The Socca World Cup - Essen 2023

This year in Essen, the Socca World Cup was held. This is a 6v6 small-sided soccer game. It includes countries from all over the world. I had the opportunity to attend a day of the tournament with other exchange students. 

Everyone found this to be very interesting. They had built a soccer field in the middle of a big city, called Essen. This was really interesting, knowing how the city previously looked. I also feel that people in the surrounding area really enjoyed this opportunity because it was free and people were able to see what this variation of soccer was like. It was amazing how the tournament was able to function with just one soccer field! The games were played back-to-back, allowing you to watch multiple games in one day. Although I feel that this did not bring people from other countries into the city of Essen, I felt that it allowed people to express their pride for the countries that they support in soccer.

In the end, Kazakhstan came in first place with Ukraine coming in second. The support for Ukraine was really interesting, as I assumed people who were refugees from Ukraine, were there in order to support the Ukrainian team. It was one of the best supportive teams in the tournament and when they cheered on their team. It felt united and powerful.