GOOOOOOAL!

GOOOOOOAL!

By Memo Perez Lara

Click aqui para español ->¡Gooooooool!

There are little things in life that produce as much satisfaction as a goal from your favorite team. When your team loses, it can ruin your whole week. But when your team wins, you feel like you're on cloud nine.

There are many reasons to choose a team. In some cases, your allegiance could be determined at birth. But once you pick your team, there is no going back! It may be easier to convert to a different religion.

That's just how we football fanatics are and we call it plainly as football - because for Latinos, there is no such thing as "soccer".

As football philosopher, player, and world champion, Jorge Valdano used to say, "football is the most important thing among the less important things."

I was trying to come up with a way to explain the emotion that watching your national selection enter the field during the World Cup produces, but I gave up before even trying. You just can't find an explanation to that feeling. It is like seeing the beach for the first time. You must experience it to know how it feels. It simply cannot be explained in words.

Even though 'soccer' has gained attention in the U.S., its popularity remains significantly below the top sports like American football, baseball, and basketball. It has yet to be embedded in the American culture.

There are many people who find football boring and don't comprehend that a single goal is in fact the result of huge sacrifice, a team-wide sacrifice. Americans are accustomed to games with hundreds of points, 15 plus home runs, and at least 25 touchdowns per game.

The high-scoring nature of these popular sports has desensitized Americans viewers because show business has dictated a norm for easier targets to achieve multiple-digit points on the scoreboard. Higher point totals perhaps correlate with higher entertainment, but at the same time, the crowd loses the sense of the spirit of achievement.

There are basic rules when my national team is playing in the World Cup: Do not talk to me, do not distract me, do not even look at me! I'm not working, and you are not going to get my attention.

If for any reason my team loses, don't be surprised if I punch a hole in the wall or hide in the bathroom and cry.

Not to be distasteful, but those who don't understand the passion for football, just don't get anything at all!

During the rage of the World Cup, we are all fraternal enemies of a world war where it may just be possible for third-world countries to beat the economic powers, and for millionaires to yell 'goal' with the same pitch and passion of the needy.

Could there be anything more democratic than the passion for football?

WORLD CUP GAMES CAN BE WATCHED LOCALLY ON TELEMUNDO 42 AND Fox 8