World Cup 2010 Draw Anticipation

ADVICE: PRINT THIS FOR SHITTERATURE.

So, since I like soccer-football-fútbol-futebol, I thought I'd drop something to think about as World Cup qualifying comes to a close today. In a few hours, the field of 32 will be set. We are just waiting on France/Ireland (France carries a 1-0 lead to Paris) - Portugal/Bosnia (Portugal leads 1-0 but must play away) - Greece/Ukraine (0-0 with a match in Ukraine) - Russia/Slovenia (Russia leads 2-1 but must now defend away in Slovenia) - Uruguay/Costa Rica (URU defends a 1-0 lead in Montevideo) and probably what will be the most heated - Egypt/Algeria in a winner-take-all tiebreaker on neutral ground in Khartoum.

I am predicting that tomorrow's match's will have little impact on the draw which will take place on December 4. Why? Because only 1 seed is at stake and I am confident that Uruguay will not lose to the Costa Ricans, who have been in a free fall, going 1-1-4 since August. However, as you will see below, the Uruguay/Costa Rica match is the most important, and conveniently enough, will the last played.

EVERYTHING BELOW RELIES ON A SET OF ASSUMPTIONS:

1) FIFA does not change the past seeding criteria
2) NO 2 teams from the same confederation, except UEFA teams, will be drawn together (i.e. Brazil will not be grouped with Paraguay, Chile or possibly Uruguay and South Africa will not draw another CAF team).


So, the following picture is courtesy of Marca, the Spanish sports daily that loves to sensationalize everything. They are already fearing that Spain will draw Holland, the Ivory Coast and the US - and the US is the only team to defeat Spain in the last 3 years.

From American Fooligan

Pot 1 is set with the question of France. If Ireland knock off France, then Holland will be seeded and Ireland will be in Pot 2.

Pot 2 is set pending the results of the qualifiers tomorrow, but the places are locked with the exception of Holland/France.

Pot 3 and 4. Here is where things get interesting. I think the unseeded CAF teams will be grouped with the CONMEBOL teams as it will be easier to control for Assumption #2 above. Because we know that South Africa will be in Group A, FIFA can just pick from the CONMEBOL teams during the first round. Then, after Brazil and Argentina are assigned groups, FIFA can pick from the African teams.

The tricky part comes down to the Uruguay/Costa Rica match. If Costa Rica wins, then, in order to avoid violating Assumption #2 (and assuming there is no further re-jiggering wanted), we obviously can't have Costa Rica in Pot 3 if all other CONCACAF teams go to Pot 4.

What to do then if Costa Rica advances? Simple, move New Zealand to Pot 3 and Pot 4 is a combination of AFC and CONCACAF Teams.

Confused yet? Revert back to the chart.

What does this all mean for the Stars and Stripes? Well, if my Assumptions hold true (and they will - no two non-UEFA teams from the same Confederation have been grouped together since 1970 when hosts Mexico were grouped with minnows El Salvador):


If Uruguay win, we know a few things to be true:
a) No CONCACAF team will be grouped with an AFC team
b) South Africa will face at least one UEFA team and one CONMEBOL team
c) Brazil and Argentina will be grouped with one UEFA team and one CAF team.

Then here is how the rest computes:

The US (and each team in pot 4 for that matter) would have a 37.5% chance of drawing a Mixed group (one team from each of CAF, UEFA and CONMEBOL), a 37.5% chance of drawing a UEFA/CAF group (two UEFA teams and a CAF team) and a 25% chance of drawing a UEFA/CON group (two UEFA teams and a CONMEBOL team).

If Costa Rica win, then things get much more complicated because if my Assumptions are correct and Pot 3 consists of the 5 unseeded CAF teams, New Zealand, Paraguay and Chile, then there are more ways to avoid violating Assumption #2. For instance, South Africa would draw from a pot including New Zealand, Chile and Paraguay - while Brazil and Argentina would potentially draw from pots including New Zealand and the 5 unseeded CAF teams. It gets complicated because there will be more manipulating of the pots (Unless South Africa draw NZ and Brazil and Argentina headline Groups B & C or vice versa).

I am not a math major so I am not even going to attempt to try and figure out those odds.

But, I think it is a safe bet that Uruguay will hold serve at home tomorrow and then we will see these chances for the US:

37.5% chance for a CAF/UEFA/CONMEBOL group

37.5% chance for a UEFA/UEFA/CAF group

25% chance for a UEFA/UEFA/CONMEBOL group


SO, WHAT ABOUT THE GROUP OF DEATH?


