Futbol

in my home, Futbol is a major tradition my family has held on to from the old home. I shouldn't say soccer out lout. We stopped going to church years ago but Jesus still sits with his 12 disciples watching us huddle around the television, drinking the wine of fanaticism and cheering for the same loosing team. I don't care who wins. I just love watching 11 players who all look strangely familiar play with a country's sanity on their backs.
El Salvador was playing Costa Rica. El Salvador's team always seems to take the lead only to lose it in the most embarrassing or last minute ways. They always seemed in a panic, like they were happy to get rid of the ball and stay in the state of resistance. Were we genetically prone? Was struggle in our blood memory?
We always applied cultural, colloquial and self-indulgent reasoning as to why our national team always lost. lack of funding. Lack of discipline and corruption. Too many pupusas. Salvadorians are always looking for shortcuts. What it seemed to lead to was a euphoric rush followed by an immediate downer. The perennial disappointment. I heard him say, "they can never give us a moment of happiness, they should just not send a team to play". I thought to myself, "God forbid someone decide to take this moment of happiness away from us!".
The game ends. Everyone goes home. We shuffle around within it.