Being In Guatemala During The World Cup Was Special
Posted
Roger Grossman-
My wife and I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala recently. We were visiting some friends of ours who sold everything – their house, their business, their vehicles – and moved there to be missionaries.
It was not our first trip out of the country, of course (we have adopted twice from China), but it was our first trip in that direction.
I am going to write more about our trip next week, but this week I want the full and undivided attention of people who don’t like soccer and want no part of the World Cup.
I am not going to fight with you about how you should love soccer, and likewise I would appreciate it if you’d not try to convince me of what I am missing in Game of Thrones, catfish or kale.
My goal today is to tell you the story of my four days in Guatemala and see if you can find a place in your sensibility to understand the World Cup as a world event.
Knowing that I would be in Guatemala during the World Cup made me do a little research on the history of that country in the universe’s biggest ‘futbol’ tournament.
It was a short search.
Their best-known Cup moment is also its most notorious. In 1986, a Cup match in Guatemala City was cancelled after a stampeding crown led to the deaths of 84 people in and around the stadium. The venue’s capacity was 45,000 (a little bigger than Wrigley Field), but counterfeit tickets had been sold to about 15,000 more. When the last seat was filled, those left without pushed through a gate for stadium workers and forced their way down to field level.
The throng pushed forward, and those in the front were literally crushed. The president of Guatemala was in attendance, and he himself sent everyone home.
I met a man during my trip who knew I was a big sports fan, and he engaged me in a World Cup discussion. The Guatemalan team is not very good and didn’t qualify for the 2018 Cup in Russia. I asked him why they failed to qualify, and he said with a smile “we in Guatemala are not good at the two most important things: food and futbol.”
I asked Julio who Guatemalans were cheering for in the World Cup. He mentioned a lot of different teams, mostly from Central and South America. He was cheering for Argentina, because he is a big fan of the international star Lionel Messi.
Pepsi is big there, and Messi’s mug is on virtually every can.
We ate at Burger King after church on Sunday, and the place mats on the trays were the groupings of this year’s World Cup, with a place to write in the results of each match in each group. The bottom half of the sheet was a bracket for the “knockout rounds.”
I noticed that people were ordering food, and as they waited they were taking those place mats and putting them in their pockets.
We were eating while Brazil was playing Switzerland, and when Brazil scored the place went crazy. When the Swiss tied it, you could hear a french fry drop. I was too busy to notice that once everyone was done eating, they stayed to watch the match. Once I started paying attention, I noticed that it was a standing-room-only audience in the restaurant and most of the people there weren’t there to eat at all.
These people didn’t have a team in the tournament, but man did they care.
I asked one man who had spoken in English a few minutes before to someone else “why do you care so much about the World Cup when Guatemala isn’t in it?”
His response: “you are from America aren’t you … you wouldn’t understand.”
Truth is we Americans are THE only nation in the world who is not paying close attention to the World Cup. Yes, there are pockets of interest in bigger cities and in some regions of smaller towns that have embraced what we call soccer. But collectively we aren’t interested. And that’s a shame.
We are missing out on a great event. The sounds, the color, the passion – it’s breath-taking. We are about to get to the tournament portion. That means the drama is ratcheted up a few notches.
Let me give you a homework assignment: watch 20 minutes of a World Cup match this week or weekend. Don’t just watch for the play on the field – take in the whole experience.
And while you are doing that, realize that people from every nation in the world, every religion, every culture and creed are taking it in with you.
