Ascension Island

Congrats to Liga de Quito for winning the Copa Sudamericana, and especially to Alexander Domínguez for blocking three of Fortaleza’s penalty kicks. Domínguez also tended goal when Liga previously won this tournament, in 2009.

Stephen says this is Domínguez’s finest hour, but I still prefer the epic time-wasting of 2021.

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I have nothing much to relate – the weekend has been low-key (the best kind of weekend) – so here is an oldish video by Un mundo inmenso that I’d somehow never viewed until tonight. It’s about Ascension Island, an out-of-the-way, volcanic, Guernsey-sized British territory in the South Atlantic.

Plenty of weirdness here. Best thing – or worst, according to one point of view: Charles Darwin had the idea of importing non-native plants to moisten the air a bit. One of the mountains ended up turning green, but its ecosystem isn’t up to the ecological purists’ standards.

The U.S. has a military base on the island. Apparently, quite a few of the Britons are getting edged out. Which they resent. They’re only temporary residents, but some have been on Ascension for many years, and like their Northern Atlantic counterparts they feel connected to “their” land.

I looked up the island’s job board to see about moving my family there, but only one job was posted, in waste management, and it wasn’t ideal, requiring various special driver’s liscences as well as unmarriedness. Besides, the vacancy was closed.

I guess we’ll stay in South Bend.

Independiente del Valle 3, Colón de Santa Fe 1

A great triumph for Ecuador: Independiente del Valle, the modest but well-run club of Sangolquí, defeated Colón of Santa Fe, Argentina, in the final of the Copa Sudamericana – the continent’s most important club competition after the Copa Libertadores. (Independiente also played in the Copa Libertadores final of 2016.) Today’s match occurred in a “neutral” venue in Asunción, Paraguay, which of course was filled with Colón supporters. No matter: a deluge stymied the Argentinian players, while the Ecuadorians dribbled and passed expertly through the puddles. Independiente also blocked a penalty kick.

In Texas, Ada watched the game:

In South Bend, Samuel and Karin slept through the game:

A tragedy

The day’s sad news is the plane crash in Colombia that killed most of the players and coaches of Chapecoense, a modest team from southern Brazil. Like Independiente del Valle, the darlings of the previous major South American tourney, Chapecoense had bested expectations and qualified to play in a continental final (this time, the final of the Copa Sudamericana) against Atlético Nacional of Medellín. Indeed, the crash occurred near to that city, where the final’s first leg was to have been held.

Atlético Nacional have requested that Chapecoense be awarded the title.