Don’t Battle, Cheer

What is the Word Cup? It is a national soccer game played every four years; meaning countries all over the world have the opportunity to participate, with the exception that not all of them have the sufficient talent to qualify, being this the reason why the FIFA association created a way to restrict the invite, what is now called the World Cup qualifiers which work as followed; in each continent there is a small “league” where all of its countries play against each other 2 times each, ranking accordingly to qualify for the World Cup. Off course always the host city automatically passes to the world cup this year being Brazil. Every four years, this joyful event is meant to not only compete and prove countries better than others, but to bring people together and pleasure to everyone.

It was 16 years ago, the World Cup was held in France and Colombia successfully made it, since then Colombia hasn’t had enough motivation or sufficient talent to attend the all famous World Cup, or so we believed, until now. This year, not only is our great Colombian team positively able to attend the games in Brazil, but also it is the main provoker of proud motivation in the country. This hardworking success has been product not only of its brilliant players but also of Colombia’s soccer federation technical director, Jose Nestor Pekerman. His intelligence, brutal talent, and the way he talks to the players, incite not only elevated competition skills, but also teamwork and intellect in the field, creating a vastly prosperous team. For the first time in sixteen years our country’s team has a chance to play in these games, therefore a chance to shine, Colombia definitely has an ecstatic summer ahead, with what we all hope, will be plenty of victories.

Colombia’s team constitutes of three goalkeepers; six defenses; six midfielders, and four strikers. However, one of the most, if not the most famous strikers, of Colombia’s team, Falcao, unfortunately will not be playing for his team in Brazils World Cup this year because of an incident he had 6 months ago when he broke his right knee ligaments. Although this might for many be a game-breaker and a violence trigger to some, meaning Colombia has no longer a positive chance of making it far in the games, they are awfully wrong and absolutely single minded. I believe that we all have the same opinion when we say Colombia’s multiple victories and hard work was what got it to Brazils World Cup, so we should equally have faith in our team, our not complete, yet incredibly talented and capable team, which with that same solid work and sweat, they will indeed get far enough in the games, thus calling the entire worlds attention and making a mark of Colombia’s startling team, instead of the usual relevance put to our country involving false pretenses of abusive drug use or violence.  

For Colombia’s culture, the single fact that our team is able to enter the World Cup is an unexpected, yet honored miracle, not only because soccer is the greatest played and most famous sport in the country, but because being able to enter something like such; the World Cup, and depending not only on development, race, standard or money, but sole and pure talent, gives a peace of mind to us Colombians, gives hope that we will reach peace, and gives us a comforting sense of community. However there are always conflicts, with no faults, that is why all of us Colombians must take this rare opportunity and embrace our country in a supporting and encouraging manner, because what we have this year that was absent to us for a long time is something beautiful. Although there are always a large percentage of supporters who are genuinely rutting for our country with no desire of violence, we do in fact have history of intense and drastically dangerous soccer fans, which we call here “hinchas”. Hooligans and “barras bravas” here in Colombia have always been a conflict amongst the different Colombian leagues, so the question at this time is; will the love for the sport and our team and country overcome the violence and vicious competitiveness, or vice versa?

What I hope for and believe is for peace, because for the first time, our country is all together supporting the same thing, although the practice of hooliganism and violence throughout Colombia is always present, and soccer may be many times its cause, this time there is no reason to compete amongst each other. Here in Colombia we are all in the same side, and we want our team to flourish, therefore we have the same goals and expectations, no real reason to fight. Being more realist than optimist, truth is, that this is a World Cup, and being so scarce to us means the energy, the spirit and the need to win is much more powerful and much more amplified than it usually is with some other international cup. For our past experience as a county, there is no real certainty that this strengthened liveliness will be expressed in a absolutely positive way, so yes there will definitely be a chance of violence present, but there is also a chance to use this limited opportunity of the World Cup as something to bring peace, and that’s what has to be encouraged. Everyone from every stratus, every race, every political party, every small town, or every large city, even our countries terrorist and enemies are rooting for the same thing; victory for Colombia in the World cup, so don’t battle, cheer.