Soccer Passion<3 » My Point of View

Just a Translation…

camigarnier — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:10:34 +0000

When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a paper in Spanish Class called con el corazón y apoyo. It was an assignment to write about something you really liked and I chose to write it about what I thought about Costa Rica classifying into the World Cup 2006 Germany that year. It was originally written in Spanish, but I will now translate it for you here below, so you can understand what I wrote.

WITH THE HEART AND SUPPORT

Costa Rica classified next to Mexico, Trinidad y Tobago, and the United States of America to the World Cup in 2006. The Costa Rican team will inaugurate the World Cup by playing against Germany, the country that was the organizer for the event this year.

In the group in which Costa Rica was, A.K.A. group A, the teams that are in it were Germany, Poland, and Ecuador. Ourticos classified with 16 points, Poland with 24, Ecuador with 28, and Germany classified automatically for being the organizers that year. Although Costa Rica did classify with the least number of points in its group, there is still and always be hope. You never know what can happen. Plus, God gave a great gift to the Latin race. This one wakes up from the deep inside were you’ve never been touched before, beats as a second heart, and lets out everything you have inside. It gives the team a new tank of energy. That whylatinos love watching soccer matches at the stadium, and if that’s not possible, they will go and sit in front of the T.V. and shout at the referee as if they were actually at the stadium.

The team may wake up and give its total because they know that here, in their home, we are supporting them profoundly and literally with our heart.

Deaths

camigarnier — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:57:47 +0000

By playing soccer professionally, you become part of a great team, whichever it were to be, that’s not the point. And with the years your teammates become your friends. After all, you spent a lot of time together; you share moments, games, etc… They at some point end up maybe even being you best friends, you r family. My point is that you become very close to them, a big part of your life, no matter how far away you used to be at the beginning when you were new in the team. But this also has its consequences…

Some great players like Miklos Feher, Marc-Vivien Foe, Antonio Puerta, have died while playing soccer. I watched the video in www.youtube.com and watched as these three soccer players die while playing soccer. Seconds before Miklos Feher dies you can see him smiling. This makes me think, “Well, at least he died doing something he truly believed in and loved doing.” It was obviously a tremendous loss, but you can say he died in high spirits and he lived a successful life. And if he wouldn’t have died while playing soccer, he would have died doing something else, so I think it was better of dying at something he enjoyed doing. Remember that everything happens for a reason; even though you sometimes you think that there was no reason for that to happen. But trust me there is a reason behind everything.

As I watched the videos, one thing I noticed was how as soon as the player that is dying goes down, how everybody runs towards them. You can also see shots of the other players going crazy, pulling their hair, and not knowing what to do. They cry and they also stumble forwards, backwards, sideways wondering where to go, and what to do. This shows me that they really cared for him, and the way they were reacting I feel as if they were thinking, “What am I going to do without him?” and that was why they didn’t now were to run to or even where to be at that moment. You can tell these players were a big part of their teammate’s lives. I don’t know exactly what those losses were to them, but I can certainly imagine what my life would be like if playing soccer I just turn around and see my best friend lying on the floor. Just from one moment to another, disappearing of my life. I would have without a doubt, acted as their teammates did… I wouldn’t have known what to do, but I would have desperately be crying and collapsed next to my friend, praying for her to be O.K. The worst part is that my best friend actually has some heart problems, and the three of these players died from heart-related problems. =(

RIP Foe, Feher, Puerta on YouTube

AASCA Tournament

camigarnier — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:50:01 +0000

Our soccer team attended the AASCA (Association of American Schools of Central America) Tournament this March from the fourth to the ninth. It was originally from the fifth to the ninth but the travel agency got our flights mixed up. So we arrived to El Salvador on the fourth and went to the hotel to settle for the night. We woke up the next morning and went to the mall because we didn’t have anything to do until the afternoon when we had the icebreaker with the other teams. So we went to the mall and came back to the hotel around 5:30 so we could be in time for the icebreaker. As soon as we got there, we could see now that the other teams had already arrived, and had already settled at the hotel. The icebreaker was right there in the hotel. It was in a large squared room with nothing in it, except for some plants, a table with a projector, and a screen. When our team was entering you could see how every team was separated from each other by school and country. Our team slowly sat in the middle of the room, slightly to the right of the projector. We laid there until a guy came up with a microphone and started to speak to us and showing us a slide show. We later went to eat, and then to sleep to get ready for the next day. We woke up early to get to the center where the opening ceremony was going to be held. We had to games; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our next two days were spent like that too. The results for the tournament for the girls were: American International School (Costa Rica), Country Day School (Costa Rica), International School of Panama, Escuela Interamericana (El Salvador) and so on..

