennessee. Gabon qualified for London. We didn't. New Zealand did too. We didn't.
With the tournament in Britain, and our own side not there, I suppose there's nothing to do about it except to cheer for our closest cultural siblings as they amuse the Anglophone crowds. This of course would be Mexico. Pickup trucks, cowboy hats, ostentatious displays of Christian faith, a whole native genre of music that sings of lost love, outlaw rebels and getting drunk, a handful of urban hubs peppered among vast open spaces, the constant low-level threat of being gunned down by some fuck while you're shopping for blue jeans, weird emphasis on condiments in our fat-heavy cuisine, and of course football and beer on Sundays. If you seriously perceive the Mexican people to be in any way 'alien' to us than I don't know. Do you live in a soddy? Do you amputate your own broken limbs? Do you only take your mule to town once in a lifetime after you've gained enough Bridesgold? Anyway.....
In keeping with the norm of modern spoting events, the Olympic football tournaments have grown hideously bloated and overbooked. So they had to start holding games a couple of days before the official sixteen day Olympic schedule. Mexicos' first game was a scoreless draw with South Korea, putting them technically in a tie for 3rd/last in their group since the other game their was also a draw in which both teams scored, once each. If my surrogate team can't entertain me better than that then I'll probably switch to cheering for the British to lose. Satisfaction guranteed there.
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