Soccer Is A Community

Growing up, I have had a huge passion for soccer. For the past six years I have played select soccer year round. After spending time with my team at practices and games, the hours begin to add up. The team becomes my second family, and a community held together by heart.
In soccer, if your heart isn't in the game, you will lose-maybe not literally, but emotionally. Most coaches will tell you that if you have no desire to play, or the passion is not there, than you should just go home instead of draping that emotion over the rest of your teammates. A game is not defined by the ending score, but rather by the hard work that was put in to get there. Fans remember everything from the look of relief and excitement on star forward's face after he just scored the winning goal in the last two minutes, to the keeper's disappointment after losing the game for his team after two overtimes and a shootout. Whether you come out with a win or lose, the best feeling a team can have walking off that field is knowing that they gave it every everything they had. Winning is just a bonus. This feeling is what forms a community within soccer.
No one wants to lose. Everyone wants to win. As the world's interest in soccer grows, so does a team's want to win. The soccer community shares, needs, and values winning. This want is not only expressed by how a team performs on the field, but also off the field. "Practice how you play", my coach would tell our team as a motivator to work harder in practice. He taught us that you should put the same amount of focus, heart, and effort in practice as you did into the game. You can determine a team's want to win by their practices and warm-ups. If a team is not focused and messing around during their warm-ups, they obviously are not taking it seriously and don't want the game bad enough to win. If they have failed to prepare, they have also prepared to fail.
Commitment can and will mend or tear the community of soccer. If the team, as a whole, is committed and shows up to practice and games consistently and on time, then the team is off to a good start towards success. If players come and go as they please, and do not prioritize soccer, then the team will never grow and cohesion among the players with soon deteriorate. Commitment is not just shown through attendance, but also through performance. If a player is careless and continually let's the team down, then most likely that person is not committed. A committed player is one whom dives after every ball, and never stop. A committed player shows up when they're injured, they cheer their team on, and goes above and beyond the normal expectations. A team will rise against all other odds if they are a community first. Once each player is committed wholeheartedly, community will flourish without much effort.