World Cup 2022: It’s the Olympics, but Soccer!

I will say it, and none of you will complain about it: I’m not a sports guy. However, it’s easy to see why. I don’t watch any sports in my free time. I haven’t watched the Olympics since 2016. Finally, I hate basketball, football, and hockey. The only thing sportsy about me is that I played tennis and golf once. That’s it. I just don’t care about sports. It’s just a bunch of rich people and tryhards fighting over a ball 80% of the time. Who wants to watch that?

However, I’m a Brazilian. By the law of Brazil, you have to love soccer. As such, soccer is the only sport I can watch and not fall asleep during the game. You can bet that I am an avid watcher of the World Cup. Heck, I lived in Brazil for five years and was there to watch the 2014 World cup in Brazil. Now, I may sound contradictory. Yes, balls are involved in soccer, and players take the sport seriously. However, the thing with soccer is that there’s emotion involved. You never see anyone getting turned up when someone scores in basketball, hockey, tennis, or golf. Sure, people celebrate when people score a touchdown in football. But nothing will compare to everyone screaming, “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!” in a soccer stadium. One more thing is that soccer is mainstream. Do you see anyone playing basketball and American football anywhere but America? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Anyone can play soccer anywhere.

Enough about soccer for now. If you want me to write an article about soccer… There’s always September. But this article is more focused on the World Cup. The World Cup is the world’s largest soccer tournament, and it takes place every 4 years. No, that does not mean that it and the Olympics happen in the same year. They’re two years apart. The tryouts start as early as April, and most countries take a swing at it. Over 200 countries have tried to cut, but only 32 will make it, including this year’s host, Qatar. At the time I’m writing this article, 29 countries have qualified so far. If you want to know the full list, scroll down near the bottom of the article. 

Countries qualified:

Amazing soccer countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Germany have already qualified. However, some amazing countries’ opportunities slipped away. Four-time winners Italy lost after being defeated by North Macedonia. Same with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, they lost to Serbia, a shocking loss and a devastating blow to the country. Overall, it will be interesting to see who will win this year’s World Cup. Even though we still have another few months to see who wins (the game does not begin until November), it’s never too early to get excited about the World Cup.