Soccer, football, or Futball, is the most popular sport in the world. It is dubbed “The beautiful game,”  and many diehard fans, just like American sports fans, follow the sport to the wire. This game brings many nations and cultures together to band under one sport or one team.

As the incredibly entertaining and highly anticipated NCAA tournament is over, and the 2014 MLB season being underway, there are many exciting sports events in the near future. Many American are patiently waiting to see how their favorite teams will fair. Many Americans are actually not aware that the FIFA World Cup in Brazil kicks off early this summer. For the U.S. national team, this is one of the biggest tests that they have been handed in many years. In the last World Cup in 2010, the U.S. were knocked before the quarter finals. This World Cup will be crucial for the progression of the U.S. team and of the sport itself in our country.

The World Cup in Brazil kicks off June 12^th and 32 national teams who have fought for four long years will be put to the test to see who the best team in the world is. Brazil is a massive soccer country with rich tradition that coincides with some of the most diehard fans in the world. The atmosphere and soccer environment that is going to be established at the games will be unparalleled by other hosts.

As many are not aware of the circumstances and expectations of this upcoming World Cup, or even that there is a World Cup, I wanted to see exactly how many Pentucket students were aware of the largest stage in the world of soccer.

When asked about the subject of the World Cup, Pentucket Senior Jackie Brennan said, “I know nothing about it, all I know is that its soccer.” To her surprise, she found out that the World Cup is a mere two months away.

Pentucket Senior Kyle McDonald responded, “All I know is that it starts in June.” Further adding, “is Lionel Messi on the team?” to Kyle’s bewilderment, Lionel Messi is in fact the greatest player, at the moment, in the world and actually plays for the Argentine national team.

Pentucket Senior Alden Slack said, “The World Cup protects the Earth’s sensitive areas,”

Pentucket Senior Andrew Capobianco added, “The World Cup is full of cups around the world.” After these comments I promptly exited the caf.

After the depressing start to the interviews, looking for some hope, I walked around the school  and asked sixty people if they even knew the World Cup was about to ensue. After asking these sixty people, a mere 35% knew that the World Cup was in the near future.  Of that 35%, no one could further add to what they knew about the World Cup.

As the World highly anticipates the awaited world tournament, hopefully the amount of American avid sports watchers will take some time to watch the beautiful game and support our country. For those who have a more negative bias towards the sport, watching a tournament enveloped with such passion and dedication from fans all around the world is almost nothing one can see in the U.S. The array of chants that the fans sing greatly outnumber that of American sports and the showing of fans dedication and unity is unmatched. This World Cup will certainly live up to the game which the world loves, the beautiful game.