With the FIFA World Cup coming up this November, several students are anxiously waiting to see what team will come out on top this year. We interviewed seniors Logan Baulsbaugh and Nish Oberoi to learn more about the World Cup and students’ predictions.
Logan was first exposed to soccer at a young age when he saw his parents watching it and played club soccer himself.
“I just started following club soccer last year, but I have been following the World Cup since around 2010,” Balsbaugh said in an interview. “[This year, I’m rooting for] Germany because I just really like the way they play. It’s harder to follow clubs because all the good teams are from different continents, but for the World Cup it’s easy to follow because you can see the different nations compete and all the different cultures of the league.”
Although Balsbaugh started playing soccer at a young age, he just recently started getting involved with the different leagues and the excitement of the World Cup began to grow on him, he said.
“I’ve been playing ever since I was 6,” Balsbaugh said. “And I played up until this year. I just didn’t follow it because the only league that I knew about was the American League or the MLS which wasn’t that good, but once I found out about the European leagues, it was so much fun to watch.”
Oberoi said he gained an interest in watching soccer through his dad and quickly became part of the fanbase through all the hype. He said his favorite club team is FC Barcelona, and this year he is excited to follow Argentina in the World Cup.
“I’m supporting Argentina this year,” Oberoi said. “I’ve been following them for five to six years because of one man, and his name is Lionel Messi. I feel like he is the best player of all time, and he is just really good. Just watching him gives me a lot of pleasure. The way he dribbles, the way he uses his brains on the pitch, the IQ he has it’s incredible. It’s magical.”
This year, Oberoi hopes to follow several teams, including Argentina, England, and France because of their play style and some players he is excited to watch.
“I’ll be watching mostly Argentina games because this is probably going to be [Messi’s] last World Cup,” Oberoi said. “I hope to see him bring out his prime years again, if he can, and it’d be really good to just watch him play and see him bring out those prime Messi dribbles again. I would say France has a really good team. I think Kylian Mbappé is a very good player; he’s a youngster, and a big part of why France won the 2018 World Cup. The last player [I want to watch] is from England. Phil Foden – he is a really technically gifted player; he’s also a youngster. So, I would really love to watch him play too.”