A Taste of Euphoria of the 2022 World Cup at UIII

The euphoria of the recent World Cup 2022 in Qatar can be felt in UIII. On Sunday, December 18, 2022, the academic community of UIII gathered at the Faculty A Theater room to watch the final match of the FIFA World Cup 2022 between Argentina vs France.

Several UIII students felt that this World Cup was an amazing one, because everything was well organized. Issa Hamadou is one of them. He is a student from Cameroon. He revealed that he never had an experience like this before. "It was so amazing everything was well organized," he said.

In line with Issa, a student from Indonesia, Rosyid, also said that the World Cup this time was the best he had ever watched. This Brazil supporter in this world cup expressed his admiration for the changing perspective of Muslims, especially the Saudis. “When they won against Argentina, they took the day off as a sign of gratitude,” Rosyid said.

Meanwhile, Kante, a student from Ivory Coast revealed that he followed the event with this great enthusiasm, especially when his favorite team played, even though one of his favorite teams lost in the finals.

UIII Students: Your Favorite Team?

In this event, UIII students expressed that they had their own favorite teams. In fact, Issa's national country, Cameroon, competed in this world cup event, although in the end it did not qualify for the next round. However, Issa has his own favorite team, namely world champion Argentina. “My favorite team was Argentina, I was supporting Messi. Hopefully, they will win the next world cup again," he said.

Meantime, a student from Indonesia, Pradanti Nollo, explained that her favorite country in this World Cup event was Brazil. “My favorite country participated in this world cup, and my favorite team is Brazil. Even though the Brazilian national team only made it to the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, I hope that it will be even better in terms of the game going forward,” she said.

Like Nollo, Rosyid, who is also a Brazil supporter, hopes that in 2026 the Samba country will win as the World Cup will be held on the American continent, namely in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Meanwhile, Kante's national team Ivory Coast, not qualified to participate in the World Cup since the last participation led by their legend, Didier Drogba. So, this year he supports several teams from Africa, such as Senegal, Morocco and Ghana.

“We hoped an African team reach the final, and Ghana with its experience could give us this chance again, but unfortunately, it wasn't. We are of course expecting the African countries in the next World Cup, to be at the forefront of the world's football scene,” hoped Kante.

Impressions of the World Cup

This World Cup left such deep joy and impressions for UIII students, especially because of Morocco's qualification for the World Cup semi-finals. Morocco qualified for the semi-finals, although in the end they lost against Argentina and lost to Croatia in the race for third place.

Kante said that Morocco's qualification showed that the African team currently has a lot of courage and many qualities to be able to compete with European and American teams. He hopes the Asian team to reach the final one day.

Meanwhile, Issa explained that Morocco has done a lot, it's the first African team to be in the semi-finals. They have a good team, but they need to put more efforts and look for other good players in order to win in the next World Cup. In line with the two, Rosyid is optimistic that Morocco's achievement will change the views of Muslims towards football in the future.

Nollo, seeing other things in this event, said that Morocco brought a unique scene to this event. She saw the family romance that occurred in this event, where the mothers of the players came to Qatar. "One can see that Sofiane Boufal also invited her mother to dance in front of the supporters on the sidelines after the Moroccan team qualified for the semifinals," she stated. (ANJ)

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