CAUTION: SKETCHY MATH AHEAD. DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT THAT I WROTE THIS AT 2 AM AND AM NOT CONFIDENT IN THE CALCULATIONS. BUT I DIGRESS, HALF OF FOOTBALL IS TALKING OUT THE ASS . . .

By my understanding of probability and statistics, going back a full 11 years here since I scored well enough on the AP exam to avoid taking it in college, this is a question of compound probability because we are trying to calculate the probability that a series of random events will occur. The probabilities in Pot 3 change though because depending on which Pot 1 team we are dealing with, they are drawing from a different pool in Pot 3 (back to Assumption #2).

The Group of death is the phenomenon that there is usually one group that is so difficult that each team in it would be a sentimental favorite to advance to the next round. The first step in determining this probability is rating what would be GOD eligible teams in the first 3 pots. Let's call these "GOD" teams.

For simplicity's sake, let's assume both France and Uruguay do the business tomorrow.

I think it is safe to say that all the seeded teams should be considered GOD teams (since 1998, only 3 of 24 seeded teams failed to advance).

Out of Pot 2, I rate Holland/Ireland, Portugal, Russia and Denmark as GOD teams. Out of Pot 3, I rate Ivory Coast, Ghana and Paraguay as GOD teams. As you can probably guess - there is no certainty that a Group of Death even forms.

So, this means there is a 50% chance that any Pot 1 team will draw a GOD team in pot 2. It gets a little trickier for Pot 3 because per Assumption #2, South Africa will only be drawing from CONMEBOL teams and Brazil & Argentina will only be drawing from CAF teams. So from Pot 3, South Africa has a 33% chance of drawing a GOD team, Brazil and Argentina each have a 40% chance of drawing a GOD team and the UEFA seeds each have a 60% chance of drawing a GOD team. (those odds will dynamically adjust as the draw takes place of course and one team draws a GOD team or does not . . . think of it like the change in odds that occurs after the flop, turn and river in poker).

For Pot 4, I think only 6 of the 8 teams will have a chance at making the Second Round - Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Australia, USA and Mexico. I do not rate Honduras or New Zealand very highly here. So we have 6 GOD teams. So a 75% probability of drawing a GOD team from Pot 4.

So, taking into account the above, there is a 49.975% chance that a Group of Death forms.

Now, we have the last step of calculating the USA's odds of drawing that Group - 1/8 = 12.5%

One more compound probability calculation = a 6.23% chance of drawing the Group of Death.

Okay, piss all over me now. Let's face it - any group we are in will be tough. It will take all 23 men on the squad and we will have to fight tooth and nail for every half-chance on goal.

Boy, playing with numbers is fun. Please leave some comments with your thoughts - especially concerning my math if it is way off somewhere. I cannot tell you how entertaining this was for me.

Este Pássaro Pode Voar! (This Bird Can Fly!)

Okay, so here something that is actually fun again! On Saturday, I went hang-gliding. After a raucous Friday night out that included a trip to Rio Scenarium and which saw the night end with an early-morning dip in the ocean (see picture from last post), I woke up on Saturday to an email from Anita alerting me that I had 25 minutes to get myself together to go hang-gliding. I have been skydiving and paragliding before. When I went skydiving, it was under similarly hungover still drunk circumstances. After a late night out in Vegas during my brother-in-law's bachelor party, a few of us passed out at the Hard Rock pool around 8am. We were the only ones there and claimed the beach chairs that were on the sand next to the waterslide. I can't remember who woke me up, but somebody shook me around 12 noon and said "Dude, it's time to go get this parachuting hootenanny on." Oh wait, that could be no other than my brother-in-law. I sprung to action in the blinding sun and exclaimed "You want me to jump out of a fucking plane!" Much to my surprise and theirs, the pool was then crowded with revelers and everyone had a good chuckle.

