Sports and Success and Stories

Soccer, or rather fútbol, is the world’s favorite sport for a reason that those from the United States cannot explain in the slightest. We, and here I am outing myself as an estadounidense, prefer the brutality and immediate gratification of a score every quarter, and by this I am referring to American Football, to the beauty and delayed gratification of a goal earned through dedication to the beautiful game over the course of ninety minutes.

Having played soccer for all but three years of my life, it was only natural that I gravitate towards playing the beautiful game while I studied abroad in Ecuador. Being a woman playing a pick up game in Ecuador is not common. The machismo here dictates that a woman is not often successful in playing these sports. A certain look of surprise crosses the faces of men when you ask if you can play. The first time I played, it was as if doors immediately opened, invitations to beer nights and "watching soccer nights" streamed in. Playing soccer in a country that is in love with the sport is like hanging out with the cool kids.

Experts say that people who play sports are more successful in school, but it is also true that sports have a direct impact out of school. My “field work” has proved that to the nth degree. Lugging a pelota de soccer around is an open invitation to pick up games that leave you drenching in sweat, satisfied, and with a sense of companionship and camaraderie with locals, head nods later on at the local beach bar for the embarrassment of the successful nut-meg, the lucrative Maradona in front of the goal. Soccer is bonding. It is fluidity. It is an ability to associate with people around the world.