"Left Back...and Behind the Bench"- A Vacation Filled with Futbol!
This past December, my brother and I had the opportunity to visit our hometown. We come from a small town in Guanajuato, Mexico; Guadalupe de Jalpa to be exact. There are three main reasons why I love going to Mexico for vacations. First, because I’m anxious to see all my family and friends that currently live there. The second is to eat the delicious traditional Mexican food that my grandma and my aunts make. But, the reason that motivates me the most is to play what we call futbol! When I’m in my hometown, I definitely have no doubt whatsoever that soccer is the most popular sport played in Mexico.
Upon my most recent visit I actually had the opportunity to play a game while I was there. It was the team that represents the town against the players that come from the United States to visit. This is the team that I was in that day. It was Sunday morning, Christmas Day, right after church that the game was scheduled to be played. As we got ready, more and more people from the town began to show up. In the end, it was practically the whole town. I personally was very excited, but, I also felt very nervous. Everybody in the team was eager to show their skill to the opposition, but also to the public. Since we don’t play against the town team on a daily basis, the expectations from each side are to come out victorious.
The whistle blew and both teams were just taking a look at each other's game in the first couple of minutes. Something that definitely impressed me from the start was that the game was very physical. I thought that soccer was only like that in England, but my myth was proven wrong. I mean, here in the United States, it’s not as physical, but over there it’s the style of play. Something else that was very different from here was the pitch. The field that we played in was a completely uncommon scenario, because it was literally a field with two goalposts and painted lines. I said it was a completely uncommon scenario because I'm now used to playing in top class artificial grass fields, or well taken care of natural grass fields. Not over there though. That said, even though the field had dirt bumps or holes here and there, all we needed was a soccer ball and two goal nets to enjoy the game. After the first 45 minutes, we were up in the score 3-1. The game was beyond interesting, and the hot-humid climate just made it more intense.
As the second half got under way, the town team quickly surprised us with an early goal. With the score being close now, we were forced to respond. And respond we sure did. We scored two more goals on the run, which sealed the victory for the United States team. In the end, however, the result didn’t matter. What mattered was the experience, and the joy the game of soccer brings to people of the world. Despite the nature of the game at the beginning, and the mounting pressures to impress, all the players realized that it was just a pick-up game that was taken seriously in the spirit of the game. For my brother and I, it was definitely an unforgettable experience playing soccer against a talented core of players from my town. Overall, my vacations couldn’t have gone any better, and the experiences from the game, I will now bring back to Colorado the North Area Rush.
Story by Juan and Javis Arellano of the U18 North Area Rush Nike Boys