Anyway, I scrambled myself together and raced over to the hostel to meet Anita and Elizabeth. We made our way over to São Conrado, about 10 km west of Leblon, and met our pilots. At first, the head of the tour company tried to talk me into paragliding as they did not have any pilots who could handle someone my size. Not because I'm fat you dicks - because upon takeoff, if the passenger stops running, disaster can ensue. For that reason, they prefer the pilot to be stronger than the passenger so that the pilot can overcompensate if need be. If I were to stop running, we would have made a pretty sweet impression of a tumbleweed rolling down the hill. Although I had my heart set on hang-gliding, the paragliding pilot one me over by telling me he was the best paraglider in all of Brazil and that he would let me steer. A chance to put my own life in danger! Sign me up! Just as I got psyched for this, a hang-gliding pilot came out of nowhere and told me he could handle me so long as I kept running. Mild emotional roller-coaster there but I settled on hang-gliding.

After a quick drive and a tiny, but invigorating set of steps up through Parque Nacional da Tijuca:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

We arrived at the takeoff zone to find a veritable taxiway full of gliders:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

My pilot and I:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

Me getting suited up:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

The launchpad - you had to run right off the tin roof:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

- You can see São Conrado beach below and the Zona Sul in the corner past the hills.

Anita, Elizabeth and I with our backs to the sky:

From Paragliding in São Conrado

Anyway, the flight was spectacular. You fly over some beautiful houses and the canopy below looks like little florets of broccoli. You hear nothing but the wind, or in my case, you also hear your pilot instructing you to crane your neck to smile at the on-board camera every 49.6 seconds. The flight takes you out over the ocean which offers amazing views of the sparkling blue water below. You can see all the way from Pão de Açúcar to Barra da Tijuca. Amazing. Only downer of the experience was the weak tactics of the pilots to sell the photos to you after landing. They wanted R$60 for a cd with 25 of basically the same photo on it. Apparently my pilot did not get the memo that I am now a cheap bastard. When I informed him that it was too expensive for my tastes, he muttered the following phrase under his breath: "vai tomar no cu" which literally translates to: "go take it in the ass." Dick, next time I'm gonna stop running!

Anyway, awesome experience if you ever get the chance. If you come down here, I will arrange it because I want to go back and go paragliding with the best pilot in Brazil (read: I want to steer the chute)

Revised Invitation

If this blog is the only virtual medium that you follow me in, you may not have received my open invitation to come visit me in Rio. I am able to so readily throw that invitation out there not because I am lonely, I do miss people but I am certainly not lonely anymore (more on that in a bit), but because I genuinely love Rio and I want to share my happiness here with anyone and everyone.

- quick side note about my initial loneliness: When I first got here, I was instantly taken with the city. It probably started with the fact that my now friend Erick, a friend of Hans from Chicago - offered to drive 2+ hours from the city of Macaé and collect me from the airport. An amazing gesture to welcome me to this amazing culture. As the first few days unraveled and I began to explore the city more and more, I realized that there was so much this wonderful place had to offer that I would so easily enjoy - the only problem was that I did not want to experience this alone. I wanted nothing more to share my everyday experiences with someone but I had no one. I had heard so much of the warm culture of Cariocas - especially towards gringos like myself - but I had yet to experience any of it. I suspect that I received a more latent welcome because I do not look like the typical gringo. Every Brazilian I meet thinks I am Brazilian until I open my mouth. But alas, this isolation was only temporary. I now have a solid cadre of friends that grows weekend by weekend. -

Okay, back to regularly scheduled programming. So, I am modifying the open invitation. In Rio, I am extremely happy. I have found peace in many parts of my life. In many ways, Rio is like the methadone to my vices. What it offers complements me in many ways. (Maybe Rio is my rebound?) Anyway, when I say I love it here, I truly mean it. And when I love something, I will defend it with passion and will readily castigate any undue critics.

So consider this a warning - if you are the type of person who surrounds herself with negative energy, you are not welcome to visit me in Rio (or anywhere for that matter).

Life need not be as complicated as many of us make it. Life is short. There is no need to let the bullshit control us. When you feel a victim to your circumstances, take control of them. None of us have done this before (in our present consciousness anyway), so none of us can expect that we or others will get it right all the time. But that is no excuse to shy away from taking responsibility for our decisions. By taking responsibility, I think we empower ourselves to overcome negative energy and leading happier lives. But then again, I am no Dr. Phil and certainly, I am far from perfect. I do accept and appreciate my imperfections though . . . Just try.

Anyway, if you are open-minded, optimistic and secure with your insecurities, please come visit Rio. Just don't bring negativity with you. The flight is too expensive so just leave the shit back home. Here, you will find a place and a people who do not judge you and where you feel the ideals of democracy permeate everyday life. By no means is Rio a bastion of equality, more so of inequality than anything else, but its culture forces everyone to deal with a common level of humility, on one level or another.

