At the end of Eduardo Galeano's collection of essays entitled "Football in Sun and Shadow" he rails against a Fox Sports advert for the 1998 World Cup that exhorts viewers to watch how the "big fish eat the small fish" at the world's most popular soccer tournament. Galeano calls that attitude an invitation to boredom. I doubt he's a big backer of the Gold Cup then.
Canada supporters know the big-fish-eats-small-fish narrative all too well when it comes to Concacaf. Plenty believe believe that the federation is somehow against both the country and the program. And while there have been several disturbing incidents to support that idea, Canada is by no means the confederation's only country to feels this way.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Take the controversy surrounding Concacaf's decision to allow Mexico to replace - ahead of Wednesday's semifinal battle against Honduras - its five players suspended at the start of the tournament for positive drug tests.
From the reaction in certain corners of Honduras you'd think the Mexicans had been allowed to call up the second coming of Cuauhtémoc Blanco five times over.
Honduran writer Jorge Cardona doesn't necessarily consider it a low-blow to the Hondurans from a footballing standpoint, but says Concacaf's decision to allow replacements "upsets the [Hondurans'] mental focus," and plays into the federation's desire for a Mexico-U.S. tournament final.
He says that while some may argue that this decision is within the rules, the fact that Concacaf hasn't officially explained itself amounts to an act of cowardice. (Spanish link, paragraph six.)
Meanwhile, Mexican and Honduran fans continue to have a go at each other in comment sections such as the one below this article. The Mexican supporters are quick to remind the Hondurans of, well, their place in both the real world and the footballing one, as well as the fact that it was the Mexican federation who conducted the drug tests in the first place, not Concacaf.
The Honduran supporters, to sum this rather predictable back-and-forth up, are adamant Concacaf would never entertain the idea of permitting them to replace suspended players at this stage of a tournament.
For what it's worth, as pointed out here, Mexico hasn't exactly suffered from playing in this tournament with 17 players, and FIFA endorsed the initial Mexican request to replace the players made immediately after the suspension.
When it comes to the Gold Cup, I'm torn. I absolutely love watching the U.S. play Mexico not only because of the historical rivalry on the pitch, but because of the historical everything. All of the stuff in the background (ie. increasingly out-of-control rhetoric surrounding immigration) just adds to the intrigue. But Eduardo Galeano has a point. So just like on Saturday night when Guatemala jumped out to an early lead against Mexico, I will certainly be cheering aggressively if and when one of Concacaf's "little fish" take a chunk from one the big boys on Wednesday night.