“Soccer or football?” has been a commonly asked question in recent days, but why? Currently, the most prestigious tournament in the world is taking place, otherwise known as the FIFA World Cup, causing nationalism to flare up during this month-long event. The World Cup is a soccer tournament that takes place every four years  where 32 nations compete for the title of world champion. The United States qualified for the world cup  this year– a huge feat when considering that our nation’s team did not qualify in 2018– a majority of Americans have been rooting for the team to advance past the round of 16. This can be said for many countries, each of whom are rooting for their teams to win this esteemed title for the next four years. While the USA stopped advancing in the knockout stage, they played and put up a fight!

At Curtis the fever is palatable.  “I know when a team has scored because the students that are secretly watching it they can’t help but react to the goal, I always look up and just ask ‘who scored’,” said boys varsity soccer coach Ms. Turner. When the US was playing Iran for the group stage Ms. Turner had a watch party, where all the players from her team came together to watch the game, along with Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Fornabaio. Even during class, teachers have been putting some world cup matches on in the days before Thanksgiving weekend. Students have their phones hidden behind laptops as they try to keep up with scores. 

There has been a rise in excitement amongst the student body and faculty as the school  awaited for the scores of each game of the Group Stage. While the anticipation can be rowdy, connections are being made between people everywhere in regards to what team they support. This is a great chance to learn about people’s background, since many tend to root for their countries of origin, whether they identify themselves as simply American for their ethnic background. While the tournament will be over by December 18th, it has been giving us the ‘push’ we need to get us through these next few weeks until holiday break. Usually, the World Cup takes place in the summer, but now that it is in the winter it adds more joy to the holiday season. The Argentina versus France finals definitely did not disappoint, being that everyone left that game happy– except Mbappe.