Here's a picture that summarizes my happiness (I'm the black speck to the right):

From American Fooligan

Chasing Rainbows

Since last Monday, the weather in Rio has been amazing. It started with an amazing beach day on Finados (the Brazilian holiday to commemorate the day of the dead), and the weather consistently got better. Each morning, the thermometers on the beach would read 31C degrees - about 88F - and they would top out around 36C - around 97F. It's November folks - just the beginning of the summer. Can't wait for those 40C+ beach days in a month or so.

So this weekend my friend Anita came into town. She arrived on Sunday and after dropping her baggage off at the hotel, we met up with a French-Belgian guy she met on the bus as he was headed to Maracanã too. The match this weekend was between Fluminense and Palmeiras. As I have become a firmly entrenched supporter of Flamengo, I could happily root for Fluminense here because Fla is fighting Palmeiras for the Championship.

We meet Christian and his two friends from São Paulo and headed to Porcão - an amazing churrascaria. We had a quick meat fest and then scurried off to the stadium. Anita and I had to separate from our new friends as they had tickets in the upper deck and we could only find ones for the cadeira comum - the seats behind the goal.

The match itself was amazing as Flu, heavy underdogs, took the game to Palmeiras at every chance. They had one goal mistakenly disallowed and Fred knocked in a scrappy header.

As Flu protected their lead and full-time approached, the disbelieving crowd could barley control their emotion. A win would keep their feeble hopes of staving off relegation alive and provide them with some positive reflections after a season spent dwelling in the cellar of the league as they have excelled in the Copa Sudamericana (equivalent of Europa League).

While not matching the intensity of Mengão supporters, the chants of "Nehhhhn-sayyy, Nehhhhn-sayyy" were amazing. An elder gentleman in front of us could hardly contain himself and he started jumping up and down with the exuberance of a 6 year old. I am shocked if he didn't soil himself. Here is a video of him:

WARNING, if crappy videos make you nauseous, skip this. My first attempt at using my iPhone as a video camera. I will get better -


The Flu win over Palmeiras coupled with a Flamengo win and a São Paulo draw midweek has Fla sitting just 2 points behind São Paulo and 1 behind Palmeiras. With 4 matches left, it's anybody's for the taking.

During the meatfest, Anita and I were talking about life. I mentioned to her that it has taken me 30 years to realize how rarely we have days where we get it all right - those days where you wake up the next day and wouldn't change a single thing about the day before. I think those days happen like 5-10 times a year if we're lucky. But those are the days we all want. I am convinced you can't put the pressure on yourself to have those days as their are way too many uncontrolled variables. Instead, you just have to do your best and just accept and laugh off the rest. I likened it to chasing rainbows. It's not every day that you see a rainbow - and their is always something majestic about them. You get lucky when they make an amazing view even that much more amazing.

This is the view that we had when we left Maracaña.

From American Fooligan

Workout motivation

View from the deck of muscle beach.

Muscle Beach in Ipanema

Free gym on the beach.

Corcovado

I run by this every morning. Amazing.

First-World/Fourth-World

I promised to update this more frequently and I am now going to promise to live up to that promise. Thanks Asher and Mick for reminding me that I am about as worthwhile as Barack Obama these days. Although you guys probably just wanted something to read whilst dropping a deuce, you have re-inspired me. Might as well give me a Webby right now.

What I can tell you is that I have been without a phone since October 12. That will all change tonight when I make my triumphant return to the first world and get back on an iPhone. That means I can post pictures and videos on the fly to this puppy. That much I can promise to do because there are many worthy "sights" in Rio.

So what's this First-World / Fourth-World nonsense you ask? Well, Rio is a very diverse place in all facets of life. At times, things are very First-World (1W) - meaning they are on-par or better than their corollaries in New York City. In stark contrast, there are times when things are more impovershed and make less sense than the way they did in the India I knew 10 years ago - Fourth-World (4W). And then there are plenty of things that fall in between. You guessed it: (2W and 3W).

Full credit for this rating system goes to Ranjan and his Blue-State / Red-State comparisons over on his excellent blog - which also does not get updated with appropriate frequency.

