The Perfect Award for the Player who can never Find his Keys

As a reward for being named the most valuable player of the Copa Sudamericana final, Damian Alvares of the Mexican club Pachuca is given the world’s largest automobile key. What he doesn’t know is that it belongs to one of those tiny hybrids which you can only drive by looking over your crumpled knees and with 20 clowns in the backseat. Alvares was one of many heroes for Pachuca on Wednesday, helping his team to become the first Mexican club in history to capture a South American football tournament. Pacuca won 2-1 in Chile against Colo Colo and my favorite player of the past month Matias Fernandez. I still love the kid, but I’m ready to jump on someone else’s bandwagon.

On the other side of the world where they make the cars that go along with the big keys, another Mexican team did not fare so well. Club America was taken to the woodshed and roughed up by Barcelona 4-0 in the semifinals of the Club World Cup in Japan. That sets up the much anticipated final between the Duck and the likely 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year on Sunday.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Rat Stabbers from Estudiantes put the dagger in Ricardo La Volpe’s brief stint as Boca Juniors coach, winning 2-1 in a playoff for the Argentina championship on Wednesday. La Volpe will presumably take his six-pack-a-day smoking habit elsewhere in the future.

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Category: Mexico, South America, World Football