Foosball World Cup: US vs. Italy | Patrick Mancuso

It was after dark on the day that Germany lost their cup opener to Mexico, an upset nobody saw coming. Everyone was a little down, but especially tired. A few of us decided to stay up and play a few games of foosball in the lobby. Midway through the second game a couple of kids started watching. They couldn’t have been older than 8 and spoke broken English, but everyone knows how to speak foosball apparently. Suddenly, both kids just hopped on whichever open rods there were and just like that they were in the game with us. Foos men were spinning and both parties were grunting and cheering for a good half an hour. Eventually I figured out they were Italian and hoped they knew a little Spanish, so I could communicate a little better. Unfortunately, they didn’t and I was at the mercy of their English vocabulary. I did however learn that foosball wasn’t the only universal language these days; Fortnite has transcended language as well. They asked if I played with Ninja and TSM Myth in real life and how many wins I had using what little English they knew.

Eventually, the night devolved into doing a bunch of fortnite dances until their parents finally sent them to bed. One of the most interesting nights I’ve had here for sure. I’ll never forget Edwardo dabbing on me every time he scored a goal (which was surprisingly often.) I asked for a picture with them, but they refused saying something about privacy. For now, these pictures of the foosball table at night will have to be enough to set the scene for you.