So let's kick this off (albeit a little slowly - twill be much better once I am phone in hand):

Rio de Janeiro Busses: 4W - most of these things are rickety old pieces of solid steel that burn wholes in the Ozone Layer with each press of the gas pedal. I think they do this to help Cariocas work on their tan. Each bus seems to be privately operated so the drivers have an incentive to pack as many people on as possible. This results in people being packed in the aisles and since you enter at the front and exit at the back, you are constantly forced to play a g-rated bout of tummy sticks with countless passengers.

Bus Efficiency: 1W - contrary to the buses and the ettiquete of driving them, the efficiency is amazing. Every driver thinks he (yet to see a female) is a formula 1 pilot (they don't call them drivers). They weave through traffic and have a jam on the breaks at will. I am pretty sure I have been involved in 2 or 3 power slides (not really sure what that is, but Hans used to say this all the time). You can also just flag a bus down in much the same way you would hail a taxi. Great because if there is no hail, the driver is going to fly right past a stop.

In a word, busses are a system of organized chaos. I have found that you can have a great ab workout by standing and trying to balance through the busts lane changes and jarring stops and starts. It's almost like surfing.

Pictures will start rolling in tomorrow!

Major injuries for Charlie Davies.

I love watching Charlie Davies play. He is a true athlete, he's energetic on the pitch, he plays with great skill and he has the heart of a lion. We all know about the car wreck by now.

Let's show Charlie how much we appreciate and believe in him by pledging to be there the first time he returns to the pitch.



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Assault on Azteca 2009

So as any of you can gather from this blog, I have been to many US matches and a fair number of them have been away matches.  I went to every US game in World Cup 2002 and 2006 and also the games in Copa America 2007.  Something I always wanted to do was to go to an away match with my Dad.

My Dad has been to only one other US match before - a 1-1 draw with Haiti played in the unfriendly confines of the Orange Bowl back in 2005.  It was a lackluster match where we were 2 of maybe 20 US fans and I have always wanted to show my Dad what the real support was like.  Somehow, I was able to persuade him to come to Azteca with me.

My Dad has traveled a fair bit and after he and my Mom joined me in Spain during the summer, I think he was eager to see and experience more new things.  As expected, he did just that.

Because I was flying in from Chicago, and he from South Florida, we met at the airport in Mexico City.  I could not find a good meeting point online so I told him to meet my by a restaurant that I remembered eating at in 2005 (Note to all airport administrators out there - update your websites - something that should be universally included is a clear, detailed map that includes designated meeting points).  Dad arrived before me and could not locate the restaurant because it had since closed (despite still being listed on the website).  So, I began to wander around the airport when I noticed a McDonald's in the offing.  Sure enough, Dad thought the same thing . . . Let's meet at mickey D's (no, I did not go there for food).

We easily made our way into the city via the subway (at 2 pesos/15 ¢ per person, the DF subway is the cheapest in the world) and headed straight for the Galleria Plaza Hotel in the Zona Rosa.  We dropped off our bags and immediately headed out in search of our first tacos.  We then made our way to the ruins of Templo Mayor in the Zocalo to take in a bit of culture before meeting up with many familiar faces.

After the ruins, we returned to the hotel and met up with Superlimey and his wife, Dougie fresh and the ESC/NJB crew.   We had a few giant 32-40 oz beers on the roof and then headed out for a dinner where we ran into the Minnesota crew.  We also met Ashwin, who is putting this film together which I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic piece:



After dinner was what I was really looking forward to though as we went to Yuppies (horrible, we all know) to meet up with a ton of other US fans including, Bryan and Dante from the Venezuela trip, Mike from WC 2002 and 2006, Scott from Mexico 2005 and countless other matches since and Marco, my buddy who was in my program in Madrid.  Awesome time.

Game-day began with a hangover and did not begin ominously as my search for the now customary victory cigars for Ethan and myself went unfulfilled.  I could have picked up some Cohibas of questionable authenticity from Sanborne's, but I did not want to start the day by having the Mexicans being one up on me.  End result - no cigar (literally and figuratively).

About 75 of us made our way to Azteca on the Metro - Doug captured some great footage of this HERE - and we did not really encounter any problems.  We got to the stadium around noon for a 3 pm match so we had plenty of time to sample the delicious fare from the food vendors outside the stadium.  Critical miscalculation though in that we did not realize that it is prohibited to drink outside the stadium.  3 hours before kickoff and no beer = me not happy.

