As usual, the World Cup has succeeded in grabbing the attention of millions around the world with enthralling soccer matches. To anyone unfamiliar with the World Cup, it is a soccer tournament held every four years in which the world’s greatest teams compete against each other for the honor of becoming world champions. 

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This tournament is split into two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage. The group stage places 4 seeded teams from 8 different groups against each other, with the top two teams moving on; the knockout stage places the qualifying teams from the group stage into a bracket, consisting of a round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and final. 

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This year, the United States was a team surrounded with promise and intrigue, having the second youngest roster in the tournament and one wholly unfamiliar to the World Cup, with only one squad member having played a World Cup match previously. Led by star Christian Pulisic, America put on impressive performances against England and Iran in the group stage to earn a spot in the knockout stage, but were unfortunately eliminated in the round of 16 by the Netherlands in a close battle. 

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At Westlake High School, soccer has been recently ingrained into the students after the successes of Westlake’s Varsity boys soccer team for the 2021 Fall season. The team was able to convincingly win the Mount Pleasant Cup, the League title, Section Title, and Regional title for class B while led by captains Gianluca Ruggiero, Isaiah Ortiz and Martin Sunjic.

 

This success was reflected by the size of Westlake’s student section, with many Westlake students traveling to far distances to watch their team fight for titles against tough opponents. The boys and girls Varsity teams also run scrimmages for Columbus Elementary School soccer players in order to practice with kids who share the same passion as the Varsity players. As a result of this, soccer has become deep-rooted into Westlake, and seeing as the World Cup is the largest soccer tournament in the world, the impacts that it has had on Westlake Students is clear to see. 

 

The Opening Matches

Prior to the World Cup, students who heavily anticipated the start of the World Cup were those who had enjoyed watching and playing soccer. Lincoln Ortiz, member of the Westlake  Varsity Boys 2022 soccer team, remembers this buzz as “Just plain excitement, from everyone around you."

 

The first game of the World Cup was on November 20, when Qatar and Ecuador faced off in a one-sided affair. Ecuador was the much better team and convincingly won 2-0, and with the Ecuadorian representation of Westlake, this win was well documented. 

The knockout stage continued, seeing upsets like Japan beating Spain and Germany, Saudi Arabia beating Argentina and Tunisia beating France. 

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Eventually, these upsets reached mainstream media, and more and more students were exposed to the World Cup. 

As Daniel Spetrillo, another member of the Westlake Varsity Boys 2022 soccer team, recalls, “Everywhere I went I’d hear people talking about [the] games.” 

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Eventually, the opening phases of the World Cup ended, seeing the United States move forward into the competition. Many major teams, such as Germany, Denmark, Uruguay and Belgium all failed to make it through to the knockout stage, which gave the tournament even more infamy among all watching the World Cup. 

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Suddenly, it felt as though everybody at Westlake understood the situation and realized the importance of this tournament to the world, something that America has needed to take steps in. 

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Many people do not watch soccer as they see it as boring, but the US National team, during their group stage run, was able to make Americans proud and help Americans realize the beauty of the sport. 

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Considering that effect on Westlake students, it is likely that the importance of soccer to the school will continue to grow. 

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The Knockout Stage

Following the end of the group stage, the first knockout stage game was held the day after the group matches ended, helping keep the intrigue in the tournament and ensure fans never have to wait for matches. 

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The first match of the knockout stage, the United States vs Netherlands, was a very close game, but sadly the US were edged out by shooting quality and overall experience. 

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Spetrillo says that “it was too sad to see all of the team’s promise go to waste,” after they put in such an “inspiring” run in the group stage. 

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Many felt this way, as more people had started to believe America has what it takes; to lose on the first day of the next round did seem to impact the school’s immersion in the tournament. However, the knockout phase continued, and, as of the writing of this article, we have reached the Semi-finals, with Croatia going up against Argentina, and major underdogs: Morocco competing against France. 

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Morocco’s road to the Semi-finals has definitely been most impressive, as their run consisted with underdog wins against Spain and Ronaldo’s Portugal. Not only this, but Morocco is the first African team to ever reach the Semi-final in the history of the tournament and have a chance to potentially book a spot in the finals. 

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With all of these incredible stories going around, those who have been into the World Cup have been pleased and will continue to watch every game until the end. 

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However, there has certainly been a drop off in overall excitement since the start of the World Cup. Ortiz recalls that “I kind’ve expected teachers to watch games with us, since the World Cup is such a huge deal,” but, obviously, most teachers would be unwilling to allow class time to go to waste for games. 

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Effect on Westlake’s Student Body

As a whole, Westlake is a very athletic and sports-dominated school. Having the World Cup not only as a topic of conversation, but also purely for enjoyment, allowed many Westlake students to get through a difficult portion of the school year and allowed them to release stress building up from schoolwork. 

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Ortiz even goes as far as to say, “I think the World Cup is the only thing that happened over the past month.” 

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There were some memories which students will remember when thinking back on this time. For instance, I will always remember watching a penalty shootout with Spetrillo and other students in my study hall, watching Croatia upset Brazil. 

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Spetrillo recalls this as “a chilling moment” which he’ll be able to “look back on happily.” In that respect, having a World Cup occur in the middle of the school year has been an incredible way for students to release stress and bond over a common interest. 

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However, it must be acknowledged that the impacts the World Cup has had on students’ working habits and interest in learning was mostly negative. Along with the start of the World Cup, many students have noticed a shift in their dedication to work as the World Cup was simply a more “interesting” topic. 

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Similarly, many students are getting in trouble from watching World Cup games in class, and I must plead guilty for committing this act myself. One major reason for this is the time of the games. The earliest time slot for games was 5:00AM Est and the latest 2:00PM Est. These times directly interfere with school hours, which results in a decision of whether to listen in on a lecture or watch the World Cup, and many, when faced with this decision, chose the World Cup, as the tournament will not occur again until 2026, 4 years from now. 

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A solution to the time issue would be to record games on TV, but social media would likely spoil the scores and contents of all the games before you have the opportunity to watch them. 

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With that being said, the World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world, and it has become almost as famous as the Olympics. It’s ability to draw in viewers and surprise  has been on full display this year, and even through all of the controversy, this rendition has been one of the most surprising and unpredictable World Cups of all time, and as viewers look forward to the finals, be prepared to witness the insane and unfathomable.