INEXPLICABLE

camigarnier — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:34:04 +0000

Soccer, I love it… those four words describe it. But it seems as if my passion can’t be explained in words, and if I even tried to, if you don’t feel it, you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. I realized my passion can’t be explained through David Beckham, Lionel Messi… Don’t get me wrong they’re great players… but that doesn’t really explain my feeling towards soccer. You might be thinking, so GREAT you like Lionel Messi and David Beckham… good for you. And that is my point, why would you care about those guys when you’ve heard about them a million times. Wouldn’t you prefer to read about somebody you’ve never heard from before feels about this sport? But I realized that there are millions of subject about soccer I could write about, but none of them connect to me or my feeling towards soccer. I could write about more soccer players, cleats, a team… Writing about soccer players would be very boring because they are very popular you hear about them all the time. Writing about a team I would probably not enjoy doing. Anyways if you’re a fan of that team, you would know everything about them already. About cleats, honestly I couldn’t care less. I’m the type of person who does not care about what cleats a person is using. As long as you’re comfortable in them, and are able to play, I just don’t care about cleats. Think about it, it doesn’t matter if you have new, very modern cleats or old, priceless cleats, when you’re in the game, the cleats don’t play, it’s you. Your movements are products of the signals your brain sends into your feet, not a product of cleats. There are just so much things I could write about, but I just don’t feel like it, because it’s not communicating the feeling I want to pass on to you. I think it was a mistake to choose only one subject to write about…

2006-Switzerland

camigarnier — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:21:22 +0000

I really do love soccer. But I guess some people just don’t understand this… I’m young but I still face acts of sexism in this sport. Of course not huge ones, I’m not old enough for that to happen. But for example, in 2006 I went to a camp in Switzerland. I was in free time with some of my friends just sitting around campus. Of course my friends had similarities with me; and one of them was our passion for soccer (or at least they said so). So we decided to go to the soccer field to play a while. When we got there, some of the boys were playing; I didn’t see a problem, so I just kept walking toward the field. But the rest of my friends, I’m guessing because of their culture, stopped when they saw the boys. I just kept on walking, with them staying about three meters behind me. I asked a guy who was standing next to the byline, ready to come in, if we could play. I will never forget the way he looked at me. His face stared down at me as if he was trying to intimidate me, but at the same time he looked at me as if I knew what I was doing. I guess he was just in a state of shock. I was just confused at his reaction. The only thought that was passing through my head was, “Is that so unbelievable? A girl, ME, playing soccer?”. I actually found this kind of rude; deep inside my feelings were hurt. But my reactions to this, was anger. I just couldn’t believe his reaction. But then I realized I was used to a different culture, so I just tried talking through to him, but I soon realized, this, was impossible. He stared at me with that look and said “WHAT?!”. So I repeated to him, “May I play?” He made that look again; it was really getting on my nerves. The guy chuckled, “I’m sorry, girls don’t play soccer”. When he said this, my anger turned into rage. HOW COULD HE HAVE SAID THAT TO ME!? So I just answered, “Excuse me, but YES they do”. He laughed again. I could feel the blood flowing into my head, making my face red, with anger. “I play soccer,” I said trying to emphasize that by slightly raising my voice. He just responded, “Girls DON’T play soccer,” I noticed his empathizing in the word don’t. And I just said, “In Costa Rica, they do!” By this moment, an Italian friend of mine had overheard the discussion between the English guy and me. I had played soccer with the Italian guy before, and without a comment, or discussion. My friend yelled at the guy standing by the byline, “Hey let her play. She can play with me. She’s good”. When he said that, my anger was completely gone. As I went in to play, I could see as my friends were staring at me from outside the field, amazed at what I had done. I really didn’t care what anybody thought anymore. I really appreciated what my friend had done there with me. So I started playing. At first, nobody passed it to me, well just like two of the guys in my team, both Italian. Then I started making some good passes, so more people started passing it to me. I now noticed, that the guy who was by the byline, was coming in to play, finally. He was put into the other team. This time, rage came back to me, but I decided to take it on the game. I was running with the ball at my feet, I looked up to see who I could pass it to. But as I raised my head, I saw him, the byline guy. He was coming towards me to take the ball. But as he was coming, I noticed that his legs were slightly apart. So I passed the ball between his legs. As soon as the ball passed, I heard the boys bothering him. And this actually made me happy; after all HE was the one who didn’t want me to play. I could also hear my friends cheering from outside the field. I then passed the ball, and the game went on. Later in the game, the ball was passed to me, and I ran towards the goal and shot. I scored! Everybody cheered. Everybody except of course the byline guy. I looked at him, and waited for him to make eye contact with him, and directing him a look as if saying, “You see?.. Girls do play soccer.”(NO OFFENSE MEANT TO ANY ENGLISH)

What is freedom of speech?

camigarnier — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:00:13 +0000

Freedom of speech is basically the right to say what you want to say whenever you want. This also includes the right to express your opinion or thoughts through speech, writing, or graphics (i.e. symbols, drawings). For example you have the right to speak up to defend yourself anytime. This right is not granted in every country. But basically you can say whatever you want whenever you want.Even though, this doesn’t mean you should. You should be careful with what you say, consider other people’s feelings and emotions. Sometimes you say things with out thinking them thoroughly. This is a privilege so don’t abuse it. You have to understand the difference between the things that stay in your mind (insults, and other insulting comments), and things you can say (defend yourself, nice comments).You should not only be careful with what you say to people, but also with what you write. For example the internet. Whatever you write in the internet, will be there for a while. Also, you have to consider that anyone who has access to the internet, can see it. Anything you write can be attacked by anyone. So, my point is that anything you write, say, draw, has to be thought thoroughly before written, said, or drawn. But you can say ANYTHING you want, just be careful with what you say, also in the way you say it. Sometimes you mean to say something, but because you say it without thinking, it comes out in another way and is misunderstood. This can cause conflict with you and other people, so just be careful with abusing this right.