World Cup-related hashtags were all over Twitter on Oct. 15 when, after scoring a goal against Panama, the United States changed the group score charts. As Panama fell to fifth place, Mexico was automatically bumped up to fourth, which meant they could go to playoffs and get one last chance to qualify for the World Cup. Unfortunately for Panama, being fifth on the group’s chart only meant one thing: they are now officially out of the championship.
The United States, Costa Rica and Honduras take the first three places on the group’s qualification chart. Mexico played against Costa Rica at almost exactly the same time the United States played against Panama, which made those 90 minutes even more nerve-wracking. The Mexican team knew that if Panama beat the United States, Mexico would be out; throughout the match, cameras focused on the reactions of Mexican players and their coach whenever the U.S. or Panama scored a goal.
Losing to Costa Rica and knowing that just some miles away, Panama and the U.S. were tied 2-2, the Mexican team knew that only a miracle last-minute goal could save their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup. Lucky for them, U.S. midfielder, Graham Zusi, scored a goal that Mexicans are still thankful for today.
Zusi changed the score to 3 with a winning shot in the last three minutes of the match against Panama. Within 24 hours, he became an icon in Mexico — some communities in Mexico even refer to him as “Saint Zusi.” That same night, the hashtag “#thankyouUSA” became a trending topic on Twitter and the official US Soccer Twitter account scored a record amount of retweets per minute with a tweet that said “#yourewelcomeMexico.”
Mexicans posted more than 5,000 tweets with the “#thankyouUSA” hashtag; by the end of the week, all main sports newspapers, blogs and programs were sharing these tweets and reporting on the now-famous “Mexican Miracle.”
I searched the hashtag myself and found all sorts of things, ranging from “USA I promise to never take yo food stamps illegally again” to “USA, you can take Texas and California and all our petroleum!”
The hashtag earned so much popularity that the World Soccer Shop website has already designed a T-shirt with the words “#graciasUSA” printed in bold letters. The shirts are now on sale for $29.99 on the website.
It’s amazing to see how much a sport can influence entire nations — although not many people in the U.S. even found out about Tuesday’s spectacle, Mexico is celebrating and thanking their long-time rivals. Honduras even declared a national holiday to celebrate the day the national team qualified for the 2014 World Cup.
After seeing so many people celebrate Mexico’s new hopes of qualifying for the World Cup, I have concluded that the biggest winner was Zusi, who not only saw his professional career as a soccer player debut for scoring one simple goal in extra time last week, but also earned himself free vacations in Mexico for the rest of his life.
As published in the Oct. 24, 2013 issue of the Pepperdine Graphic.
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Follow Maria Prada on Twitter: @Chuzac
