Soccer SuperFans

By: Monica Slovak, Toronto

There I was again: waking up at 5:30 am to watch Slovakia play their second group stage match against Paraguay, a team doing surprisingly well at this World Cup.

How did the game go you ask?

Let's just say that when the final whistle blew, I was not pleased that I had lost a good five hours of sleep.

Slovakia quite simply did not show up to play.

Only a select few of our players were REALLY working during the game.

Overall, all of us Slovaks were left very disappointed with our squad.

However, a tiny glimmer of hope still remained.

When the game was over, all of us Slovaks that were gathered at Cherry Hill Restaurant began thinking up scenarios that would allow Slovakia to advance to the round of 16.

At that point, we had one final (and complicated) set of circumstances that needed to happen in order for Slovakia to do so: Low scoring tie between New Zealand and Italy (for point differential purposes); Paraguay beating or tying New Zealand; or Slovakia beating Italy.

I am fully aware that this is a tall order. After the game, we all headed off to our Slovak church on Sunday morning, as usual, and I told my friend to keep me updated via text as to what the result was in the Italy vs New Zealand game.

As soon as mass was over and we got outside, I quickly turned on my phone, eagerly awaiting the result of the Italy vs New Zealand match.

The text message I got was four words long: "it was a tie". As soon as I read that, I began spreading the news (other people had also heard the good news) and everyone began hugging and cheering and making plans for Thursday.

Step one: complete.

Will this be a difficult game to win? Of course. Is everyone expecting Italy to destroy us? Probably. Are ALL the odds against us? For sure. But if there is any nation that is consistently unpredictable (both in a good and a bad way) it's Slovakia.

So for the third and final group stage match, I invite all Slovaks to join us a Cherry Hill Restaurant located at 680 Silver Creek Blvd, Mississauga, ON. Kick-off is 10:00 AM, so don't worry you will be able to get your beauty sleep AND enjoy the match.

It may be a long shot, but we have the opportunity to eliminate the reigning World Cup Champions.

This World Cup has been full of upsets so far.

Get ready for one more Thursday morning.

SLOVENSKO DO TO HO!