The Two Escobars

On Friday last week in MUN class, we watched a documentary called the 'Two Escobars'. The ‘Two Escobars’ is probably one of the most moving and emotional documentaries on the impact of sports to the world. It is obvious from the film that the impact was indeed very big, affecting the lives of no less than atleast 35 million people, the population of Colombia at the time of the two Escobars. One Escobar, Pablo, was drug dealer who was ruling the Medellin Cartel with an iron fist. The other, Andres, was a nation-wide soccer player. The two were completely opposites. One eventually divided the country, while the other united them. Soccer had been the only connection between the two, in which Pablo was the owner of their team, and Andres was the star player. The documentary circled around the events from the era of the drug-dealing leading up to the World Cup, the country’s elimination, and Andres’ eventual death. I thought the entire situation in Comombia was horrible, but I admired the spirit of the national soccer team. At the end, however, the reactions of the Colombians to the country’s performance at the World Cup was unsupportive. The country had lost its first game in the World Cup, and had subsequently received death threats. Also, a brother of one of the players had been killed. On the second game, everyone's thoughts and emotions were elsewhere, and Andres accidently scored an own goal, causing Colombia to be eliminated. Drug lords of Colombia betting on the country had been angry at Andres and murdered him. This film makes me really depressed and I feel like crying everytime I think again of the ending of the film, where they show the bloodied upholstery on the seat of Andres' car, where he had been shot. It was horrible to think of, especially since they showed footages of Andres during press conferences and in the changing room where he had this expression which could give you a stab of pain and sympathy for him. It was horrible. It must have been a tough time for him after he scored the own goal, and it wasn't as if he WANTED to score for the US. I think people need to think more before they act selfishly and kill someone. The nation had gotten its punishment however: they had lost one of the world's greatest soccer player who was actually PROUD of his own country, even at the very end, when they had betrayed him.