Lily Huynh
The air was thick with tension.
Lively commentary and the bustle of the players on the screen broke the otherwise subdued atmosphere among the students gathered to watch the match.
On the second floor, people stood along the edge of the glass walls, looking down at the projector across the monumental stairs of the Student Center South. This was where UH held its last World Cup watch party.
On July 15, Students watched Argentina and England face off in the World Cup semi-final.
Here are three students’ thoughts on the game and their deep love for it.
Eray Bakacak
Going into the 85’ minute, Argentina was trailing 1-0.
Chemical engineering sophomore Eray Bakacak said that England scoring the first goal was one of his highlights of the match. His other highlight was English football goalkeeper Jordan Pickford preserving England’s one-point advantage by blocking Argentina’s goal.
“I think my greatest highlight of the match was watching England score the goal, but there was also one save by Pickford where he obstructed the ball off the goal line and at that moment, I thought that England might actually go through to the final,” Bakacak said.
Bakacak said that his passion for soccer (more popularly known as football) originated from his upbringing in Turkey. During his kindergarten and elementary school years, Bakacak and his classmates watched soccer matches at recess.
“Growing up in Turkey, we never had Pokémon cards; we had soccer trading cards of the players we liked,” Bakacak said. “England has always been my favorite team and I’ve been an England fan since 2018, when they also made it to the semifinal.”
Unfortunately for Bakacak, the Argentine players managed to bounce back. Throughout the last minutes of the game, Argentine professional footballer Enzo Fernández equalized the tally, which was closely followed by Lionel Messi, who assisted his fellow teammate Lautaro Martínez in delivering Argentina’s winning goal.
After Argentina won their semi-final match, Bakacak predicted that they would be the first-place finishers of the tournament. He cited the team’s unwavering persistence to score even towards the last minutes of a match.
“Spain is a great team; they beat France, who I initially thought was going to win the whole tournament; in my eyes, Spain beat the best team in the tournament,” Bakacak said. “But the thing about Argentina is that they just never give up: all the way to the final, they kept coming back with last-minute goals, extra time and great wonder assists by Messi. So even though my head says Spain, don’t count Argentina out.”
Abdulmaliq Abdulsalam
Chemical engineering PhD student Abdulmaliq Abdulsalam, who is from Nigeria, said soccer holds significant cultural importance there. He was exposed to the sport extensively as a child and developed a strong admiration for Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi’s innate understanding of the mechanics of soccer.
“Messi plays with such intelligence,” Abdulsalam said. “I don’t know if it is because of his natural talent or his training, but he is special.”
Abdulsalam’s home country, Nigeria, was not able to qualify for this year’s World Cup tournament. Despite this setback, he was ecstatic to watch one of his favorite players, Messi, earn his place in the finals.
“Soccer is a big deal in Nigeria because as we grew up, we got to watch and get attached to the World Cup games by identifying one or two players that we really like and then following them through to see how they perform,” Abdulsalam said. “I love Messi, so I got very excited when I saw him succeeding in this game.”
Mady Blessing
English education sophomore and English-American Mady Blessing was born in Liverpool and lived there for roughly eight years before moving to the U.S.
As a result, Blessing was rooting for England to win the tournament.
“It was quite devastating when England lost, but I still have hope that we are going to win it in the future,” Blessing said.
Blessing was also rooting for players from other countries, especially former English Liverpool Football Club player Mohamed Salah, who represented Egypt in the tournament.
She also hoped for Spain to win against Argentina in the final, claiming that FIFA tends to favor Argentina during the tournament, particularly in their match against Egypt.
“I was also rooting for Egypt because one of my favorite players, Mohamed Salah was playing for Egypt in the tournament,” Blessing said. “I’m also hoping that Spain wins the final match against Argentina because I feel like FIFA does favor Argentina sometimes and Argentina already has the title, so it would be nice for Spain to take it.”
Being an England fan in the U.S. can be lonely for Blessing. Since her family is American and she is English, she would be rooting for different players than her family.
“My family is all American, so they were rooting for the U.S. while I was rooting for England,” Blessing said. “They would watch the U.S. games together and I would watch the England games by myself.”
Blessing expressed her happiness about the U.S. being a host country. She said that it is a great way of uniting international and American residents and finding other England supporters.
“I think it’s really nice that some games are being held in the States this year because it allows me to have pride for my home country even when I am not residing in it,” Blessing said. “As teams start getting knocked out, people across nations start coming together and rooting for the same teams. I have some American friends that we were texting while the game was happening; they were all rooting for England.”
On July 19, Spain and Argentina, the last teams standing, competed in the tournament’s final match, where Spanish professional footballer Ferran Torres scored the sole winning goal against Argentina.
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