Saturday, July 3, 2010

La Cupa Mundial





¡VIVA PARAGUAY!






THE WORLD CUP is a HUGE deal in Latin America. In addition to having many of the best teams worldwide, South America is simply futbol (soccer) crazy. On days when Paraguay is playing, everything literally shuts down or at least slows down so that we can watch the game. I originally started this post on 06-24-10, which was the last of the games in Group F. Paraguay played New Zealand for a tie 0-0, and Slovakia played Italy for a win 3-2. Our cities were wild with horn honking and bombas celebrating Paraguay's top rank in Group F. Congrats Paraguay for a stellar job thus far! *As you will note, from the picture attached, by this time I had gotten quite into all the fun- decked out with my Paraguay camisa y bandera.

The next round, we were up against Japan. What excitement that was! My family was all poised in our kitchen/living room practically gnawing our nails off as we went through first quarter, second quarter, overtime and then on into the shoot-off. Indeed we finally pulled it off by what I would call a big fluke when one of the Japanese shooters accidentally aimed a little too high for the goal. Pobrecito! How embarrassing... ¿Que no? With such a close call in the game against Japan, I was not all that hopeful for the future. One can hardly complain, however, when class is cancelled to watch TV- so, I´m not complaining!

As such, we moved on to the next round- one of the last 8 teams and only a few more games away from taking the cup. This time around we were up against Spain, and I can safely say that we played a whole lot better than I had anticipated given that last game. We really had Spain going for a while and even scored a goal at one stage, although the ref made what I will always believe to be a poor call and took that point away. So, although Paraguay gave it a stellar shot- we finally lost to the that would eventually will the World Cup at 0-1.

Cheers to Spain for a job well done this year! Sorry to my friends from every other country, so many of you got so close... see you again in 2014.

Not to worry, however, you soccer fans. There is plenty more futbol to be had in Paraguay yet. Our two big teams Cerro y Olimpia are still going strong. Games with Guarani and all the other national teams are still underway.

**Please also note, although I tried my hardest to get into the World Cup with everyone else, I want to apologize for my poor knowledge of the terminology associated with the outstanding sport that is futbol. I hope you all will continue to be my friends despite this horrid rendition of games due to my naivety. Lol.

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