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FRISCO — During this week leading up to the final Cotton Bowl at the Cotton Bowl, there were suggestions about ways to keep the old heap alive.
One minor notion was to play Mexican League soccer matches on what was a great soccer pitch in years past.The only problem with that theory is ... like every other sport, soccer also has better places to be.Any politician spouting Fair Park as a soccer destination obviously doesn’t get soccer promotions.On Friday, Toluca — Mexico’s current champion — tied Morelia 1-1 in an InterLiga match at Pizza Hut Park.The second match of the evening featured a special treat for local soccer fans as midfielder Jose Torres got the starting nod for Pachuca against UA de Guadalajara.Born in Longview, the 21-year-old Torres left high school to turn pro in Mexico. With a Mexican father and an American mother, Torres turned heads last year by opting to play internationally with the United States rather than Mexico. The InterLiga tournament has real meaning as the top two clubs out of eight Mexican League teams earn a berth into the South American club championships — the Copa Libertadores.A deep run through Libertadores can be worth millions to a franchise.During all the years of soccer at the Cotton Bowl, there were plenty of Mexican League exhibitions, but none that carried real significance.On Tuesday, Pizza Hut Park will overflow as the two giants of Mexican soccer, Chivas-Guadalajara and Club America, come in for another doubleheader.Here’s the important part: InterLiga is promoted through Major League Soccer’s marketing arm — Soccer United Marketing or SUM.SUM also promotes SuperLiga (the MLS vs. Mexico League tournament worth $1 million) and, most important, the Mexican national team.The Cotton Bowl could get some fly-by-night promoter to put together an exhibition, but the game would have no significance.When it comes to the Mexican national team, it’s not far-fetched to imagine a return to the area in an early 2010 World Cup tune-up.However, that match would take place up the road from Marquez Bakery in Arlington at Jonesworld Stadium.The Cotton Bowl maintains its legacy as one of the venues during the 1994 World Cup, but in 2018 or 2022 should the World Cup return to the U.S., it will be in Arlington, not Dallas.Soccer fans are fortunate to have an environment like Pizza Hut Park.Non-Spanish speakers should take in the action Tuesday.Where else can you see a beer vendor ask a guy wearing a devil mask for his I.D., but not bother to see if the face under the mask matched the license?Where else resonates a cattle call of plastic soccer horns blended into a ridiculous yet still entertaining nuance?Where else can you see Luchador masks, little girls with stuffed goats in soccer jerseys and drum-pounding, brass blowing fan clubs?Where?Well, not at the Cotton Bowl anymore, that’s for sure.
InterLiga 2009Group B matchesTuesday, Pizza Hut Park, FriscoTigres vs. Club America, 7 p.m.Chivas-Guadalajara vs. Atlas, 9:30 p.m.
Tobias Xavier Lopez, 817-685-3868
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