A Sense Of History

Newell's have won a few and lost a few games since I last posted here. Anyone who really cares knows what happened in those games, and I think that may be a part of why I haven't been writing as much. I feel into a trap of reporting match score, rather than talking about my passion.

Today, something happened that spurred my passion. Today I was browsing through a futbol forum when I came across a posting in the Argentina History and Idols thread that required me to respond. The conversation was about the sense of history the Argentine people have for the sport, along with their neighbors in Uruguay, and their perpetual rivals in England. Someone used Rosario Central fans celebrating a goal scored by Aldo Poy against Newell's Old Boys some 40 years ago as an example of this...

Poy? You want to talk about a goal worthy of celebration between Newell's and Central? Let's talk Mario Zanabria's goal against Central in 1974 which gave Newell's their first championship. I was not there to see it. We left Argentina to return to the USA mere months before it happened. Thankfully footage has been found, and while the quality is not the best, I can now say I have seen the most significant goal in Lepra history.

Sadly, the USA has absolutely no sense of history for the sport, or very little at best. There were a number of professional leagues back in the 1920, I believe it was, but they faltered. NASL came and went. MLS looks to stable, but it will be decades before it will really take hold, if it ever does.

By heritage my family is Welsh (though some of my siblings will argue we're English), a country where Rugby is king. The Welsh league only has one pro team. I'm sure there are a few fans who have a sense for the game's history there, but nothing like Argentina, Uruguay and England. I'm sure that just about every nation where futbol is the main if not only sport will claim to have that feel of the history. On an individual fan basis I'm sure it's true... but on a National level?

I consider myself lucky to have spent the 3 1/2 years in Argentina during my youth. It infected me with a love for the sport, and of course for Newell's. Had my father's job taken him to any other country? Who knows if I would have gained this passion.

Newell's Old Boys Earn Place In 2013 Libertadores

I had the day off, having scheduled my final floating holiday for the year a few months ago. When I saw that Newell's Old Boys were playing today I was all set to sit down and watch the game. For the first half, it was not meant to be. The channels through which I normally watch had Newcastle United playing Wigan in the English Premier League, a rebroadcast Boca Jrs match, and an Argentine highlight show, but no Newell's against At. Rafaela. I asked for a few via a tweet (twitter post, for those who do not know) and soon had a link... but I did not have the proper plug-ins to run the video via the website. Nothing was going my way.

So, I watched the first half of Newcastle and Wigan... on TV, no internet needed, and kept track of the Newell's match via Twitter, and checked out the first goal by way of Ole. Fabián Muñoz scored his first goal of the season in the first minute of the match to give Newell's a 1-0 lead. And that is how the first half ended.

At half time I took a break to take a shower, I'd spent the day doing some cleaning up around the house and really needed one. When I got back to the computer I again checked my usual sources for futbol feeds and found that yes indeed someone was showing the match. I loaded it up and found they were fifteen minutes into the second half, and Muñoz had scored his second goal of the day. Meanwhile, I still had Newcastle and Wigan going on the television. When Newcastle took a 3-0 lead my gut told me that Newell's were going to get a third as well. I put it off as wishful thinking...

And then, in the 84th minute Muño, the man of the match, sent a ball toVíctor Figueroa who launched a looping ball that set Ignacio Scocco with only the goalkeeper to beat. Scocco scored and Newell's ended the day with a win that sends them into the 2013 Copa Libertadores in style.



With only one game left Newell's find themselves in a three way tie for second place along side Lanús and Belgrano with 33 points. There is no longer a chance at a title as Vélez Sarsfield claimed that with a 2-0 win yesterday against a hapless Unión de Santa Fe.

Final match for La Lepra will be next weekend away to Argentinos Jrs.

City Of Heroes - Anyone Have A Rez?

