16 Jun A Moment in Time
By Bill Upchurch
This weekend, my favorite sporting event in the world begins (and before you ask, it is not the hot dog eating challenge.) It’s the World Cup!
The world Cup Soccer/Futbol Tournament, held in Russia this year, is the culmination of a two year qualification process for 32 National Football teams to meet and determine which country will hoist the World Cup Trophy on July 15th, 2018. I could bore you to death with all of the details of qualification, but let’s move on. The world Cup has been held every four years since 1930 with a 12 year hiatus from 1938 to 1950. Only eight countries can claim they have held the trophy:
Brazil (5,) Germany/West Germany (4) Italy (4 Sorry about 2006 Dorothee,) Argentina (2,) Uruguay (2) England, France and Spain with one win a piece.
One of the most exciting things about the World Cup is the Drama that unfolds. Whether it was “The Wembley Goal” in 1966, Pele in 1970, Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal in 1986 or the headbutt by Zidane in 2006, there is always drama at a critical moment in this tournament.
In 2014 the World Cup was held in Brazil. All of the experts said before the tournament even started that Brazil would play Argentina in the final. They did not count on Brazil having to get by Germany in the semifinal. So what happened, you ask? Germany beat Brazil like an ugly stepchild! Within 30 minutes of a 90 minute game, Germany had a 5-0 lead (four of those goals were within a seven minute time lapse) and won the game 7-1. There were so many Germans scoring that day, I had to check the Box Scores to see if my Wife might have nabbed one! Germany went on to defeat the Argentinians 1-0 for their fourth title.
So many countries do not even get the chance to play in the World Cup! Take my adopted country of Panama for example. Panama has been trying to qualify for the tournament for forty years without even a sniff.
That is, until this year. After the initial stages of the CONCACAF qualification zone (basically that is North and Central America and some weed smoking islands in the Caribbean) (and please don’t make me explain this,) six teams were left for a grueling round robin type tournament where they had to play each other twice over the next year. The final six teams were Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panamá, Trinidad and Tobago and USA. The CONCACAF Zone qualifies the first three places for a trip to the World Cup Finals. The fourth place team from our zone has to play a team from the Pacific Rim Zone to see who gets to go to Russia. (Trust me, it’s more complicated than it sounds)
On that final night of qualification we went to Rommel Fernandez Stadium to watch the game live with a bus load of gringos and a few Panamanians. Panamá needed the win to secure fourth place and have a chance to go on to Russia by beating Australia in a two game playoff. Of course we were thinking that the USA (who was one point ahead of Panamá in the standings) was going to throttle Trinidad. And we were certain that Mexico would spank Honduras like a naughty four year old. After 80 minutes Panamá and Costa Rica were all knotted at 1-1.
My friend sitting next to me was keeping tabs on the other two games which were being played simultaneously. We already knew that the USA was in trouble and Honduras was beating Mexico. For any chance to advance, Panama needed a Miracle! Up stepped a Central Defender “WAIT, WHAT?” This guy’s job is to keep the ball out of his goal! Rarely, should he cross the midfield line.
In the 85th minute he told his fellow defenders to cover him, he was pushing forward (by the way, without any instruction from the manager!) You want Drama? You got it! With 3 minutes left, side out to Panama 70 meters from the promise land! Throw in from Ovalle then the ball quickly forwarded by cooper to Godoy who immediately headed the ball to our hero! In one stride and a huge right leg, the miracle we were looking for was buried into the top right corner of the net.
Now I have sat in Lambeau, Soldier Field, several domed stadiums and “The Big House,” but I have never heard a roar like the one that I heard that warm October night in little 30,000 seat capacity Rommel Fernandes Stadium!
In the blink of an eye Roman Torres (Central Defender) was crowned The King of Panamá! Now most of us North American sports fans remember “The Catch,” “The Tackle,” 97 Red Wings (Go Wings!!) and of course the 2016 Cubs. But for the little country of Panamá, there will only ever be one true Sports “Moment in Time!”