A Mancunian classic

The best game that I saw last year involved a league’s second-placed team trying to keep its archrival from walking away with the title.

The game that I watched today, while not as technically satisfying, was just as dramatic and probably will end up as the best game of this season. Moreover, it was played under similar circumstances: Manchester United was looking to keep its local rival, Manchester City, from clinching the English league title with six games to spare.

In the first half, the Citizens scored twice within five minutes. Their first goal was headed in by their captain, Vincent Kompany, who’d scored in previous title-clinching matches. It was a good omen for them; more importantly, they kept United from attempting a single shot.

But United played with greater urgency in the second half. Soon, Paul Pogba had scored two goals. United’s third goal followed not long after. Suddenly, the Citizens were reeling.

The Red Devils stayed calm and earned an unlikely victory. I was proud of my compatriot, Antonio Valencia, United’s captain. In the waning moments, he expertly ran down the clock as he very slowly took the free kicks and throw-ins near his sideline.

Afterward, the Red Devils stayed on the field to celebrate (though surely City will clinch the title in the coming weeks). The Citizens’ fans were in tears. All season, the Citizens have been described as perhaps the best English team ever to play. Now, they’re in danger of being remembered as just another domestic champion. And on Tuesday, they’ll probably be eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Liverpool, whom they trail by three goals in their quarterfinal series.

Matchday 13

Tomorrow night, Ecuador will play its thirteenth Russian World Cup qualifier, against Paraguay in Asunción. The prognosis is good. The Paraguayans have lost four of their last five games, with home defeats to Colombia and Peru. Ecuador’s record during this time consists of two victories, one draw, and two defeats.

What’s better is that our players are confident and healthy. Last weekend, in the English Premier League, Énner Valencia played some fifteen minutes and tallied a goal and an assist. Antonio Valencia tallied a goal that showed that he was “full of running” (as the British say). And Walter Ayoví scored a golazo two months ago, in Mexico.

Pray for Ecuador to win.

The fourteenth qualifier will be played on Tuesday, at home, against Colombia.

“En España critican el trofeo que el United dio a Antonio Valencia”

He was named the best player of the month at Manchester United.

Here he is with his little trophy.

As El Universo points out, this trophy is not being treated kindly in the European presses.

They say that it looks like a Christmas ornament.

Also, that it can be bought on the Internet for £12.99.

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This morning, due to the snow, the high school where I work was closed. I went to Bethel and trudged around to various departments, looking for blue books for the exam that I’m going to administer on Wednesday.

The students whom I talked to didn’t know what blue books were.

I suspect that the departmental secretaries whom I talked to didn’t know, either.

Blue books seem to have gone out of fashion at Bethel.

At last, I found a sympathetic professor. “I have a secret stash of blue books,” he told me.

And so my preparations for this semester have been completed. I would’ve been disappointed if I hadn’t been able to use the blue books. Giving a blue book exam is one of the few joys that remain in the academic profession.

Interpreting a funeral

Antonio Valencia poses here with the medics of Manchester United, thanking them for quickly healing his broken hand. He came back from his layoff earlier than expected. He was the “man of the match” last weekend, versus Arsenal.

On Friday, Karin’s grandma died after a long illness. The funeral was held this afternoon, and I played a large part in it: I interpreted, into English, the speech given by one señora Máxima, whom Karin’s grandparents had known when they were missionaries in the Dominican Republic.

It was a lovely and very long speech. It included:

(1) Stories of how the dead woman liked to bake. (A bake shop, named after her, is now operated in the Dominican Republic by sra. Máxima’s niece.)

(2) Accounts of the dead woman’s unfailing cheer, and of her submissiveness. (“Who is this person who is being talked about?” wondered Brianna. Indeed, my own memories are of a sassier, stronger-willed woman.)

(3) An acrostic of the letters D-U-L-Z-U-R-A which, sadly, was not translatable.

(4) Detailed greetings from quite a few members of the Dominican church.

Afterward, my interpreting was praised by many of the mourners. It was nice to be recognized, but I felt like collapsing onto a sofa. Translating a half-dozen single-spaced, typed pages in front of so many people was like shoveling a mountainload of bricks.

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Martin & Mary have flown to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with Ana & David. While they’re away, Karin & I will look after Bianca.

Optimisms

PART ONE: The Optimism of Fools

PART TWO: The Optimism of the Wise

Ecuador lost. But I’d like to point out:

(1) This is the best Uruguayan team in several decades.

(2) Until we Ecuadorians managed it, no other team had been able to score against the Uruguayans in Montevideo.

(3) Felipe Caicedo’s was a real golazo.

(4) Renato Ibarra, who assisted him on that golazo, was a terror all game long.

(5) Ibarra is a mere substitute. Our regular starter, Antonio Valencia, is an even greater terror (when healthy).

And (6) we’re still in the top half of the standings.

So: there’s no cause for alarm. I was quite happy when the whistle blew, because we were playing well.

On Tuesday we’ll be at home against the Venezuelans, whom we whipped soundly the first time around. I expect the Colombians to fail to win against Argentina, and so we’ll climb back up to into third place.

Please pray for Ecuador to win.

