El Tri, Losing Again

Mexico's national team, which has more players thriving in Europe with each passing year, yet whose performance as a group steadily declines, lost a friendly to Sweden last night 1-0. I can't remember el Tri playing a decent 90 minutes against a halfway decent team (no, Peru doesn't count) since the Copa America, when they beat Brazil and crushed Uruguay. As disappointing as the team was under Hugo Sánchez, I don't think there's much question that they've been worse since he was replaced by Sven-Goran Eriksson.

With such a gloomy climate surrounding them, Mexican soccer fans are turning to a new tactic ahead of the World Cup qualifier against the Americans on February 11: voodoo:

An advertisement in the sports daily Record on Tuesday invited fans to clip coupons and redeem them at their local Radio Shack store for a voodoo-doll likeness of a U.S. player. The hope was that a little black magic might help Mexico break a decade of futility on the road versus its northern neighbor.

A nice idea, and certainly at this point one has to think that the team won't go anywhere without a little supernatural support, but we gringos don't lose in Gringolandia.