As more and more Mexican fans arrived, the atmosphere began to pickup with lots of jeering coming from every direction.  The police steered all the US fans toward a corner of the main gate and quickly shuttled us inside so they could keep the more aggressive fans at bay.  They marched us around the stadium and into the upper deck where we were immediately greeted with boos and whistles from the 1/4 full stadium.

With over 2 hours till kickoff and 1.5 hours till beer sales began, we kind of sat around and did nothing.  Every now and then, for no particular reason, the banter between us and the Mexicans would swell and the whistling and jeering would reach a peak before tapering back down.  It was very surreal to be part of this human wave of mutual hate (and don't kid yourself, inside that stadium, there was plenty of hate flowing both ways).

Finally, at 2:30 pm sharp, beer sales commenced and there was something to occupy our time.  The beer prices increased from 10 pesos to 30 pesos (though they also doubled in size) but this did not preclude our section from making our beer vendors very happy people again.  Another swell of hate arose just as the slew of Americans suckers who opted to purchase their tickets through Ole-Ole.com arrived.  These jeers were nothing compared to the reception our national anthem received.  This was the first time that I could not hear a single note of our national anthem.  Mexico fans, I don't care how you want to defend yourself - that is classless.  Your inferiority complex rivals that of Red Sox fans.

Obviously, the match result speaks for itself.  What I found interesting is the behavior of the Mexican fans surrounding us.  When we scored, they fell silent.  After each of their goals, they erupted and started throwing everything imaginable over the 5'2" riot police with full force at our section.  Not at any one person in particular - these idiots were trophy hunting.  "Let me see if I can hit someone in the face with a full bottle of water, a rock, or maybe even a battery"  Complete muppetts.  Somebody could have been seriously hurt.  Some will say that we should have expected this - that is fucking retarded.  This is a sporting event that is heavily regulated by FIFA rules.  Somebody needs to turn their eyes to this behavior before it gets out of hand.  As they say - it's all fun and games till somebody loses an eye - and that very realistically could have happened.

With about 5 minutes to go, the idiot Mexican police (paging redundancy department) tried to persuade us to leave saying that they couldn't control the Mexican fans after the match.  Apparently the stadium administrators have never observed international protocol when it comes to the exit of away fans which long ago settled that all home fans should be dispatched first - and only after the home fans have cleared the are should the visiting fans be released.

No, these Mexican oompah-loompahs cops let us stay till the final whistle blew then promptly marched us out of the stadium.  One of the cops didn't take too kindly to the way I spoke to him and wanted to have some words with me.  Not wanting to entertain the corrupt idiot, I did what any intelligent person would have done and swapped shirts with Spliff to disguise myself.  Worked like a charm and I made it out of the stadium A-OK.  Dad was covered in beer and other liquids of questionable origin.

The cops led us on a Bataan Death March through a gauntlet of Mexican fans waiting to taunt us.  Many of them were trying to instigate a fight by reaching over the useless efforts of the police and touching our heads.  One idiot grabbed Tom Fina's hat off of my head.  However, nothing we had faced was as dangerous as the brick-sized blocks of ice being lofted on top of us from multiple directions.  Had this happened in the US, the cops would have responded in overwhelming force and pulverized the perps.  Not in Mexico . . .

The cops eventually corralled everyone into a few paddy-wagons to take the US fans to a subway line that was not connected to the stadium so that everyone could get back to town safely.  Not wanting to make it easier for the idiot cop to spot me, I dropped off from the group and grabbed a ride from some Mexican fans driving back towards the center.  Their seats were in the lower bowl.  They were genuinely nice - sharing beer and food with me.  They did not resemble the idiots we were placed near at all.  Thanks FEMEXFUT.

Anyway, I made it back to the hotel and was showered and changed before anyone else made it back.  We celebrated our survival and first lead in Azteca with many a shot of tequilla.  Dougie, Ashwin and I headed out late night to check out the clubs but were too tired to deal with it.  A day well spent.

The next day, Dad and I went out to Teotihuacan - an amazing site.

All in all, a worthwhile trip.  Mexico, we will come back and beat you there one day.  I will keep coming back until we do.   I love your culture, your food, your music . . . your people.  But when the US plays Mexico, I hope we kick the piss out of you every time.

An interesting thing at the airport on the way out . . . we had to pass in front of a full-body thermal scanner for a H1N1 check. Good thing tequilla sweats don't register.

Here are some pics:



Cheers.