The Morning According to Us

Swine flu turns a little snot into a major controversy.

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Soccer in Mexico has been ghostly of late.

It's all fun and games until a Mexican soccer player intentionally coughs and blows snot in an opponent's face. Then no one wants to play the man's team, even though it's advanced to the next round in the prestigious Libertadores Cup, in which clubs throughout Latin and South America compete.

The culprit here is Hector Reynoso, of Guadalajara Chivas, in a match last Wednesday against Everton, of Chile. We're talking a cough and a full-on farmer's blow in the face of Everton's Sebastian Penco. Now, Reynoso doesn't have swine flu, and his actions were more his frustration with how the Mexican team was received in Chile. They were made to feel "like lepers" before the match, and during it the taunts continued.

That's frankly the least of Guadalajara's worries this morning, though. Its next round match was supposed to have been played in Columbia, but officials there reneged on the deal. Chile, too, has backed out of hosting any more matches. So Guadalajara's game, scheduled for Wednesday, has been delayed one week while officials try to find a suitable location. San Luis, another Mexican squad, also advanced in the tournament. It can't find a city willing to host them, either.

The capstone on all this: Officials at the Centers for Disease Control now say swine flu lacks key components of previous pandemics.

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