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In 1990, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, Africa, I had my first taste of World Cup fever. In my small village every man, woman and child crammed into what ever room had a TV. I will never forget the sound of the cheers when Cameroon beat the mighty Argentina! That sealed my fate as a soccer fan. Or there's Marc from Texas, an Army soldier who told this story about an operation his unit conducted at a Baghdad soccer park during Operation Iraqi Freedom: After about an hour of searching through living areas and accounting for everyone in the area, I found myself waiting to wrap things up. An Iraqi kid, maybe 10 years old, was holding a Soccer ball in the area we made everyone go to. I motioned for him to toss me the ball (my Arabic isn't very good), and he immediately understood that I wanted to see his Soccer ball. He tossed it and (while wearing about 75 pounds of Army gear), I "caught" the ball with a thigh and immediately juggled the ball 10-12 times before the weight of my gear, or lack of skill:)...let the ball fall to the ground. The eyes of almost every person there lit up...I guess they didn't expect an American Army Soldier to be able to juggle a ball! We passed the ball around and I made friends that day...although I will probably never see them again, we were bonded by the beautiful game. We couldn't communicate with words...but the game was all we needed to see each other as equals...as players, as friends. As you can see, the power of soccer is very real -- and the Game really is in all of us. Join Staci and Marc -- write your letter today, and get your chance to be featured in the official USA Bid Book to FIFA: http://www.gousabid.com/bidbook |
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