A player stands 10 feet in front of me, ready to shoot.
I look around quickly and my entire body tenses as I stand on my toes and prepare for the pivot. Someone behind me is screaming at me in Spanish but sweat is dripping down my face and I am exhausted and my mind can't comprehend his words, so I follow his hand gestures and move slightly to the right. The wind whips at my jersey as the "pelota" zips through the air, narrowly missing me. Had I not moved, the ball would have permanently ended my ability to produce little Hollistos. Instead, the ball sails perfectly into the goalie's waiting hands and the game continues.
This is just a small snapshot of my biweekly soccer games in Salamanca, Spain. Before my off-term, I was not much of a soccer fan. Everything changed as soon as my plane touched down in Spain.
This country this continent, to be more accurate lives, breathes and eats soccer. No matter where you go, local kids are always in the streets working on their game.
When my housemate Diego asked me if I wanted to play with him and his other Spanish friends, I didn't hesitate to accept. Diego who has housed Dartmouth students on previous transfer terms, including members from the Big Green volleyball team has been studying in Salamanca for more than five years and knows all the best places to join a pickup game.
He didn't tell me where we were playing, so I followed him as he led me deep into the city. I soon lost my bearings, but thankfully we arrived at our destination and met up with a group of other college students.
I was expecting a giant open field, much like the Division I fields that we take advantage of at Dartmouth, but we ended up at a gated, concrete elementary school playground instead. Space in the city is limited so any open space is acceptable for soccer. Graffiti covered the walls and the goals didn't have any netting, but that didn't stop any of us from playing. As soon as we hopped the fence, we started.
I never play soccer so I knew that I wouldn't be on the same level as the locals, but Diego told me that no one at this pickup game had ever played on a serious club team. The reassurance turned out to mean nothing, however, as everyone on the pavement ran circles around me. Luckily, I didn't have a problem communicating with my teammates on the field, even though my Spanish is best described as "toddler status." Soccer is truly an international sport we only needed hand gestures and one-word phrases to effectively work together.
None of the players were especially fast or athletic, but they controlled the ball with confidence and precision. I watched in awe as they juggled and performed freestyle moves that I had only seen while playing video games. Although the Dartmouth soccer team would have probably crushed them, they formed the best pickup squads I have ever seen.
This observation brings me to my point: The United States national soccer team is not ready to win a World Cup. There is a reason why Spain emerged as the champions in 2010 soccer is a religion here. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are more popular than the Pope himself. I got my butt handed to me by an average group of college students.
Most kids here don't have a grass field to play on or nets to shoot in, but the lack of resources doesn't stop them. They find their best friends and head to a concrete courtyard to freestyle and pass until the streetlights go on. Every person on the Spanish national team was once a wide-eyed child running around the streets with his soccer ball for the majority of the day. The United States doesn't stand a chance to prosper annually in the international playfield until soccer attracts the same amount of fanaticism that football and basketball do now.
Before you call me unpatriotic, imagine this scenario: The U.S. soccer team is currently led by Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, when all of the sudden players of the same caliber as Reggie Bush, Dwight Howard and LeBron James join the squad. America has produced many of the world's top athletes and has the potential to dominate the international soccer scene too.
Thankfully, the sport is growing in America. I sincerely hope it continues to become more popular so that when the little Hollistos finally arrive, they can study abroad here and beat some Spaniards in soccer.