Going into the final day of City Of Heroes (COH,) I had a plan as to how I'd spend it. I would bounce around a few of the servers, playing several of my characters I'd created (in some cases recreated - I've been playing Champions pen & paper super hero game since it first came out... yes, I'm that old.) An hour or two before the hour of doom would strike I planned on signing into both my accounts (yes, I have more than one computer, and had more than one COH accounts)  and have the sons of Thor, Magni and Modi facing Ragnarok once again. (Hope you are familiar enough with Norse Mythology to at least recognize the names.) This would have been on the Virtue server.

Willowbright - ever costume she had in COH

My main, Willowbright - my only character to make it to level 50, made it in a couple of times, and did a couple of Rikti invasion team-ups. Willow is my Positron (Matt Miller - MMO designer extraordinaire, former chief developer for Paragon Studios, created the character long ago) you could say. She was first created, as Willow, some 20 plus years ago for a Champions campaign.

Willow - Mk II

A second version of Willow was created just a few years ago, again for a Champions campaign with my Sunday Night gaming group, suggested by my fellow gamer and published author Anne Harris. In that game she was part of a group called SUPA - Supers United to Protect Anyone. Her teammates included Helix, Cougar, Jaime Justice, and a robot named Murtalizer (not sure on that spelling, though.) Jaime Justice was the true figure head for SUPA, our version of Superman you could say. It was her family business that provided SUPA with the funds to have our Superbase. Because of this I started my time in City of Heroes on the Justice server. Willowbright moved to Virtue due to the impending shutdown of the game.

Willowbright in the Matrix room

But I digress...

I managed to sign in under a few others, but honestly don't remember it all. Tired after a long week at work, then playing from around 7:30 PM until 3 AM is not conducive to perfect recall. I know I did make it onto the Triumph server, but only because I have screenshots of Venusian Vixen, and Squirrel Gal back on Virtue.

Squirrel Gal helping fight off a Rikti invasion.

 As it got closer to the dreaded hour I gave up getting into Virtue last night after losing the connection for a second time. Virtue was so full that people were getting booted, and then there would be a long queue to try and get back in.

Nothing like sitting in a Queue waiting to get in.

So much for the sons of Thor.

Plan B turned out to be logging into Liberty as Devine Pixie, whom I hadn't played since NCSOFT made the announcement that COH would be closing (August 31st. 2012 - another date we will not forget.) She joined a smallish team, there were 5 of us, for one final mission against the minions of Lord Recluse.

Devine Pixe - dancing on top of the Atlas statue in Atlas Park as the clock ticked down.

Of all the characters I signed in last night, it was the little pixie on Liberty that amazed me. I totally submerged into the character to the delight of her teammates as we fought the evil spiders of Arachnos. Only bit I can remember at this point was someone complimented her on her wings, to which she replied: "Thanks, I grew them myself..."

I do have her, and several other characters, saved via Sentinel Plus. There were also a few I didn't bother with, toss away characters, who are either easy to replicate, and not so high level that if COH does see a new dawn it won't be a big deal to reconstruct them, and a few that I looked at and said, meh, don't really care if I ever play them again. I did get shots of them all, at least from the sign in screen.
 
I will miss them all. Even if I can, and will play them in other forms, it won't be the same. City Of Heroes truly brought these character to life for me, in ways no other game has.

November 30th, 2012. For those of us who played and loved the game that date will live on, for the rest of our lives, as the day that the game's publisher, NSCOFT, killed a small part of us.

Granted, they took the servers offline at 11:59:59 (actually a little bit after that) PST, so it was 3 AM my time, Saturday morning, December 1st. Minor detail that. All the announcements, all the news stories, all the blog entries will list the date as 11/30/12, or 30/11/12 for those who use that format...

Will I play other games? Yeah... I do have a free Champions Online account. Isn't the same, not even close. I have tried playing DCUO, but don't like the "designed for a console" controls. And, yes, I do still play pen & paper Champions, and Mutants and Masterminds as well.

Not the same. Nothing ever will be. Unless City Of Heroes gets the resurrection it truly deserves.

Anyone got a rez?

Anyone?