PART THREE: Trumpie, Again

My sincere hope is that Trumpie will turn out to be a good president. Regarding all the outrageous things he’s said, one writer at the Atlantic suggests: “Take Trump Seriously, Not Literally.” (This article, and the SNL video of Part One, I got from the Facebook wall of the same professor whom I criticized in my previous post. I don’t like everything about that professor, but at the same time I like quite a lot about him. One must take the bad along with the good.)

A BONUS

Mexico defeated the U.S.

The fall holidays

Three immanent fall breaks:

• the high school’s (Fri. of next week, and then Sat., Sun., and Mon.);
• IUSB’s (Mon. and Tues. of next week);
• Bethel’s (tomorrow).

Yesterday’s Spanish session wasn’t very well attended, and so it went much better than usual. It may’ve been the best session I ever taught. (Afterward, the student in front of whom I tore my pants stayed awhile to tell me that my lecture was crystal-clear. She’s a very kind, encouraging student.)

I began the session by showing soccer replays. “Look at how rapidly the ball travels in the high altitude,” I said. I taught about the elevation of La Paz. Then I showed photos of that city. The students gasped. Then I told them about El Alto, La Paz’s suburb, which is even higher and more populous.

I continued lecturing about the soccer replays. “Here is Ecuador’s first goal. See Antonio Valencia’s perfect first touch. The player who ends up scoring the goal is Énner Valencia, who almost got arrested during the previous game for not paying his child support.

“Here is our tying goal, scored, near the end of the game, by the same player.”

“One question,” interjected an athlete in the back row. “Ronaldo or Messi?”

“Messi plays better,” I replied (to his disgust).

“Can we watch replays of the Cubs?” asked a skinny young man in the back row.

“No.”

Then I taught about the impersonal se (as in: se habla español en Bolivia) and about the se which disavows responsibility (se me olvidó la tarea). This was the most crystal-clear part of the lecture. I was very pleased with how well I taught that day.

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The previous day, little Ziva’s uterus was removed. The surgery was completed by mid-afternoon, but Ziva was groggy all evening: her jumps were too low for their intended surfaces, and her head kept on bobbing sleepily.

Now her belly has a large, shaved patch where the surgery was performed.

Despite these ignominies, she recovers more of her strength every day.

A prayer for Ecuador

Karin’s birthday was on Monday. She & I were too tired to go out. But yesterday we did go out, to the laundromat; and, while the clothes were washing, we left to get some ice-cream. Karin put some of it into a styrofoam container and brought it back with her to the laundromat. But she didn’t eat it there, because dead bugs were falling from the ceiling.

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Tonight, again, we went out. We bought mountains of groceries. Then we stopped at a used-media store called Disc Replay. Karin bought an old Nintendo game, Crash Bandicoot, as a present to herself. I bought Seasons 1 and 2 of King of the Hill for very cheap.

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Mary now works with me at IUSB, tutoring students in the writing of papers. The baroque requirements of the First-Year Writing program are driving her nuts. (That was how it was for me, too, the first couple of years that I worked at IUSB.)

I’m finally making good on my promise to write an IUSB-style First-Year Writing paper. And I’m doing it the way that IUSB wants its students to do it: I’m writing the body paragraphs before I write the thesis statement. (This is one of the program’s features that drives Mary nuts.)

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Ecuador will play against Chile tomorrow (Thursday). The situation is dire: several players haven’t been playing regularly with their clubs; our captain, Walter Ayoví, is injured; Antonio Valencia is accused of having cheated on his wife; and Énner Valencia is compelled to sneak in and out of the stadium to avoid being arrested for failing to pay his child support. Under these circumstances, I’m reluctant to ask God for victory over the Chileans. But I believe that our God is a merciful God: that he is with those who call out to him in repentance. Repent, compatriots! Repent, and reclaim God’s favor!

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.

A victory

Messi didn’t play. The rest of Argentina barely showed up. I don’t mean the team; I mean the country. How empty the stadium looked!

The other big names were on the field. At the beginning I was a little worried about el Fideo Di María, but after the first few minutes, he hardly touched the ball. We defended high up on Argentina’s half, all game long. It was as if we were the home team.

Special credit to Christian Noboa and Pedro Quiñónez – and, later, Segundo Castillo – our defensive midfielders. Antonio Valencia made some freakish runs, one of which you’ll see below.

Ecuadorians in Buenos Aires.

A clearer view of the goals.

In Ecuador: a news anchor with one eye on the game.

I wonder if the Argentinians will keep their #1 world ranking.

R.I.P. “Chucho,” pt. 2

In Chile’s Estadio Nacional, the Ecuadorians celebrate their qualification. Jeff Montero and Toño Valencia wear undershirts commemorating the “Chucho” Benítez. On Valencia’s undershirt, the “Chucho” has wings.

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Yesterday, for the first time in two months, I went running. Five miles. Easy peasy.

Columbus Day

I almost forgot!

What: World Cup qualifier, Ecuador vs. Chile.

Where: Quito.

When: TODAY !!! (Friday) at 5:00pm, U.S. Eastern Time.

Pray for Ecuador to win.

Antonio Valencia, our best player, has been suspended. But some fine Chileans will be absent as well.

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[Edit:] In Ecuador, today is El Día de la Raza; and where I am, in this empire of rugged individualists, it’s Columbus Day.

For years I searched the Internet for one particular comic strip, and never found it. But here it is, thanks to my brother Stephen:

This is just perfect.