KIDS PAGE: South American Drama— On and Off the Soccer Pitch

By Pasha Zar | Junior Reporter

There I was, stuck in the Lima airport, without my passport. I had left it on my connecting flight from Sao Paolo, and it was en route to Argentina. I was texting my parents in the States, scrambling for documents, hoping U.S. Customs would let me on the last leg of my trip back home.

I had been in Curitiba, Brazil for two weeks on a soccer trip, with about 20 other youth soccer players from the LA area. I was one of three Palisadians, along with two others from Pali High. For two weeks, I had gotten up at 6 a.m., ate a Brazilian breakfast which sometimes included cake, then headed to our bus for a two-hour bus ride at times, to a pro-training field where we would train all day. We played two tournaments, against Brazilian pro academies, that we thought would destroy us. But they didn’t. In fact, we won both!

We played almost a dozen games, and trained hard for each. I got a taste of what a pro training facility that’s among the best in all of the Americas looks like—both indoor and outdoor. One of the facilities has 20 pro fields, and a lake they could fish in if they got bored. The grass was cut perfectly with just the right amount of moisture. The fields were a pleasure to play on. The neighborhoods around the stadiums were unremarkable, but people were incredibly kind and welcoming.  All the kids on the trip had been asked to bring their old soccer cleats to give away to local kids. We had managed to amass nearly 100 pairs of soccer shoes to give away. It was winter in Brazil in July when I was there, so every day was cold. We would bundle up and head out in layers, then peel off one after another as we warmed up with soccer. But on the morning we gave the shoes to the kids, we were all still bundled up. The kids showed up and eyeballed the massive line-up of cleats we had laid out. One by one, we each picked up a shoe and handed it out to one of the kids who had come to greet us as part of a Brazilian soccer program. I remember being frigidly cold at first, and as the moments went by, I warmed up, not from movement but from the heart. It was such an amazing experience to be part of this, knowing that we were equal in soccer skill with these Brazilian players, and that they were so happy to host us here in their country. We all came from a place where we take new cleats each season for granted, but here we were playing equally with these kids, on pro fields unlike any we’d ever played on.

We won our first tournament on the third day after we arrived. We played three games that day in a pro stadium, until we got to the final match. I was sure at the beginning of the day that we’d get crushed. But then our team performed so well, we won game after game until we were holding the trophy. The mayor of Curitiba came to congratulate us and presented us the golden cup. That was a thrill, and it set the tone for the rest of the trip. The older team U15, won one tournament. My team, the younger U13, won two.

An hour later, the unbearable tension was over. I was finally allowed to board the plane. Phew! I was coming home.