Teamwork makes dreamwork

I have been playing soccer since I was six and since then it has been one of my favorite things to do in life. Almost 3 years ago I remember that I went on the best, funniest, and hardest tournament I have ever gone to. It was a tournament in Barcelona, Spain with over 90 Barca soccer academies from all around the world. My teammates and I were representing Peru.

Since the moment we got the news of the upcoming tournament we trained very hard, even during summer vacations, so we could try and do our best representing Peru. Our coach always told us that the key to success is teamwork and that if we wanted to achieve great things we should all be more than just teammates, we should be friends. I remember that our coach was always trying to strengthen the relationships between all of the players. For example, when we had free time in the Hotel we were staying at, he would let us go play Padel, or go to the pool, or watch a movie. During this time was when we got to know each other even better.

For me, the way the coach tried to implement the mindset of teamwork really helped us inside the field. Instead of complaining when someone did something wrong, we would encourage them and help them fix the mistake. We started playing very well and won our first game against Barca Libanon, but then our best defense and Capitan got badly injured and wasn’t able to play for the rest of the tourney. We were sad and worried, he was a key element. I normally play at midfielder positions and defense was never my strong point, but don’t ask me why the coach decided I should play at center back for the rest of the tourney. I agreed but, inside I was surprised and kind of upset because I rather score goals and assists than stay the whole game defending.

Either way, I was confident about giving my best for the good of the team. I also had to take the role of leadership because I was also going to be the captain of the team. As a captain, I had to keep the team calm and not let them get heated or angry with the referee or with the people of the opposite team. The role that I had to take also really improved my perspective of how a leader needs to prioritize the objectives of the whole team rather than the individual performance. In the end, I tried my best even though it wasn’t my strongest position and it was a new experience to be captain in such big games. We ended up playing very well and getting 16th place, which I know sounds bad but there were around 90 teams competing, and it was the best position Peru had ever gotten in that tournament.

I learned new things during this amazing experience and one of them was how when you put the success of the whole team first then only your individual success will be able to achieve better things as a group. This takeaway does not only apply to sports but also for day to day life. A great example is school because it’s a place where we need to make loads of group projects, Specially in the IA. I understand that some people like being more independent, sometimes I like working alone myself, but we should remember that even though sometimes we might feel uncomfortable receiving help from others, we need to reflect and really think about how “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller.