I’ve always enjoyed watching soccer. I’ve had many favorite soccer players in my lifetime. From iconic names like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Zidane, Rooney, Maradona, Rivaldo, and Xavi, Iniesta, and the father of soccer, Pele. Watching them play and hearing about the amazing way they helped each of there teams lift trophies, and the most prized trophy of them all, The FIFA World Cup. The FIFA world cup is easily one of the most anticipated soccer tournaments. Only coming in every 4 years, each player is allowed to return to their country to play with there national team, and fight to the final. The process to choosing which countries qualify, takes about three years. Only 32 teams will be able to play in this breathtaking tournament. Each player dreams of bringing home the world cup. I still dream that Mexico will one day bring home the world cup.
The most recent world cup, in 2018, was easily one of my most memorable moments of 2018. My team, Mexico, made it to the final 16 teams fighting for the world cup. The road wasn’t easy. Mexico was part of group F. We had to go head-to-head against strong teams, Germany, Sweden, and South Korea. Our first game was decided, we had to go against Germany. Germany, one of the few teams whose been able to lift the world cup, four times. We’ve gone up against Germany before, and lost every time. It was going to be a hell of a game, The mighty Goliath vs. David. The kickoff was at 10 AM, Sunday morning. The excitement had been leading up to this very day, this very moment. Mexico’s anthem began to play, you could hear the roar from hundreds, if not thousands of Mexico’s fans singing along. Although I was sitting in my living room, I felt as if I was standing amongst all the attendees of the game. The ref blew his whistle for the game to commence. The players gracefully carried the ball from one side of the field, to the other. Germany had no mercy and attacked with many shots. Our goal keeper swept, blocked, and made balls stop dead. Nothing seemed to be getting past. Although Mexico was taking a beating for the first few minutes, we were able to hold on. Our opportunity arrived when our forward, Javier Hernández, receives a pass and moves up the field, hungry for a goal. As Hernández neared the goal box, he shared the opportunity with our left winger, Hirving Lozano. Lozano sneaked the ball behind him, tricking the defense, he placed his shot. The ball just barely grazed the goalies hand, the ball went in and we erupted, GOOOOOOOL!!. A magnificent display of technique from Lozano. Although there was still enough time for a comeback on Germany’s side, we felt as we had already won the entire game. The clock rolled up to 90 minutes, and the ref blew his whistle. A wave a relief swept over us, the scoreboard ended 1 – 0, and that was enough for us. I dreamed of seeing mexico make it to the final, but sadly, our run came to an end when Brazil defeated us 2 – 0. The Mexico fans, clearly dispirited, sang an old nursery rhyme with passion. “Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta y no llores. Porque cantando se alegran, cielito lindo los corazones.” Translated to english would be, “Ay, ay ay, ay, sing and don’t you cry. Because singing makes happy, sweet darling, our hearts.” It’s an old nursery rhyme kids in Mexico are taught. Boy did it help during that depressing loss against Brazil.
Soccer 