There were three teams but only one trophy. The Spanish, French and Chinese clubs faced off against each other on Nov. 3. Wearing sombreros and their club t-shirt, Spanish club took the field for the fourth year and won this year’s tournament. They were victorious the first two years but had lost for the first time last year. This time they won back their title of the Language Club Soccer Champions.
“My competitive spirit was very happy to be able to bring the trophy back home,” Spanish teacher and Spanish club sponsor Greg Shields said. “I am glad for the kids, too, of course, because they played hard, and we were evenly matched at the end. We just had some good players that ended up pulling through for us.”
Spanish club vice president senior Robin Pham played last year, as well, and was proud of her team.
“It was an awesome game,” Pham said. “We all felt like an actual team. Those on the sidelines were cheering so loudly and in Spanish, too. I felt like the Spanish club was definitely the loudest and the proudest out of the foreign language clubs. We won the huge ‘World Cup’ trophy in the Spanish room for this school year until next year’s tournament, and we also got candy.”
The French club played against the Spanish club in the first game of the tournament but were defeated 2-1.
“I was pretty upset,” junior Jessey Hein said. “I’m a pretty competitive guy, and I just hate losing, especially to Spanish club.”
The French club, lost again in their last game against the Chinese club 1-0, but according to senior Scott Li who was on the Chinese team, the French club played a hard game, and it was almost a tie. After defeating the French, the Chinese then faced off with the Spanish club to win the “World Cup.” The Chinese club was defeated by the Spanish club, but they did win second place.
“We were actually very surprised that we got even to second place since many of our players thought that Chinese club would end up as last place,” Li said. “However, I am somewhat disappointed that we didn’t get to become this year’s Language Club Soccer Tournament’s winners since we narrowly lost by one point to Spanish club. Overall, however, it was a great experience, and I’m absolutely 100 percent sure that all of our members had fun and are not affected by our loss of the game. Besides, Chinese club will be hosting a basketball tournament with the other language clubs sometime next month, so we’re definitely ready to win that match. So we are not saddened by our place this year. We’re actually somewhat shocked, and we definitely had a blast.”
As a teacher, Shields believed that the tournament was a great opportunity for the groups to get out and mix with each other.
“It was just a fun opportunity, and that’s really what it boiled down to,” Shields said. “Competition aside, pride aside, we just got out there and had fun with each other and we want to keep doing that. It is cultural unity through diversity.”
