I do not follow the World Cup. I do not follow soccer at all. I did not even know who was playing until I checked a few minutes ago. I really do not care. But what I saw Argentine fans do after their team beat England in the semifinal, I did not like at all. It was disgusting and distasteful. Videos showed fans laying out an England flag, spitting on it, and stomping all over it while people cheered. Some reports had fans burning the flag too.

I do not know if fans from other countries do the same thing when their team wins or loses. Maybe this kind of thing happens more than I realize in the soccer world. But what I saw did not sit right with me. That is not sportsmanship. I know soccer fans get intense and rowdy, but disrespecting another country’s flag like that crosses a line for me.

So when I heard people screaming from buildings all over the neighborhood, I knew the game was over, so I looked into who was playing and who won. When I saw that Spain beat Argentina in the final, I will admit I was quite happy about it. Mind you, Spain has its own history I have complicated feelings about. They colonized Puerto Rico starting in the early 1500s and did not leave until 1898, when the U.S. came along and got in on that invasion action. That is not a small thing to me, but it is history. None of that changes how I felt watching this tournament play out. Despite both countries having their share of people who think they are better than other Latinos, Argentina’s fans simply made it too easy to root against them no matter who they played.

If Spain’s fans had pulled the same stunt Argentina’s fans did, I would have wanted nobody to win at all. But based on what I saw, Argentina’s celebration crossed a line, and I am fine with how it turned out. I really do not care about soccer at all, but given that flag stunt, I enjoyed this outcome.

Cry me a river.