Sports of The Times; Sick Minds Transcend All Borders
THIS is not just about soccer. Let us make this clear. This is about a society run wild, a society so crazed with drugs and money and power and guns that it enables the wipeout of an athlete who dared represent his country, the nation of Colombia.
Until we hear otherwise, the assumption is that Andres Escobar was gunned down in Medellin early yesterday morning for the sin of wearing the national colors, for daring to take chances in front of millions, for valiantly and professionally diving after a twisting loose ball, for not being able to stop it from rolling into his own goal. The blame belonged to the entire Colombian team, for allowing the United States to score -- and disgrace -- Colombia a week ago Wednesday. Then Andres Escobar was killed, and that is sick.
Now this World Cup has double scandals, a murder of a player plus the ultimate disgrace of Diego Armando Maradona, the pampered son of the Pampas, who got caught with illegal drugs in his system. Is this how the 1994 World Cup will be remembered? Soccer does evoke high passions. Sometimes a fan will kick out the television or heap abuse on his team after a bad World Cup. Will this hideous murder be an excuse for Americans to fear or revile this sport?
Even before yesterday's high-scoring game between Germany and Belgium in the drizzle of Soldier Field, this was an upswing World Cup because of rules jiggered to encourage more offense. There were smashing performances by old powers like Brazil, encouraging performances by newcomers like Nigeria and gallant performances in defeat by nations like South Korea.
In some ways, this World Cup does not have the ambience of World Cups I attended in soccer-friendly nations of Spain, Mexico and Italy. But there have been no hooligan sightings near any game, and the lakefront and stunning skyline of Chicago have made a memorable site for any game.
It would not be appropriate for Americans to cluck about the brutality surrounding soccer or the viciousness of a Latin American drug culture. After all, our football-loving country knows about scandal and crimes of violence.
Plus, our sons and our daughters, our brothers and sisters, our baseball heroes and our stock clerks and our doctors and our lawyers and our desperate poor and maybe the person next door have access to the white powder from Colombia. They are producing it for us. It's a boom industry. And once in a while, people get a little flushed with power, feel a bit rowdy, back in the home office of our drug suppliers. It's a small world, so let us not be overly pious about what happened in the streets of Medellin.
Assuming that Andres Escobar was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time in goalmouth, let us then note that the lowlife who ordered the killing and the lowlife who did the killing (if they are two separate persons) do not even know the game.
The United States, the lowly United States, the soccer-deprived United States, was putting immense pressure on Colombia, which had been puffed up as one of the favorites of this tournament. Squabbling among themselves, refusing to spread the ball around, the Colombians bullheadedly tried to take the ball down the middle of the U.S. defense, and the Americans were prepared for this tactic. They wisely punched it back downfield and counterattacked, to set up speedy Ernie Stewart to chase the ball down.
Andres Escobar, wearing the No. 2 of a right defensive back, was protecting the goal while goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba was roaming to his left to try to stop John Harkes. The ball came flashing across the middle, and Escobar slid across to block it, but it glanced off his body and into the middle of the goal. Ten days later, some villain pumped bullets into that body.
Was it wounded national pride that caused such an act? Had somebody gambled his hard-earned drug money on Colombia? Who knows? In Colombia, it is all intertwined. The goalie before Cordoba, Rene Higuita, went to prison because he was too friendly with Pablo Escobar, the Jefe de Todos Jefes of Colombia drugs, and when Pablo Escobar was finally hunted down and killed, Higuita was out of prison, but also out of soccer. It's tough to be a soccer player there.
They held a moment of silent prayer for Andres Escobar before yesterday's Germany-Belgium game, and defenders continued to take their chances in front of the goal. The game went on. We cannot allow ourselves to be beaten by killers, even ones we support.