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by Oscar Martinez |
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ISALC, Lewis and Clark College
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by Oscar Martinez |
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As you should know, soccer is the most important sport in my country. When I started to think about the things that I miss from my country, two words came to my mind, family and soccer. The combination of those words is Aguilas, my family soccer team. But Aguilas is not just another soccer team, it is a club of friends, brothers, cousins, uncles and cheers. On my team, all the players take care of each other in this big family, in what can be called an excellent fraternity. A good example of this fraternity was the celebration of our first championship when the girls saved our lives.
I love to play this game and most of my friends and my family do too. So we decided to make a team called Aguilas. All the elements in this team are perfect.... the coach is my father, the goalkeeper is Camilo alias Mr. Table, an old friend from my high school; on the defense we have Jadir, Carlos, Etcheverry, Mauricio Peña, Alfredo (in this moment absent like me), Kike.... In the mid field Mauricio Quintana, uncle Andres, my brother Felipe, El Paisa, El Negro, Pacho, Cali and me. Forwards are Willy, Hermes, uncle Ricky and Daniel. It's very interesting to see how we play most of the time because when you trust in your partners you give them the ball and the game becomes easier. There are also the girls, our girlfriends, sisters, and moms; they cheer for the team every game.
After this description, I'll tell you what happened after the match, but let's start from the beginning. The tournament was called Fair Play and the field was 20 minutes by car from my home. The final match was with a team called Amigol. We had never been in a final match before. Those guys were huge and played very well, but they knew that we were really good so they played against us with all their power. In the end ,we won and we received their congratulations. We didn't win any money, we didn't win any prize for fair play, but we won the tournament cupt that give us the status of the best team of the tournament. It was perfect until someone said, "... let's go and celebrate; we can buy food and something to drink and go to my home..."
One hour after those words were pronounced we were eating and drinking in my uncle's garden house. The food was finished so we bought "a little bit" of beer and aguardiente (an alcoholic beverage of my country). Mauricio Quintana started to bring everybody enormous quantities of liquor. He is an expert in these kind of activities. The result.... all the team got drunk at the end of the afternoon. The question... Who will drive us home? We couldn't even stand up to go to the cars. But the girls saved our drunk and sleepy bodies, driving the cars and taking everybody home.
What would have happened if the girls had not been part of our team? If a member of the group had decided to drive? What can we learn from this story? Maybe I'm wrong, but what I learned from this story is "you should never go out to a final tournament soccer game without a girl able to drive, one who doesn't like beer and aguardiente"... just joking; but there is something useful in this story. If you are drunk, you should give the keys to another. Your car becomes a weapon when you drive drunk; don't be stupid.
At this very moment, the Aguilas are playing in some tournament called Copaelite (for more information search www.copaelite.com). Last week they won 4-1. I really want the best for our team; we don't like to lose. We run 90 minutes to obtain the best result and get the goals. I know they will read this as soon as I gave them the URL, so HI boys, I'm waiting for new good news every weekend, If you don't understand this essay tell Etcheverry or Felipe so they can translate it to you.... Take care with the defense, Is Mr. Table in bad shape since he got a girlfriend? What happened with Quintana and his back? Is Claudia Perez responsible for that damage? What happened to Cali?
The only thing that I can do for my team is to practice, to improve my physical condition and my technique. I hope this statement comes true since I'm on the Lewis & Clark College Soccer Team. Having a team like this makes me learn two things. First: If you really want to be happy playing soccer, reading a book, staying with your girlfriend or with your family, painting, etc., you can do it if you work hard for it. Don't expect others to work for you; no one knows exactly what you really want. Second: I'll never say "don't drink beer and aguardiente to celebrate," but you should be aware of who is going to drive before you start to drink. Otherwise, it is better to stay where you have been drinking.
Good luck Aguilas....
Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 9/24/99