Soccer Time In Urraco

Go Urraco.......

Very often I remember the competitiveness for sports back in the USA. I grew up playing sports, but I always enjoyed more then just one sport. Now living here in Honduras I feel that passion, both good and bad, of THE SPORT, soccer.
Monica and I were asked to help with our local elementary school soccer team. Urraco (the pueblo our kids go to school at) was asked to play in a tournament in a village further down the the mountain.
When we arrived, we were a few kids short because it is bean season and the families needed their kids to work at home. Fortunately there was another village about an hours walk up the mountain off the main road who was in a similar situation. So they asked to join our team and since we didn't have any uniforms we used theirs.
Let the games begin..... Go Team Urraco

Urraco Elementry (Javier from Give Hope 2 Kids in front-right, Eugenio and Jose not pictured)

Eugenio relaxing with friend just before the game

Jose is not quite sure he wants to play yet.... Reallllllly Nervous 

Eugenio takes off after the ball

 After being down by one goal most of the game Urraco ties up the game with very little time left. All the kids are so excited. Now its time for the penalty shots....
After picking the five best players from each team, they take their turns against the goalie...
After a miss and a great block by the Urraco goalie, Urraco wins the game after scoring 4 goals to Los Limpios (3 goals)
Yeahhhhh everyone is excited... Urraco advances to the final game.

Javier is excited... he gets to play in this next game.. And he is "Not Scared" he told me

Everyone is excited... Even Carolina (Far left) is here for support her fellow classmates.

 Now the Championship Game...If anyone has seen the movie "The Little Giants", let me tell you this was the scenario. The other team of Yuruca had Giants on their team. I felt so bad for Urraco as they were all so scared to play. But they did great..

The fight for the ball

Javier running back to help with defense...

Urraco giving their very best effort

Unlike the movie The Little Giants, Urraco did not win the final game, they tried their best, but Yuruca ended up winning 5 to 0.

Special Thanks to the teachers/coaches for the effort in getting these kids together and have fun with competition.

On the way back up the mountain with all the kids I was reminded how amazing these kids are. Many years ago when my team would lose a game, I would often be upset about it for an extended amount of time. But on the way up the mountain all I heard was hoots and hollering from our team about how they had won the first game. Even though they lost the championship game, they were still so excited because they got second place.

What a great day of fun......