Argentina's domination capped off a tremendous FIFA U-20 tournament.

With the exception of the other type of football, soccer is truly unparalleled in the level of atmosphere and natural crowd enthusiasm the game generates. I liken the difference between true soccer crowds and North American sports like basketball and hockey to the difference of watching a show like According to Jim vs. Entourage. Basketball and hockey are the sporting equivalents of According to Jim because of their contrived nature. Piped-in music, fan noise prompts and in-game contests and promotions dominate these events and serve as the laugh track of sporting events. These gimmicks are a manufactured way to prompt a fan to give the reaction the in-stadium game operators are seeking. Soccer is more like Entourage or Curb Your Enthusiasm; there’s no laugh track and it’s a much more organic fan experience.  You cheer when you want to, not when someone tells you to.

The U-20 games were replete with all the typical soccer fan must haves that we’ve come to expect in major soccer tournaments. Seeing fans decked out in jerseys, waving flags and beating drums over the three week tournament was a more common sight than seeing a CSI episode on Spike TV. My personal favourite fan experience moment of the tourney came at the Mexico-Argentina quarterfinal game. 

The game had healthy representation from three factions: the Argentinean supporters, the Mexican supporters and the neutrals. 

The Argentinean fans came to the game decked out in a sea of light blue and white jerseys and were well equipped with an impressive percussion section. The Mexican fans came with flags, sombreros and a lively collection of Mexican soccer chants. On this day the collection of Mexican soccer chants won over the neutral fan base and set up what was truly a memorable scene.

Every time the Argentinean goalie would kick off the Mexican supporters would wiggle their fingers in a hex like fashion and yell “PUUUUUTO!” 

Perhaps naïvely the neutral fans started joining in on the Mexican chants against the Argentinean team because it seemed like fun. Just for the record, Puto for those that are uninformed means asshole at its mildest and at its most extreme it translates to a variety of different slurs. There is perhaps no funnier thing than watching parents encourage their children to join into the spirit of the game by uttering a word that seems so much more appropriate coming from the mouth of Isaiah Washington rather than a 5-year girl in pigtails.  Truly a hilarious sight.

Aside from the tremendous team play we witnessed at the FIFA U-20 we also saw an unreal collection of individual talent from young players who we will surely see dominate on the senior side before too long. American prodigy Freddy Adu finally lived up to the immense hype that has frankly served as a burden over the last few years and looked downright impressive in winning over his critics. Giovani Dos Santos flashed moments of brilliance and justified at least in part, his billing as the Mexican Ronaldinho.

Polish striker Dawid Janczyk has been compared to Wayne Rooney and minus the testicular stomping and temper the finishing abilities of Janczyk certainly matched the onion bag bulging skills of the British striker. But easily the most impressive player of the tourney was Argentina’s next great footballer, Sergio Aguero. He’s so good that he could be playing on the Argentinean senior World Cup squad right now. Aguero was also the one that delivered the instant holy crap YouTube moment with an unreal goal against Poland in the opening round of the knockout stage. Upon receiving the ball on the edge of the Polish box, with his back to the defender Aguero flipped the ball over both he and the Polish player, spun around and caught the ball on the other side and drilled it past the goalie all in one fluid motion. Move over Lionel Messi you’ve got some competition for the next great Argentinean player mantle.

Obviously the largest and virtually lone black mark for the entire tournament was the clashing between the Chilean players and the Toronto Police after a semi-final loss to Argentina in which Chile experienced first hand the German referee’s best Tim Donaghy impression. How many people’s thoughts automatically went back to Game 6 of the LA Lakers – Sacramento Kings 2002 Western Conference finals when they heard that the NBA had a crooked ref who was gambling and shaving points off games? It’s probably a comparable total to the amount of people who thought they were going to see a reenactment of the famous national anthem post-brawl scene from Slapshot when the cameras offered us close up shots of the Chilean team at the start of the 3^rd place game after their interaction with the police days earlier.