Love and soccer

Going by my last post, I'm concerned I might have come across overly negative towards women's soccer in Argentina, which would be a very unfair assessment. Unfair not only to all of the girls and women who play but also unfair to all of the coaches, administrators, equipment managers, doctors, etc who donate their time and efforts to women's teams throughout the nation. While there are certainly aspects of Argentine women's soccer that I would love to improve, there are so many more things that I love about playing here that I never experienced during my time playing in the United States.

Team picture in River Plate's Stadium, El Monumental

I love how every time our team gets together, whether it's for training, a game, a trip, or a meal, we always greet and say goodbye to each teammate individually with a kiss on the cheek. Granted, it does take time to go around the locker room and say hello to every single person in there, especially when I'm the last one to arrive, but it is amazing how a simple greeting has made me feel welcome among a group of people I hardly know. In the United States, when I would come to team events, I would usually just say hello to the group in general and maybe give a hug to a few of my closer friends, and only if I had not seen them in a while. To an American, greeting someone with a kiss on the cheek can seem overly intimate, especially when we are so accustomed to handshakes, but I think a kiss breaks down relational barriers in a way a handshake cannot and allows for friendships to grow more quickly and on a deeper level (but I may be overanalyzing the situation...).

I love how much each player loves fútbol. Many are willing to spend 3 hours or more traveling just to train for 2. (I know I've mentioned this before, but it still amazes me when I talk to the girls about their commute.) There is nothing forcing them to continue playing, no monetary benefits, no pressure from family, no fancy sporting gear, just love. Love for the game. Love for her team. Love for her coaches, her club, her country. Although I loved soccer before, since joining River, my love for the game itself has really been reignited. In college I often found myself dreading practices, games, and weight training because I always felt a huge amount of pressure from coaches to perform. Winning was always the goal, no matter what the cost, whether it meant sacrificing relationships, stirring up competitive strife between teammates, or even ignoring players entirely. And if that wasn't the case, then it is certainly the impression I came away with after playing at two different universities under three different head coaches. Obviously, winning is still important in Argentina, and the ultimate goal is to get results on the field – but not at all costs. The coaches and staff at River strive to make us not only better players but better people. Because, in the end, soccer is a game that we can only play for a relatively short part of our lives, but the lessons of teamwork, relationships, hard-work, commitment, etc that we learn from the sport will stay with us in whatever we do for the rest of our lives.

I love how everybody shares everything with everyone. Whenever somebody buys a drink or a snack and is around the team, before even taking a sip or a bite, the first thing she does is offer it to the girls who are standing nearby. This was something that took a little getting used to for me – I'm not going to lie. To be honest, I'm still adjusting to the whole sharing-your-water-with-everybody-thing. I would not consider myself a "germophobe" per-se, but enough so to where I'm slightly wary of drinking from the same bottle as 20 other girls. Granted, one usually only shares with a few others, but still the idea is one that takes some getting used to. Nonetheless, as a new member of the team, one cannot help but feel welcomed and accepted when a teammate offers to share her snack. It's a small gesture that goes a long way.

I could go on about what I love about playing here, but I think I can help sum it up by telling about our team's trip last weekend (Feb. 23-24), which I will describe in my next post since this is one is quickly getting too long...