Dinosaurs & fútbol

06.30.2004

Woke up early to catch the 9:30 am tourist truck out to the FANCESA dinosaur tracks. It's a tectonic plate that was pushed up to vertical some million of years ago. About 40 years ago, the FANCESA cement company, while digging the calcium-rich mountain, discovered a layer containing various dinosaur tracks from the Late Cretaceous period — a rare find, w/ hundreds of different tracks (and they're still finding more). It makes the site one of the greatest paleontological finds on the planet.

The tour was the most expensive to date at Bs. 30 (most museums are Bs. 5 for nationals, Bs. 15 for foreigners). But. They do include a convenient, colorful "dinotruck" to take us out there & highly competent guides. It's actually a rather impressive site, even if some of the tracks are slightly difficult to make out. It's also nice to know that FANCESA declared it won't dig up the tracks, but is instead looking for international funding to protect them permanetly & build a "jurasic park" of sorts for tourism.

From there, I got back to town for lunch. A really good curried tofu & rice dish at El Germen, one of two vegetarian places I found in the city. I plan on hitting the other one (a Swiss/Bolivian place) tonight for dinner.

Then off to Joy Ride Café for the Portugal v. Holland 2004 European Championship semi-final game. Glad I got there early; the place soon started filling up w/ ex-pats — most supporting Holland, dressed in orange shirts & face paint. I felt the lone Portugal supporter, until Portugal scored & a small group in the back roared in delight. It was a great, fast-paced game, ending w/ a 2-1 Portugal victory.

Of course, that meant it was too late in the afternoon for the trip out to La Glorieta. So I did some walking about & picture-taking. Entered San Francisco, an old church & monastery converted into an army barracs during the Wars for Independence (and still used as such). The bell atop the San Francisco tower's famous as the bell that called citizens out on the night when the first independence movement began in South America. Sort of like Philadelphia's Liberty Bell.

Hit the university's Museum of Natural History, a small salon w/ various stuffed animals lying about. The Anthropology Museum was closing just as I got to it, so I missed that one. Still, I saw enough in Sucre to make me a happy tourist.

My flight to Cochabamba was pushed up to noon, so I've to leave Sucre earlier than anticipated. Just enough time for some salteñas in the market, check out of my room, and a taxi ride out to the airport.

Posted by Miguel at 06:20 PM

Comments

So the final will be the exact matchup of the opening game: Underdog Greece against hosting Portugal. In the first round that game ended 2:1 for Greece.

Greece won 1:0 in extra time today against the Czechs. You can call it luck, cos winning in extra time always is lucky.

But: Greece had such a tight defense that they didn't really let the stars create a lot of chances.
They play very old fashioned soccer. They played with a Libero in the defense, meaning an extra man without direct opponent whose job is to clear the situation if another team member messed up. (This position is also called the "free man")

This system was pretty much abolished about 10 years ago. Today's teams play more offensively, no extra defense man.
So, Greece doesn't play the most beautiful game, but what a performance! The free man (Dellas) was the man of the match cos he even scored the winning goal.

Of course, I am a little biased when cheering for Greece. German teams always won like that. German teams never won because of technical merit. They just ran more, played aggressive defense, just were generally tough). So the success of Greece (with a German coach) gives me a little hope for Germany in the World Championships in 2006, which will take place in Germany. The finals will be right here, in Berlin. I'll get a seat.

Posted by: Marco at July 1, 2004 07:18 PM

Greece won? Wow. That really is an underdog. But I've faith in Fido & Co. Although. Having little Greece would also be nice. But I prefer "Latin" teams to German-style teams, I like aggressive attacking play w/ more emphasis on creativity than on sheer mechanics.

Posted by: miguel at July 1, 2004 07:44 PM

I understand. It makes more interesting games when the teams play offensively.
As to the Latin style, while you are generally correct there are at least two exceptions:
Itlay (who else if not them would be Latin?):
Their most successful football has been the famous Catenachio. Very defensive football. And in this Euro they practised it again but without success.

The other exception would be Argentina. They are often described as the Europeans of Latin America because sliding tackles are at least as much part of their game as quick dribblings.

Posted by: Marco at July 3, 2004 05:00 AM

The Argentines are also known for their picinazos — taking dives, hoping for penalty kicks. Quite shameful, really.

Posted by: miguel at July 3, 2004 01:55 PM