This post is pretty much for about 3 people. The people I know who actually KNOW that the soccer World Cup is currently going on and that I AM VERY passionate about it.
I have rooted for my country (Argentina) ever since I can remember. I distinctly remember celebrating with family, friends and even strangers our world cup victory in 1986, and I was only 7 years old :-).
Every world cup after that (1990, 1994,1998, 2002 and now) I have been a foreigner. A foreigner rooting for a team nobody really cares about in the place where I live. That's because for world cups '90, '94 and '98 I was living in Italy and for the last two I have been in the U.S. where not only do people not care about MY country, they mostly don't even know about the world cup!!
There's a very strange feeling you get when you are in a country that is not your own, and you are rooting for your team.
It truly transcends soccer, it goes beyond that. You root for your country, your heritage, your neighbors, your family, everything that is familiar, everything you hold dear about the place, everything you remember about it from when you were a child.
Although I have called the U.S. my home for about 7 years, Argentina IS where I am from, where I am connected to a part of me that over the years just seems to get stronger. No matter how many years I live abroad, I will always shout out "VAMOS ARGENTINA!!" for every World Cup just as I did when I was 7 years old :-).
NOTE: Yes, the 2nd team I root for is the U.S. even though soccer is SO not the sport of choice here! :-)
6 comments:
I'm rooting for the US, too. :-) I'm thinking we'll see a US/Argentina showdown in the final match...
It could happen!
:-)
It was fun to cheer on your team with you yesterday, mostly. :-) It would have been a bit more fun had they actually played, I think...
I've been hearing an awful lot about the world cup from a friend in England.
I know this makes me sound far too American, but ... it's soccer!!! I can think of more interesting sports to watch - baseball, football, and especially Hockey and Rugby come to mind. I think that's why nobody in the US thinks about the world cup - because teams go and play each other for hours at a time and don't score a single goal ... and yet are allowed to advance anyway. Seems very unfair.
there is just nothing I can say to explain our passion. And by "our" I mean 95% OF THE WORLD!
Think about it...this is the ONLY sport that unites entire nations for about a consecutive month every 4 years.
The olympics don't even do that and they consist of multiple sports!
It's like I said in my post, it's beyond the sport. :-)
But..within the sport, it's not only about the GOALS, it's about the beauty of the game. The teams that are really good are just plain fun to watch even if they do only score one goal. Of course, Argentina just happened to have one game where they scored SIX goals :-) that was a pretty awesome game :-)
I'm sure you are a little satisfied since Italy won. Not Argentina...but another "home" of yours.
YES! I was glad Italy beat Germany :-) and then went on to win! :-)
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