A hard-fought draw

I was a little frightened to see Néstor “The Fatty” Ortigoza on the field. I hoped he’d tire out quickly in the altitude. But he didn’t. He played with supreme efficiency, pushing the ball into the safest spaces, away from the Ecuadorians. He gave the pass that set up the Paraguayans’ tying goal.

If Ortigoza was efficient, his Ecuadorian counterpart, Christian Noboa, was spectacular.

Noboa hit three hard shots off of the post – one of which Énner Valencia pounced on for the first goal. Then, in the dying minutes, he gave a chip-pass to Ángel Mena for the definitive 2–2.

Should this goal have counted? When it occurred, I thought Mena was offside; but later I saw how well he timed his movement. Here are some screenshots, in reversed order.

This article gives the clearest image.

I believe the goal was licit. In any case, we can applaud the linesman for giving the attacker the benefit of the doubt.

This was but one moment of Ecuadorian brilliance; there were others. Alas, one brilliant player, Jeff Montero, was stonewalled by the defender Bruno Valdez. Only after Valdez’s injury, when Iván Piris came in, did Montero have his way.

On the whole, though, the injuries were worse for Ecuador.

We sorely missed the “Hormiga.” Due to his absence, Antonio Valencia rarely ventured to attack (though when he did, he was a menace).

Miller Bolaños was missed; Felipe Caicedo was missed. Gabo Achilier was on the field, but he shouldn’t have been.

The fatties

Last night we watched the final game of the Copa Libertadores. Pope Francis’s team, San Lorenzo de Almagro, defeated Club Nacional of Asunción. It was the first Copa Libertadores title for San Lorenzo.

The winning goal was by one of my favorite players in the world, Néstor “The Fatty” Ortigoza, of whom I wrote in 2012.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

David’s bachelor party will occur this evening. We’ll have sushi at a restaurant; but first, for two hours, we’ll play soccer at our church, on cement. It’s been four years since I last played on cement.

Saturday will be David’s wedding-day.

The groomsmen have been asked to wear the same suits that were worn last year for Kenny’s wedding. I’m too fat to wear the same pants, so I’ll wear those that David wore last year. He’ll wear an even larger pair of pants.

I acquit myself

I played soccer against the other graduate students, on the quad. How was it? Well, imagine a player with a physique like Hermano Wachito’s. Or if you don’t know who Hno. Wachito is, think of Néstor Ortigoza.

Though I only scored twice, I was pleased with the manner in which we won. I foresaw the outcome when we were still losing 2–0. We were smothering our opponents on their own half of the field. I earned one corner kick after another and finally squeezed in an angled shot. That goal opened up the floodgates.