Don't Cry For Me Argentina

For those who don't know, I lived as a missionary in Argentina for two years.  Argentina will always hold a special place in my heart as a result.  The World Cup has been taking place in Brazil for the last month, and I have been cheering on Argentina!  Four years ago, when the World Cup was in South Africa, I was actually living in Argentina, and there is no accurate way of describing the passion of that nation for their beloved futbol team.

For the past month I have been watching every single one of their matches, while imploring others to do the same.  I have been wearing my Argentina jersey almost every other day to show my dedication.  In fact, here is a picture from last week on the day Argentina beat Belgium in the quarterfinals.  Cory and I are with Buzz at Shelby Farms visitor center.

Anyway,  Argentina went on to beat the Netherlands in the semifinal on penalty kicks.  Cory and I had to watch in the clubhouse because we don't have cable, but it didn't stop me from yelling and jumping up and down.  The final was on Sunday with Argentina facing off against Germany.  To show my support and hopefully bring some good luck I wore a special tie to church.

We got home from church and turned on ABC to watch 115 agonizing minutes of Argentina missing chance after chance to score.  It was messing with my heart health in all honesty.  With only a few minutes to go before penalty kicks, Germany scored the only goal of the match, leaving Argentina the 2nd place title.  It was SUCH A BUMMER!!!  Here are the boys before the final started.

Not to make excuses, but I think Argentina would have won if they wore their traditional striped jerseys.  Either way, it was a ton of fun watching them, and definitely kept me interested in World Cup action "to the death".  They also give me a great team to cheer for when the USA goes down early in the tournament.