WF Nicaragua Travel

Like Lisa, I am also on Nica time and writing about the past (Thursday). I was going to write about San Juan del Sur… but everyone has that covered! And p.s…. surfing was awesome

Anyways - - USA might not have won on Sunday, but Wake Forest won on Thursday in the WFU vs. NicaHope game! Soccer is extremely popular down here and NicaHope has 3 separate teams. They thought it would be fun to organize a game between us and their girl’s team. We had no idea what to expect… but we were all up for the challenge. I think we all went there thinking we had the intimidation factor on our side just because we are a pretty large group of Americans, but when we showed up - we realized they were taking this pretty seriously. They already had the field lined and goals in place (which was pretty shocking) and they also had uniforms! We also even had a referee (or at least someone who blew the whistle when necessary).

After a little 2 minute warm-up and a little team huddle… we were ready to play! The fact that the NicaHope team ranged anywhere between the ages of 13-15 and most of them didn’t even have on what we Americans would consider “appropriate footwear” did not stop them from putting up a good fight. We started out with a lead of 1-0 after Jason scored a goal… and then finished out with a win by the score of 3-2 (with the other 2 goals scored by Stephen). Even though the boys carried us in scoring…everyone did amazing, especially for most of us not having played much soccer. Although for me personally, I think it was a good decision for me to give up soccer for other sports in which my height actually gave me an advantage. Also the fact that I wanted to catch every ball that went by me instead of kicking it did not help my game! [I got called for at least 3 handballs..whoops! haha]

Overall, I think everyone had lots of fun it was a really fun game for both teams. We all left extremely sweaty and tired, but we also made it out of there injury free!

Goo Deacs!