The excitement and energy surrounding the World Cup is a unique bond that is shared across the world. Team JAB reached out to Miami native Andrea Montalbano for a JABBER’s perspective.
This author, journalist, mother and soccer coach grew up on Key Biscayne and played soccer since she could walk. She was a member of the soccer team at Coral Gables High School {class of 1986} and continued playing in college at Harvard University where she served as captain for the Harvard University soccer team and was eventually inducted into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
After college, Andrea pursued a career in journalism, attending Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She was an English anchor at Vatican Radio, and then worked as a writer and Supervising Producer for NBC News and NBC’s TODAY program. Now the mother of two young soccer players, Andrea is coaching, writing and bringing all her loves together in Soccer Sisters, the follow-up series to Breakaway {2010}. Andrea was recently featured in The New York Times. See her article HERE. She lives outside New York City with her husband Diron and two children.
We asked Andrea to share her perspective on the World Cup with us:
I recently asked my 10-year-old daughter why she loves the World Cup and instead of an answer I got “The Look.” Which look? You know. The one that often comes attached to an eye roll.
And I couldn’t have been happier.
Because, duh Mom, she loves everything about the World Cup.
She and her seven-year-old-brother are World Cup crazies. They beg me daily for more stickers for their player books, and honestly I am happy to oblige.
For starters, my daughter can now name every single team by merely glancing at the country’s flag. She and her brother have learned more geography in the last month than in all their years of schooling, and don’t even get me started on the dinner conversations about the good {goals!}, the bad {diving!}, and the ugly {OMG biting!} of this amazing event.
I was 10 years old when I watched my first World Cup. My father took me down to Argentina in 1978. One of my greatest memories is riding on the roof of a car in San Martin de los Andes celebrating Argentina’s victory. Talk about an indoctrination.
This indelible {albeit dangerous} image is probably one of the reasons that soccer became one of the great passions of my life.
My children love to play soccer now, too. We are all counting the days for the new professional teams launching in Miami and in New York City {my former and current hometowns}. Both are diverse and vibrant cities perfectly matched to the beautiful game.
But even if they didn’t play the sport, I would still want my children to feel like they are participants in one of the great global events of our time. More than half the planet will watch some part of this World Cup – and my kids will watch most of it. Even at the youngest of ages, they are starting to understand that there is a lot more to the World Cup than soccer.
They debate fouls and playing styles with their aunts and uncles, predict winners with shopkeepers and waiters, don jerseys and play pick-up games with their parents and friends – creating memories that can last a lifetime.
I know, because “The Look,” says it all.
