Dave’s Football Blog

In case you missed it last night, the USA beat Guatemala 1-0 in its first CONCACAF 2010 World Cup Qualifier. It was the national team’s first WCQ win in Guatemala in its history. And they took one hell of a beating in the process.

I’ve been looking around the webternets this morning for a photo that captured Gustavo Cabrera’s attempted beheading of Eddie Lewis, which was pointless violence worthy of an International Rules match. All I’ve managed to find so far is Soccer By Ives’ post-game photo of Lewis with his stitches. That the attack happened just two minutes after Steve Cherundolo was sent off for a second yellow card, leaving the USA a man down, made it even more pointless. After that, it was 10-on-10, and even then, the Guatemalans hacked away at American players like they wanted blood more than victory. Why is that?

Maybe this has something to do with it:

[In the 1950s, Guatemala president Jacobo] Arbenz proceeded to nationalize and redistribute un-utilized land owned by the United Fruit Company, which had a practical monopoly on Guatemalan fruit production and some industry. In response, United Fruit lobbied the Eisenhower administration to remove Arbenz. Of still greater importance, though, was the widespread American concern about the possibility of a so-called “Soviet beachhead” opening up in the Western Hemisphere. Arbenz’s sudden legalization of the Communist party and importing of arms from then Soviet-satellite state of Czechoslovakia, among other events, convinced major policy makers in the White House and CIA to try for Arbenz’s forced removal, although his term was to end naturally in two years. This led to a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954, known as Operation PBSUCCESS, which saw Arbenz toppled and forced into exile by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. Despite most Guatemalans’ attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and the military began to believe that Arbenz represented a Communist threat and supported his overthrow, hoping that a successor government would continue the more moderate reforms started by Arevalo. After the CIA coup, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed.

Bananas and McCarthyism convinced the USA to overthrow a democratic government, which led to hundreds of deaths and plunged an entire nation into civil war. It also coined the term “Banana Republic.” So yeah, Guatemala might have some reason to be a little bitter.

We try to separate sport and politics, but history like this will always color international football matches. Witness the Germany v. Poland match at EURO 2008, which proved to be more civil on the pitch than off. How much do you want to bet that FIFA will do everything it can to prevent the USA and Iraq from being drawn into the same group at the Confederations Cup next summer?

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