August, 5th, Constitución, the Americas confront Europe in an epic football match destined to be remembered, engraved in the annals of soccer.

It was in an apparently trivial discussion on football that David, Sports Management student, teased Rocio on gender issues in football skills. According to the football manager, women should not be able to play soccer. Nevertheless, Rocio, fiercely supportive of gender equality, did not let him get away with his flaunted sports machismo, and proposed a football match to test Voluntario Global’s girls in the football pitch. Nevertheless, after giving away statements on the male superiority, David mysteriously retrieved from taking part in the match, and claimed to be busy with work.

The idea of the match had arisen with the socially-charged premises above-mentioned, but ended up to be rather different. As a matter of fact, when the teams were gathered in the pitch, they were so badly assorted that a boys-versus-girls would not have been possible. The teams decided thus to represent the two main geographic categories that make up the team of Voluntario Global: the Americas and Europe. Rocio, Ramon, Christian, Mabel and Josh played for America, and Stef, Alex, Arthur and Helena for Europe. The rumor goes that the Americas have won, but no referee can testify the exact number of goals scored by neither of the teams. Player 3 witnessed:  “We don’t seem to be able to give an exact account, the winner has been proclaimed according to an approximate calculation.”

A remarkable feature of the match has been reported to be the disastrous physical state of the players, with the exception of just a couple of players. An anonymous American player admits to have been on the verge of being sick for how physically unprepared he was, given he’s always working in the office behind the desk. Moreover, besides the attempts from the south-American boys to give the game some kind of structure, the match has been told to be completely tactic-less, with people running around clumsily in every direction.

Nevertheless, the repressed gender tension, the poor physical preparation, and the improvised nature of the tactic, contributed to a very entertaining game. Both the volunteers and the coordinators, Americans and Europeans, hope to be able to play again soon, perhaps with more community involvement, better preparation, and possibly a revenge on David’s statements.